How Front Room Improves Health and Wellbeing

At Front Room, we see every day that theatre and the arts are about far more than entertainment. They are about connection, belonging, confidence, and care. As long as humans have been around, people have gathered to tell stories, make music, laugh together, and find meaning through creative expression.

Cultural epidemiologist Daisy Fancourt, in her book Art Cure, sets out clear evidence that engagement with the arts can support mental health, reduce loneliness, build resilience, and improve overall wellbeing. Crucially, she emphasises that the benefits are strongest when arts experiences are regular, social, inclusive, and embedded in everyday life. This is exactly the space Front Room seeks to hold.

A place to belong

Again and again, people tell us that Front Room feels safe, welcoming and well, quite like a collective Front Room really. For some, it is the only local venue they feel able to access due to disability, neurodivergence, anxiety, or mobility needs. One audience member described how being able to familiarise themselves with the space in advance, choose a quiet corner to sit in, and be greeted by friendly staff made the difference between staying isolated at home and attending live music again after the pandemic. Another volunteer shared that coming in for a shift helps calm their anxiety before meeting friends afterwards, because Front Room feels grounding and supportive.

These stories matter. As Fancourt outlines, low-pressure social interaction and a sense of belonging are key protective factors for mental health. A venue doesn’t need to be a just somewhere you go out to and watch something on a large stage, sat in the dark next to strangers, it needs to be kind, accessible, and responsive to the people using it.

Connection through shared experience

Front Room brings people together across generations and backgrounds: families attending children’s shows, retirees discovering a passion for life drawing, first-time theatre-goers taking a chance because tickets are affordable, and local residents reconnecting with their town through talks, music and storytelling.

One supporter described Front Room as a “lifeline” at a time when there are few places left to gather outside of pubs or sporting events. Others spoke about the joy of sharing performances with grandchildren, or the pride of seeing local stories and talent celebrated on stage. These shared experiences help build social bonds, reduce loneliness, and strengthen community identity, outcomes strongly linked to improved wellbeing and life satisfaction.

Confidence, creativity and agency

Wellbeing isn’t just about feeling relaxed; it’s also about feeling capable, heard, and valued. Through workshops, commissions, post talk Q&A’s, life drawing, open research and development for shows and professional opportunities, Front Room actively invites people into the theatre-making process. We support writers to test new ideas, performers to take creative risks, and anyone to develop skills they never imagined they’d have.

People have told us how this has opened up “a new world” for them – from discovering a love of drawing later in life, to building confidence through volunteering, to finding pathways into creative careers through mentorship and professional development. Research shows that this sense of agency and personal growth is a crucial component of eudaimonic wellbeing: feeling that life is meaningful, not just pleasant.

Access matters

Keeping prices low through Pay What You Decide and affordable hires is not an add-on for us, it’s fundamental to our wellbeing impact. Cost is one of the biggest barriers to cultural participation, particularly in areas facing economic deprivation. By removing that barrier, we enable people to attend regularly, not just as a one-off treat. As Fancourt’s research highlights, it is sustained engagement over time that delivers the strongest health benefits.

The impact we see

The testimonials we receive speak powerfully and plainly about impact: people managing anxiety, maintaining independence, feeling less isolated, discovering joy, pride, and inspiration, and finding reasons to come back into the town centre. These aren’t abstract outcomes; they are tangible changes in people’s everyday lives

Front Room doesn’t claim to fix health issues or replace vital services. But we do know that when people are brought together in a space that values creativity, care and community, something shifts. As the research shows, and as our audiences, participants and volunteers tell us, arts spaces like Front Room play a vital role in supporting health and wellbeing, not on the margins, but at the heart of community life.

Check out Daisy Fancourt’s work here: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/44526-daisy-fancourt