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

Arts and Health Evaluation Toolkit (AHET)

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

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 is 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 of Singapore.

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

The field of heritage, arts 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 heritage and arts-for-health interventions, there is a lack of standardized measures or tools to assess the impact of arts on health and wellness. Many projects only focus on program evaluation, rather than outcome evaluation or impact evaluation, which are increasingly requested by funders and donors. Unfortunately, many artists and arts/heritage organizations are unaware of how to conduct formal evaluation in this area, and there are currently few randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the gold standard for evaluating interventions in medicine.

To address this gap, we are developing The THRivE Toolkit: Tools for Health Research and Evaluation in Arts and Heritage (THRivE), which will provide a set of tools for outcome evaluation of arts and heritage activities for health and well-being. The toolkit will provide descriptions of qualitative and quantitative measures for arts-for-health researchers, along with practical guidance, use cases, and an assessment of their advantages and disadvantages. Our research team will create a digital booklet featuring Tools for Health Research and Evaluation in Arts and Heritage (THRivE), and disseminate THRivE to the arts, heritage, and scientific/medical communities. Our goal is to stimulate effective and consistent evaluation practices, and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration between those working in arts/heritage and scientists/clinicians.

We are working on expanding the toolkit to include chapters on:

1. How to evaluate outcomes related to emotions/emotional responses;

2. How to analyse data and report evaluation results.

We are also highlighting programmes from Singapore’s Arts and Heritage scene to provide concrete examples of Arts and Health evaluations.

This toolkit is set to launch at Healing Arts Singapore this December 2025!