Introducing the AHET and THRivE toolkits: Hands-on Resources for Evaluation

The THRivE Toolkit: Tools for Health Research and Evaluation in arts and heritage

Arts and Health Evaluation Toolkit (AHET)

The THRivE Toolkit: Tools for Health Research and Evaluation in arts and heritage

The area of arts/heritage and health is rapidly evolving, with a focus on bringing arts and heritage activities to communities or clinical populations to improve various aspects of their health and well-being. Music has shown promise in enhancing memory for dementia patients, visual arts have helped individuals cope with trauma, and dance can be beneficial for physical rehabilitation (Fancourt & Finn, 2019), to name a few of the many health benefits identified. Despite the growing popularity of arts- and heritage-based interventions that aim to influence health outcomes, the use of standardized approaches and validated tools for evaluating health and well-being outcomes remains limited. As a result, many initiatives lack outcome evaluation, even though funders and donors are increasingly expecting this level of evidence. Moreover, many artists and heritage practitioners report limited guidance, knowledge and capacity to design and implement rigorous, context-appropriate evaluation approaches within real-world arts and health settings.

To address this gap, we developed The THRivE Toolkit: Tools for Health Research and Evaluation in Arts and Heritage (THRivE), which provides practical guidance and resources to support outcome evaluation of arts and heritage activities for health and well-being. The toolkit offers insights on both quantitative and qualitative methods tailored to arts and heritage practitioners, along with best-practice recommendations, practical examples, and use cases. The THRivE Toolkit has disseminated to arts, heritage, scientific, and medical communities through a digital booklet (available for download above). Our goal is to stimulate more effective, consistent, and high-quality evaluation practices, with the aim of strengthening the evidence base for arts and heritage interventions. In turn, we hope this will increase confidence in evaluation findings among decision-makers and policymakers, supporting the integration of arts and heritage programmes into mainstream practice in Singapore and internationally.

Building on our preliminary Arts and Health Evaluation Toolkit (AHET), THRivE expands this work by addressing additional aspects of outcome evaluation, including:

1. How to evaluate outcomes related to emotions/emotional responses and emotion/mood regulation;

2. How to evaluate social cohesion;

3. How to analyse data; and

4. How to report and disseminate evaluation results.

We also highlight case studies and research from Singapore’s Arts and Heritage scene to provide concrete examples of arts, heritage, and health (AH&H) initiatives.

The THRivE Toolkit was undertaken by the Centre for Music and Health, in collaboration with Dr. Jean Liu, Dr. Natalie Pang, and Dr. Nisha Sajnani, and was supported by the National Heritage Board (NHB) and Tote Board.

This toolkit was launched at Healing Arts Singapore (HASG) on 9 December 2025, and disseminated to arts, heritage, and scientific/medical communities. HASG is Asia’s first national-level arts and health campaign, which aims to embed the arts within systems of care and advance evidence-based interventions to improve wellbeing across Singapore and the wider Western Pacific region. HASG was co-led by the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Centre for Music and Health at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, the University of the Arts Singapore’s (UAS) Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and the Jameel Arts & Health lab in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Visit https://healingartssingapore.org/ to learn more.

Arts and Health Evaluation Toolkit (AHET)

Arts activities are increasingly recognised in healthcare and public health for their potential to support the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. A growing body of evidence suggests that arts-based interventions (engagement with music, visual arts, dance and so on) can positively impact various aspects of health. For example, music has shown promise in enhancing memory for dementia patients, the visual arts have helped individuals cope with trauma, and dance can be beneficial for physical rehabilitation, to name a few of the many health benefits identified (Fancourt & Finn, 2019). Despite the growing popularity of Arts and Health interventions and their promising results, the field has been criticised for poor methodological rigour (e.g., biases, small sample sizes, etc) and a limited use of standardised measures or tools to assess the health outcomes or impact of arts engagement. While there is an increasing awareness of the importance of evaluation, many arts practitioners still face challenges when showcasing the health effects of their programmes in a scientifically rigorous way, which is increasingly requested by funders and policy makers. The lack of rigorous outcome evaluation can hinder more widespread adoption of arts-based interventions and approaches to healthcare, despite numerous research on the health benefits of arts activities.

To address this gap, we are pleased to introduce the Arts and Health Evaluation Toolkit (AHET)—a practical guide for conducting more structured and rigorous evaluations of arts and health programmes. AHET is designed to support consistent outcome evaluation by introducing essential concepts for designing an evaluation, as well as providing accessible guidance on how to measure common and relevant health outcomes of arts or cultural programmes.

Rather than offering one-size-fits-all solutions, the toolkit walks practitioners through a hands-on guide:

1. Clarifying the goals of evaluation;

2. Choosing feasible study designs;

3. Selecting appropriate, validated quantitative tools across domains such as mental health, wellbeing, social connection, and physical health.

While we believe that qualitative methods are invaluable for capturing the depth and diversity of individual experiences, AHET focuses primarily on quantitative approaches to provide a more standardised way of conducting outcome evaluation. This emphasis on quantitative measures is more aligned with the expectations of public health and medicine, and is intended to strengthen the evidence base for the health impacts of arts engagement.

AHET is a practical and accessible toolkit developed to support the artists and communities who champion the roles of arts in health and wellbeing. Our aim with AHET is to make evaluation more approachable and useful, especially for those working outside the academic setting, so that the field of Arts and Health can continue to grow with credibility, confidence, and compassion.

Fall 2024 - Interactive Workshop to gather Feedback from the Community

In October 2024, we held a public workshop to share our early thinking behind AHET’s development. If you’re interested in the background and evolution of the toolkit, you can view the core presentation below.

Summer 2025 - Full house at the launch of AHET

In July 2025, we held a sharing session at the Centre of Music and Health, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, to officially launch AHET. We invited a diverse group of participants—including arts organisations, artist practitioners, healthcare and social services providers, and funders, and more. We were thrilled to be joined by a full house at YST, bringing together voices from across the arts, health, social services, and government. During the session, we introduced key components of the toolkit, including how to design a rigorous evaluation and tools to measure relevant health outcomes.

This project was being undertaken by the Centre for Music and Health, with Dr. Jean Liu (Co-Investigator), and Dr. Nisha Sajnani (Collaborator), and supported by the National Arts Council (NAC) and Tote Board.