Where creativity and community come together for creative health

ELF — the East London Festival of Creative Health — is an annual festival exploring how creativity and community can improve our wellbeing. Bringing together artists, researchers and East London communities, each edition takes a fresh look at what it means to make, connect and thrive together. Through exhibitions, workshops, film, publications and conversations, ELF celebrates what happens when people make things together. Based in East London, ELF is part of a growing national movement putting creative health at the heart of community life.

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Pierre Bureau and Dr Maria Turri presenting ELF and the key ingredients of creative health
Children from Bethnal Green After School Club visiting the exhibition they helped create, Four Corners, May 2026.
Children from Bethnal Green After School Club at ELF, exploring what makes them happy

Creative Health: In Practice

Born from the research of Dr Maria Grazia Turri and her team at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), seven years of workshops by Mindful Photo Lab in collaboration with organisations, artists and participants across London, this book is the companion to the ELF exhibition.

Creative Health: In Practice brings together artists, researchers and community practitioners to explore the intersection of art, health and community.

Through lived experience, research and practical examples, the book shows how creative practices can support connection and belonging in real-world contexts.

An essential resource for artists, facilitators, carers and community members working at the intersection of creativity and care.

— Buy the Book — £8.99

Creative Health In Practice book by Dr Maria Grazia Turri and Mindful Photo Lab
Creative Health: In Practice
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Children from Bethnal Green After School Club visiting the exhibition they helped create, Four Corners, May 2026.
Children from Bethnal Green After School Club visiting the exhibition they helped create
Children from Bethnal Green After School Club visiting the exhibition they helped create, Four Corners, May 2026.

What We Made Together

Made with communities of all ages, cultural and social backgrounds across East London.
Each work is connected to one of the five key ingredients of creative health.

Fragments of Winter, a collective poem written with a stroke survivor group at Shoreditch Trust, shaped by Lotje Sodderland, read by Sami Rhymes. Four Corners, May 2026.