Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

The Caravan Orchestra | CarO is a tailor-made musical theatre show for children and youth with mental and multiple disabilities. A group of three specially trained clowns travel from “oasis to oasis” visiting institutions for special education. The concept was initially developed by the organisations CliniClowns in the Netherlands and was then transferred to RED NOSES for implementation in more European Union countries.
This format, developed specially for the needs of this particular audience is implemented by 7 local RED NOSES partner organisations. It makes possible for the clowns to connect directly with the children on eye level. The goal of the show is to give the possibility for the audience to enjoy theatre and the art of clowning. Through a partly interactive play, based on sensitivity and respect, the clowns use humour and laughter but they also decrease the speed and put themselves in the background giving moments of spotlight to each member of the audience individually.
The door to the performance room is wide open and one can hear a melody approaching. The “Caravan Orchestra” enters the room and the clowns are on the search for additional musicians for their orchestra. Making music is their passion and preferably with the children and youngsters present. The show is all about a key, which fits the big trunk that holds all the instruments for the new musicians. The trunk will open and the keys are used as rhythm instruments that the children will use themselves. During the show some little surprises are generated by the clowns. The children are encouraged to help the clowns and thus become part of the story (just if they want to, so no stress is caused for them, the teachers and the clowns). At the end everything will be packed again and the caravan leaves the room with the door wide open. After 30 min. everything is over and the caravan has moved on.
The CarO structure, plot, its simplicity, length, the intimacy of the environment where it takes place, the volume and energy of the show, and the abundance of sensory elements to engage children, on their own terms, are all drivers of the positive impact that CarO has on children, educators and the school community alike.

Creative Dementia Arts Network charity aims to improve the health and well-being of people with dementia and those who care for them by providing training, networking opportunities and support for arts practitioners, and health and social care professionals. They believe that participation in music, singing, theatre, drama, dance, visual arts, crafts and other creative arts are beneficial for people with dementia. Their mission is to promote the use of creative arts as a means of improving the health and well-being of individuals living with dementia, their families and communities. They do this through providing artists, arts organisations and educators with information and resources for their work and facilitating the sharing and exchange of best practice. They also connect creative arts providers with commissioners working across cultural, health, social care, housing and business sectors to raise awareness of the value of creative arts for dementia.

ClowNexus is a large scale cooperation project co-funded by Creative Europe. From November 2020 to October 2023, eight European Healthcare Clowning Organisations will explore more in detail how arts and humour can be used to develop stronger social connections, and enable better communication with (1) people living with dementia, (2) children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their environments.
ClowNexus provides the space to develop new artistic formats and approaches in a co-creative process. Throughout the project clown artists from seven countries will meet in several artistic laboratories and develop new artistic formats and approaches together with their co-creators: elderly people with dementia, children and teenagers with Autism Spectrum Disorder, their family members, carers, social experts and artists from other artistic fields.
With the project ClowNexus, the organizers want to find a common path to create, play, laugh and enjoy art together, giving time and space to everybody to express their perspectives, feelings and creativity.
The main project goals are:
- to improve the access to artistic performances and contribute to the social inclusion of people with dementia as well as children and teenagers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
- to strengthen the capacity of healthcare clowning organisations in Europe to co-create and to implement transformative learning processes
ClowNexus aims to:
- increase the wellbeing and social inclusion of vulnerable groups
- increase the capacity of healthcare clowning organisations to create art for and with vulnerable groups
- increase the awareness of the value of arts for well-being

Under the framework of a research grant from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture regarding Arts in Health, Eyes of Light organization has collaborated with the visual artist Chloe Pare to implement an artistic workshop for women with cancer. In February 2022 an online workshop entitled Planetary Systems was held with the participation of 11 women from different parts of Greece.
During the design phase of this project, the intention was to combine the remoteness due to the pandemic restriction, with a more tangible aspect. Therefore, it was decided, also in accordance with the artist’s practice, to produce a kit of art objects to be delivered to the participants, and function as a source material of the workshop. The paper objects were designed by the artist in a vector based programme, and were then laser-cut. Their purpose was for the participants to interact with, to manipulate and transform them in an abstract, subjective and playful manner. The design was inspired by the various motifs and phenomena of the surface of the Earth, Sun and the Moon, as the theme of the workshop revolved around these issues. These notions were used symbolically, and were therefore connected abstractly to personal perceptions and attitudes.
The selection of the participants followed an open call addressing women with recent diagnosis of breast or/and gynecological cancer, and distributed through the organization’s channels, various cancer support organizations throughout Greece, as well as selected press. The selection criteria was recent diagnosis, equitable geographical representation and age diversity.
The workshop consisted of three weekly online group meetings and a free time in between for each participant to experiment with the material and make her own creations. The structure of the meetings followed, more or less, a certain pattern: instructions of the artist-facilitator on how to use each object, collective simultaneous creation, showing and discussing the creations of each participant. At the end, a video documentation was created by the artist combining the material sent by the participants, where the different narrations and creations intertwined.

Shared Reading is an exciting method for reading aloud and group conversations. The Shared Reading method is about reading and sharing thoughts about a short story or poem. The method is undemanding and anyone can participate. No prior knowledge of literature is required and participants do not need to read texts at home to be able to participate in a Shared Reading group. The method broadens the perspective on one's own life, can change the self-image to the positive and give a sense of context. Shared Reading is a well-researched method and can give an improved self-esteem, an improved self-confidence and increase participants' interest in texts. All people over the age of 18 who are interested could join a group. The method gives the greatest effect to people who have a depression/anxiety.

The project Language pills or Book on prescription is a county-wide collaboration between Region Gävleborg Kultur Gävleborg, the municipal libraries in Gävleborg, speech therapists, BVC and parents. Many of Gävleborg's libraries have children's books that have the language pill logo on the front. They are read and recommended by both children's librarians and speech therapists precisely for use in language training with children who have a language impairment. When a parent and child visit the speech therapist, Language Pills can be prescribed as part of the child's treatment. Parents and children then go to the library to pick up their "Language Pills" which consist of books that train that particular child's language impairment. This is a training for children's language development. BVC can also recommend parents and children with delayed language development to go to the library and borrow language pill books.

The Lullaby Project brings together pregnant women and new mothers and fathers with professional musicians, to create their own lullabies to sing for their children. In the project, the professional musicians meet pregnant women or parents with newborns (usually the mothers), to write a lullaby for the child together. The parent writes a letter to their child in the womb, or to their infant and then, with the help of the musician, creates a lullaby of it. After the melody is set, the song is recorded so that it can always be picked up.

The Ballet Academy in Stockholm has in recent years offered dance courses for people with Parkinson's disease. The Competence Center for Culture and Health is making an investment so that more people can take part in the courses. The Dance for Parkinson's method is a complement to other treatment for people living with Parkinson's disease. Balance, mobility and precision are examples of things that you train in dance and which are also important to train as a Parkinson's patient. The Competence Center for Culture and Health subsidizes participation fees during 2020-21 so that more people can take part in the Ballet Academy's Dance for Parkinson's courses. Together with Karlstad University, they will also evaluate the effects of dance to gain more knowledge about how Dance for Parkinson's can become a complement or part of other treatment.

Region Västmanland has in recent years run several projects and activities in culture and health where the main target group is children and young people. At the pediatric clinic there are hospital clowns who, among other things, work with development projects based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The name of the project is Night Clowns and the work of the clowns has been highlighted by doctors at the Västmanland Hospital in Västerås. The Night Clows project aims to strengthen children and young people in their identity so that they become safe and visible in their hospital environment.

Diversorium aims to explore the cultural and social meaning of difference by developing new forms of cooperation, interaction, and connection between people. But how can we accept non-normative bodies, overcoming the punitive gaze that only regards "healthy" and "beautiful" bodies? What can we do to stop the inquisitorial mechanisms and interact through closeness? How can we deal with prejudices rather than remaining trapped in them? Where could these transformations take place? Through a series of hybrid public programs combining talk, food, performance, music, and dance with moments of attention and pleasure in which to learn and unlearn the multiple possibilities of being and being-able-to-be, Diversorium project and the subsequent artwork will foster mainstreaming and intersection processes among participants, generating knowledge and dialogue in diversities.