We are delighted to announce that we have successfully recruited an Arts in Health Project Manager who will be responsible for expanding our diverse portfolio of creative arts in health settings to the wider community.
Thanks to generous funding from the Arts Council of Wales, this post will be essential in the delivery of the Health Board’s Arts for Health and Wellbeing Strategy in the coming year by exploring the potential of social prescribing of the arts to address issues such as social isolation and health inequalities.
We had a number of extremely strong candidates apply and interview for this post and we are thrilled to say that Melanie Wotton was successful in this application and is due to start in this new role in the next couple of weeks.
Melanie has worked in Cardiff and Vale UHB for a number of years as the Exhibition Coordinator of the Hearth Gallery in University Hospital Llandough so has excellent first-hand experience of how the arts can affect people’s health and wellbeing in a clinical setting and is now looking to take that knowledge and apply it to a community setting.
Simone Joslyn, Head of Arts at Cardiff and Vale UHB, said, “I would like to wish my heartfelt congratulations to Melanie and wish her the best of luck in the new role. I would also like to say thank you to everyone who applied and interviewed for this post. It was an incredibly difficult interview process due to the strength of the applications and the panel and I deliberated at length.
“I would encourage those who are interested in working in the arts in health arena to keep checking www.cardiffandvale.art as we hope to soon be in a position to recruit a new Exhibition Coordinator at the Hearth Gallery to carry on the amazing work that Melanie has lead for the past four years.”
Nick Capaldi, Chief Executive of Arts Council Wales said, “We are delighted that Cardiff & Vale UHB is growing its work around Arts and Health. Every day, we see how the arts are making a difference to people’s health and wellbeing. That is why we are working with our Health Board partners across the NHS in Wales to co-invest in developing capacity around this important area of work.
“This is an exciting appointment and we’d like to congratulate Melanie Wotton and wish her well in her new role. Melanie comes with excellent relevant credentials and experience as an artist and exhibition coordinator of the HeARTh Gallery in University Hospital Llandough and is well-placed to extend arts opportunities across the health board and into community settings. Plans to explore the role of the arts in social prescribing to address social isolation and health inequalities are particularly relevant and promise to bring real benefits to patients whilst relieving pressure on GPs.”