Karen Mak is a Research Fellow in Quantitative Social Science at the UCL Department of Behavioural Science and Health. She has been working on projects exploring the impacts of arts and cultural community engagements on people’s wellbeing, and identifying the profile of arts/cultural engagers across the UK. Karen’s work involves partnership with cross-functional stakeholders including Arts Council England, Historic England, What Works Centre for Wellbeing, and the Social Prescribing Network. Karen was a co-Investigator on an ESRC-grant on communities and wellbeing (WELLCOMM), and is currently part of the research team at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Arts & Health. Karen is interested in social and geographical predictors of in arts and cultural engagement; the health impacts of arts and cultural engagement.
Can we reduce our reliance on medication by prescribing nature walks, art classes and community groups instead? Two new 2025 studies shed light on who’s getting referred to social prescribing, and who isn’t.
Karen Mak considers a recent study that explores the associations between participation in community arts groups and aspects of wellbeing in older adults in the US.
