“What keeps us well?” A Heritage Project



A Heritage Project
2025-2026

“What Keeps Us Well” is a creative heritage project running between August 2025 - July 2026 in collaboration with Surrey History Centre (SHC). The project explores how people have looked after their wellbeing throughout history and how their stories can inspire us to do the same today. 





What Keeps Us Well - Full project film

What Keeps Us Well - Open Call Galleries

What Keeps Us Well - Reflective Toolkit

Alongside three community partners, The Halow Project, Surrey Gypsy Traveller Communities Forum, and Surrey Youth Groups, we dived into SHC’s rich archive to uncover how communities have stayed well through food, exercise, coming together for shared activities, taking notice of the world around them, nature, creativity, connection, and more. 




As a part of What Keeps Us Well, we have also held a creative Open Call. Inspired by a few lines taken from A.F. Freeman’s 1921 poem titled ‘Shalford, 1921’, discovered in a Shalford Women’s Institute scrapbook at the Surrey History Centre, we invited artists, writers, and filmmakers to reflect on what keeps them well. You can find out more and see some of the incredible artwork that was submitted in our Open Call galleries.

We have also created a Reflective Toolkit in response to this project, inspired by the Wheel of Wellbeing, each section focuses on one of six themes: Mind, Body, Spirit, People, Planet and Place. Drawing on heritage from the Surrey History Centre, selected to reflect these themes, the toolkit brings together historic images and documents, community-created artwork, reflective prompts, and creative activities designed to inspire personal reflection, conversation and connection.




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