Structural distress: LGBTQ+ communities in ‘creative health’ and the limits of care

The concept of ‘creative health’ has come to represent a discrete field of art practice and research, enfolding participatory art within its remit over the last 30 years by way of policies devised at national (UK arts councils) and local government level. Forging cross-sector structures and links, creative health claims a virtuous role in policy discourse and civic life, presented as a means by which a healthier, more equitable society might be brought about. An All-Party Parliamentary Group report cast creative health activities as an ‘essential vaccine’ that can help mitigate the negative effects of social inequality. This chapter seeks to query – and queer – understandings of creative health through examining its interpretation by way of a very specific community context, working out of a certain place and time. It will explore the findings of a community-informed evaluation report written in 2023 which used queer research methods to question assumptions around the restoration of normative states of health and well-being. The claim that creative health interventions are good for us is problematised within the context of a hostile sociopolitical environment and skewed power relations. Ethical obligations of care, we argue, act as necessary interventions within what has become a rigid, top-down, policy paradigm.