Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

In 2011 Madrid Salud, the public body of the Madrid City Council that is responsible for the prevention and promotion of health in the city, signed an agreement with the Complutense University of Madrid, in anticipation of possible benefits from the collaboration of art with prevention and health promotion. Madrid Salud has a network of 16 community health centres at its disposal and 5 dedicated specialist centres, Youth’s or Prevention of Cognitive’s ones, distributed over the city. Around 400 professionals work in interdisciplinary teams (including nurses, doctors, specialists in gynaecology, psychiatry, pediatrics and psychology, social workers, health auxiliaries and administrative staff).
After several years of collaboration and evidence of very positive results, both institutions are convinced that this partnership offers great opportunities and potential, and this cross- sectoral collaboration (university-health service) has been enabling the benefits of Arts in prevention and health promotion programmes in Madrid city. Since 2011, students and Early Career Researcher in Arts and Health, have joined in Madrid Salud’s teams and art professionals have been recruited also, for some specific programmes about isolation or grief. Madrid Salud is working on ensuring sustainability in these Arts and Health approach, supporting Early Career Researchers in Arts and Health and providing scholarships for researchers in Arts and Health every year, since 2017.
Photography, performance, drawing, sculpture, textile art, painting, water colours, calligraphy, visual poetry, haiku, sculpture, vertical gardens, urban allotments, graffiti, among other techniques and artistic workshops, have been developing in collaboration with students and researchers in different community health centres in collaboration with the health professionals. This arts and health approach has been incorporated in programs as healthy diet, physical activity, sexual and reproductive health, active ageing, or mental health. The evidence of this cross-sectoral collaboration has been compiled in conferences, papers, and doctoral thesis, co-creating meaningful knowledge about the role of the arts in Prevention and Promotion.

Sutura is a space for contemporary art that questions us about our relationship with health, well-being and the quality of our lives. Sutura is located in via Sacchi in Turin, and was established in dialogue with the IFT (Istituto Fisicoterapico Torino), a rehabilitation and diagnostic centre in Piedmont that has been operating for over a hundred years and is committed to assisting people with their health problems.
The current challenges of medicine and sustainability, technology, the relationship with our senses, the many stories that unfold within the clinics, are echoed in the research of artists who construct image sets, relationships, paths as devices to stimulate listening and growth.
Sutura opens an exchange of reflections between the contemporary art public and the doctors, collaborators and patients of the IFT on the relationship between culture and health to bring out needs, fragilities, fears and necessities that manifest themselves around a generally shared theme: that of personal and social well-being.

This is a performance on mental health, part of a programme dedicated to raise awareness about mental health through art. The audience could see their own stories performed by professional actors and hear the psychologist's comments on it. Anyone who wished had an opportunity also play along in some scenes. Thoughtful moments based on stories about themselves and life itself.

Erasmus+ project unites people from Firenze and small island of Estonia called Hiiumaa. The activities - projects, seminars, homework - were introduced to local island people for increasing their creative mind and improve mental health. As artistic activities they propose intuitive drawing, painting, photography and 3D, trying to stimulate personal growth, self-awareness, self-regulation, management skills and to widen their perspectives, encouraging self-expression, empathy, and acceptance of the other.

The initiative is a form of theater where the audience can let professional actors act their own personal problems and also hear the psychologist's comments about it. Such participatory performances can be seen in the mental health series "Science and Art Games". The group is playing the well-known situations from every day life (a nervous morning that ends in trauma; if children do not want to clean; when divorced parents use the child as a means of power struggle). The situations were analyzed with psychiatrist and audience. People could share their own stories and get the answers on questions they have carried in themselves years. One can perhaps more happily choose and look beneath the well-hidden surface of situations and actions. Performers: Andres Sild - psychiatrist, Eve Arm - musician, Jaan Väärt - experience advisor, Katrin Laansalu - actress and social worker, Aivar Simmermann - psychodrama trainer TEP and story theater director.

The exhibition «How can art help? Paintings and stories of special people» represents a selection of paintings and stories of people with mental health problems. This event is not just an exhibition, is also a social project. None of the authors' names are in the exhibition, but their stories are. The audience can become more familiar with mental problems (from depression to schizophrenia) that affect us all to a greater or lesser extent. The authors' stories are about their sufferings, situations they faced, their relationship with art and how art helped them.

Participatory theater performance "Stories from life itself" is for those who want self-development and new experiences. Story theater Moreno's troupe plays stories about life itself. In participatory theater the audience can, among other things, let the actors improvise on a given theme. In this way, the people can look at the situations in which everyday life puts them and be better prepared for them. And what is the main thing, they can hear the comments of a psychologist who helps to look below the surface. Performers: Sirje Rass - actor and neuropsychologist, Katrin Laansalu - actress and social worker, Aivar Simmermann - psychodrama trainer TEP and story theater director.

The project CREATIVE HOME(less) is an initiative for combating the stigma of being homeless through artistic practice. Creative Home(less) helps the homeless through art. The initiative offers art therapy to the residents of the Panevezys shelter, in Lithuania, to liberate them from the complexes of being homeless and encourage them to open up and reclaim their independence.
Creative Home(less) has seen 23 homeless participants get involved since February 2022, all of whom underwent fourteen hours of art therapy and worked in small groups of five or six people. The classes were given in several places, including the Local History Museum, the Panevėžys Photo Gallery and the Panevėžys Art Gallery. The sessions ended with a final group workshop and the opening of a public exhibition.
A positive relation was established with most of the participants, they opened up, felt accepted and deserved basic humanity in their everyday communication. The results were better than expected- 4 employed participants, 4 participants that moved from the hostel to live independently, some have found the courage to continue visiting the city cultural spaces by themselves and participating in similar activities. Furthermore the analysis of therapeutics drawings before and after participation reflected a partial reduction in stress levels and changes in controllability. Project’s team believes and the pilot proved that usual solutions are not enough for homeless people. A creativity, which encourages the creation that heals and grows us from the inside is vital.

The project is about integrating art and architecture into the new Greenock Health and Care Centre. The aim is to support the planned modernisation of services and improve health through innovative and cost-effective approaches to person-centred care. It does this by providing leadership to enable delivery of art and therapeutic design strategy into a new capital build, and green space which connects and celebrates locality.

Arts in the City is a Social Work project which exists to help improve the lives and life chances of care experienced children and young people through engagement and involvement in the arts. Arts in the City has specific objectives in arts and health/well-being:
- To support young people in and leaving care in Glasgow to develop their social networks, skills and confidence through participation in community-based arts activities
- To increase the number of young people in and leaving care participating in the Arts in Glasgow through a distinct programme of activity, alongside the delivery of support in pursuing other mainstream arts opportunities