Artists' Care Project

The first phase of the Artists’ Care project was funded by Arts Council England and the Lightbulb Trust and produced a Rapid Evidence Assessment (Caulfield et al., in press) and report (Puttick et al., 2025) detailing the challenges faced by artists working in complex settings and a set of principles outlining how to protect their wellbeing. Findings indicate that working in these settings can lead to musicians experiencing significant psychosocial pressures, including emotional labour, vicarious trauma, precarity, and isolation, often without access to consistent or appropriate support. These are compounded by structural factors, including ambiguity around roles, responsibilities, and duty of care, alongside limited organisational capacity to design, resource, and evaluate effective support mechanisms. Sector reports (such as the 2024 Arts Council England funded project ‘Keeping Safe’ by Puebla Fortier and Massey-Chase) highlight an urgent need for coordinated, evidence-informed action to address these issues and to develop sustainable models of practice.