The Pharmacy of Contemplative Arts is an ongoing practice-led investigation into the role of contemplative arts practices in shaping metacognition, affective experience, and learning within higher education for students across arts and humanities disciplines. Drawing on the philosophy of social prescribing, this investigation approaches contemplative arts practices not purely as a wellbeing service but as a research object, with a view to examining how non-biomedical interventions intersect with creativity, pedagogy, and student subjectivity within contemporary university contexts. The project aims to advance interdisciplinary understanding of the relationship between contemplation, creativity, and learning in higher education.

Existing research suggests that student well-being is closely associated with academic achievement, interpersonal relationships, and mental/physical health. Studies also indicate that, regardless of strong academic performance, university students today report comparatively lower levels of well-being than those in previous years. Prior literature identifies a range of pressures shaping this context, including academic stress, social isolation, stigma surrounding mental health and help-seeking, employment-related anxieties, reliance on maladaptive coping strategies, and the longer-term psychological effects of the global pandemic. While these dynamics are well documented, less is known about how contemplative arts practices operate pedagogically and affectively within higher education environments. Students enrolled in academic programmes in arts and humanities disciplines navigate the demands of complex creative and intellectual training in a volatile global context alongside social, cultural, and pedagogical differences. This project uses that setting to examine how contemplative arts practices mediate mental/emotional barriers, such as perfectionism, vulnerability, disappointment, shame, and attachment, and how these dynamics shape learning, meta-cognition, wellbeing, and creativity.

The investigation develops and studies a social prescribing programme of multimodal contemplative arts practices, including workshops, courses, and half-day retreats, shifting the practice's focus from expressive arts to contemplative arts, meditation, and collective reflection. These activities, inspired by the concept of The Poetry Pharmacy (see William Seighart, 2017; 2019; 2023), are underpinned by the Five Ways to Wellbeing framework (New Economics Foundation, 2008). However, the research focus lies in analysing how such frameworks are interpreted and experienced within higher education contexts, rather than in evaluating wellbeing outcomes alone. The research, therefore, foregrounds the relationship between contemplative practice, creative pedagogy, and affective experience.

The research addresses three interconnected areas of inquiry:

1. Creative practice: How contemplative arts practices reshape affective and cognitive barriers to creativity, self-expression, self-understanding, and insight.

2. Pedagogy and learning: How contemplative approaches influence student engagement and participation in the arts and humanities disciplines in higher education.

3. Social connection and well-being: How informal, arts-based contemplative settings mediate these for students.

In doing so, this research supports original, interdisciplinary research that advances fundamental understanding. By treating contemplative arts practices as objects of scholarly inquiry rather than solely as educational interventions, the research offers a novel conceptual contribution to debates on creativity, pedagogy, and social prescribing in higher education contexts.

References

Aked, J., Marks, N., Cordon, C., & Thompson, S. (2008). Five Ways to Wellbeing. New Economics Foundation.

Sieghart, W. (2017). The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul. London: Particular Books.

Sieghart, W. (2019). The Poetry Pharmacy Returns: More Prescriptions for Courage, Healing and Hope. London: Particular Books.

Sieghart, W. (2023). The Poetry Pharmacy Forever: New Prescriptions to Soothe, Revive and Inspire. London: Particular Books.