Last Saturday was the annual conference of the Heritage Crafts Association and the theme was wellbeing. I was there as a Trustee to help launch the new iteration of the Red List of Heritage Crafts and had the pleasure of chatting on stage with woodworker EJ Osborne, artist Rachael Matthews and Doctor Will Beherall.
Although most crafters don’t need convincing about the benefits of craft, there are other people that do need a little persuasion. The best way to do this is with evidence and rigour, so that craft is taken seriously and not just dismissed as something warm and fuzzy.
It’s my intention to keep an updated list of links to information so that you can find it for yourself, and below you’ll find my first stab at this. Go forth and use this information to influence funders, councils and anyone else who’s asking for it, and let me know how you get on.

Craft and Wellbeing, Crafts Council, 2011
Creative Health, APPG on Arts Health and Wellbeing, July 2017
The Mindfulness in Knitting, Rachael Matthews
Knitting for Health and Wellness: Knit yourself a flexible mind, Betsan Corkhill
Stitchlinks, research on knitting and pain relief, Betsan Corkhill
Flow: The Psychology of Happiness Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 1992
Practically Minded: The Benefits and Mechanisms Associated with a Craft-Based Curriculum,
Dr. Aric Sigman, Ruskin Mill Educational Trust, 2008
Creative and Cultural activities and Wellbeing in Later Life, April 2018, Age UK
The Case for Working with Your Hands: Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things
Feels Good, Matthew Crawford, 2010
Making is Connecting: The Social Meaning of Creativity, from DIY and Knitting to YouTube
and Web 2.0, David Gauntlett, 2011

Effects of creativity on social and behavioral adjustment in 7- to 11-year-old children, Daisy Fancourt and Andrew Steptoe
The relationship between quilting and wellbeing, Emily L. Burt, Jacqueline Atkinson

Let me know if you have found some information that may be useful and I’ll put it here too.