I am look forward to speaking on the 28 August 2026 in Antwerp, Belgium about my work as Creative Health Teaching Artist working in Community, Schools and Healthcare. Exploring sharing best practice for the language of engagement for workshop facilitators.

This year, the event is being held in Sydney on the 4th and 5th June.

I am looking forward to running my session – Surfing the waves of human consciousness: complementary creative arts practice in acute dementia care settings.

For more information, please click on the link below.

https://www.dementiaconference.com/concurrent-sessions

Hello, I’m Benjamin Segal—though most people in Tasmania’s wards, community rooms, and aged care facilities know me simply as Ben the Music Man. For the past three years, I’ve been walking a unique path: bringing the arts into hospitals, mental health units, aged care homes, and community spaces across the state.

At its heart, my work is simple: I bring music, art, and creativity into healthcare environments. But the outcomes are far from simple. With over 30 years of training and professional experience across art, drama, music, and singing—including my studies in London—I’ve witnessed the transformative effect creativity can have when it meets people exactly where they are.

Whether someone is in palliative care, living with dementia, recovering in forensic mental health, or simply searching for connection, the arts open up space—to breathe, to express, and to be seen.

Creative Arts 4 All

Through my weekly Creative Arts 4 All sessions with the Tasmanian Health Service, I create spaces that fuse performing and visual arts. These sessions are never “one-size-fits-all.” Each one is a living, intuitive process. While I may enter the room with a purpose, the structure always remains fluid.

One moment we might be singing together, another moment painting, storytelling, drumming, or simply sitting quietly with colours on a page. The energy can shift in seconds—from a joyful chorus lifting the whole ward to a moment of stillness where someone finds strength through creativity.

It can be an emotional rollercoaster, but without fail, each session ends with a shared sense of connection, release, and accomplishment.

Healing Together

What’s especially powerful is how healthcare staff are increasingly stepping into this creative space. Nurses, doctors, physios, social workers—even cleaners—are picking up drumsticks, painting brushes, and joining voices in song alongside the people they care for.

These shared experiences break down barriers. They flatten hierarchies. They build rapport and trust. And they remind everyone in the room—patients and staff alike—that creativity belongs to us all. It’s not about performance, it’s about presence. And in that presence, healing can take root.

Growing Recognition

Globally, there is a growing recognition of the arts as a vital form of complementary medicine. And here in Tasmania, I’m grateful to see this shift unfolding. Patients tell me they feel heard and valued. Staff share how sessions leave them feeling uplifted and re-energised. Wards themselves feel lighter and more human.

This matters. Because when people feel connected and supported, their health outcomes improve. Creativity doesn’t replace medicine—it enriches it, opening new pathways to wellbeing.

A Simple Truth

Whether I’m singing with elders, painting with patients, or drumming with staff, I return to the same simple truth: every person is inherently creative. And when we make space for that creativity to emerge, healing becomes not only possible—but joyful.

Thank you for reading, and thank you to every person who has shared a session, a song, or a smile with me along the way.

To learn more, visit creativearts4good.com. I’d love to connect, collaborate, and share experiences—so please feel free to reach out.

– Ben the Music Man