Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

ARTIED organized and delivered 12 short online art voyages to world museums and art galleries for presenting some of their famous paintings. Some of the sessions presented artworks from different locations united around a common theme. The project was in partnership with Compassion Alzheimer Bulgaria Foundation and social care institutions for people with dementia in Razgrad (North-Eastern Bulgaria) and Kazanlak (Central Bulgaria). The applied approach was specially designed for the target group and combined art appreciation lecturettes, practical and group-based activities for improving elder people’s cognitive and social abilities and short musical accompaniments.

The Restoration Trust is an award-winning charity that uses heritage and creativity to improve people’s mental health. Exploring the compelling histories of patients in 19th century lunatic asylums, or sensory immersion in mysterious ancient landscapes reignites people’s curiosity and love of life. Refocusing early intervention and prevention away from institutions and into communities overcomes systematic exclusion from amazing cultural assets that belong to us all. Weaving partnerships and groups into new communities has long term impacts on people and places. Participants are equal partners, so we highlight their interest and skills through meaningful involvement. They call this Culture Therapy, and they want it to be everyday good practice by 2027. In 2020/21 their projects:
- supported 108 people who live with serious mental health challenges on low income, with 47 people being regular attenders
- delivered 122 sessions, lasting from 1 to 3 hours, both online and in person
- provided experience for 13 volunteers, including peer volunteers and students
- contracted 65 people, including facilitators, experts, creative professionals, mental health professionals, support workers, musicians, artists, researchers
- involved collaboration with 17 cultural, mental health and research partners.
Recent and current projects include:
- Burgh Castle Almanac, a partnership with the Broads Authority, Access Community Trust and Norfolk Archaeological Trust, exploring a Roman fort for learning, creativity and community.
- Dr Hills' Casebook, a partnership with Norfolk Record Office, South Norfolk Council and UpShoot Theatre, researching and creating a new play about living with mental illness in the late 19th century and today.
- Human Henge, a partnership with English Heritage, Richmond Fellowship and Bournemouth University, that creatively engages mental health service users with the ancient and natural landscape of Stonehenge on- and off-line.
- Scaling Up Change Minds, with 6 archive services, including The National Archives, building an online Change Minds resource hub, testing it with 12-session Change Minds programmes in the archive services, and researching wellbeing for up to 84 participants.
- Heritage Link Worker project is a partnership with Historic England piloting a specialist social prescribing link worker post in Great Yarmouth and Waveney to connect people using social prescribing services with local heritage assets and experiences.
- other projects include Like Minds Norfolk, Stay In Touch (online drop-in), Conservation for Wellbeing.
Recently the Baring Foundation commissioned them to produce a report called Creatively Minded and Heritage, with an introduction and best practice case studies from across the UK.

Manicómio is the first art outsider studio in Portugal. Located in Lisbon at a creative cowork space, it brings together artists who have or have had mental health issues, with professionals from the creative sector and companies. Manicómio it is also a design studio (the Agencia Manicómio) in which all the creatives have suffered and suffer from mental illness. Manicómio is a 20 year-old fight for honesty, dignity and recognition of artists who are excluded by the art world simply because of their mental health history and stigma. Besides art work and exhibitions, Manicómio mentors their artists to other creative and commercial ventures, such as advertisement, illustration, jewelry and media. It is a space of human, social, financial and aesthetic dignity

In November 2020, the European Dancehouse Network launched a #DanceAndWellBeing campaign, to help raise awareness about the essential role of dance in our societies and in maintaining our physical and mental wellbeing. Seventeen artists-lead online dance classes and one research later, EDN issued a publication indicating how dance organisations and artistic practice help increase individual and relational well-being, while promoting values related to solidarity, cohesion and intercultural dialogue. The publication issued in June 2021 includes policy recommendations and a selection of resources.

Epidemic Belfast is a medical history learning resource developed by researchers from Ulster University’s School of History. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the team set out to uncover Belfast’s medical past, hoping to gain a better understanding of how disease (physical and mental) has been experienced and managed in the city since the 19th century. Through podcast episodes and original articles, the project furthers our understandings of illness, public health, vaccination, nutrition, mental health, medical provision during the Troubles, thalidomide and many other topics in the unique environment of Belfast. It also looks to the future as Ulster University opened its new medical school in 2021. Among other topics, this resource covers:
- health problems in Belfast including epidemic outbreaks, mental health crises, under-nutrition and poor public health management.
- the role of doctors and local health authorities (positive and negative) in managing disease over time.
- the health prospects and experiences of specific communities such as LGBTQ+, ethnic minorities, women, children and specific occupational groups (e.g. cotton mill workers).
- the complex ethical issues posed by modern medicine (e.g. the development of inadequately tested drugs, anti-vaxxers, etc.)
- barriers to providing ‘neutral’ physical and mental health care during 30 years of civil conflict.

L’Altre Festival is the culmination of a social and cultural project initiated twenty-two years ago. The theatrical group “La Trifulga dels Futils” was then created and today is seen the culmination of a methodology aimed at helping and accompanying the rehabilitation of persons suffering, or not, from mental issues by means of the scenic arts. The festival was born in 2015 in Barcelona and three years later it started to expand, first to Manresa (Catalunya). In 2018 a group of persons in Argentina decided to organize “El Otro Festival_Rosario” and together they started to work on “The Other Festivals”, a festival of festivals, a community of communities.

The research- and development project Art and Well-being aimed to create aesthetically appealing public health care environments that can give rise to positive thinking and discussions. To this end, art and holistic interior design were used. The project was carried out in cooperation between Novia University of Applied Sciences, various public health care institutions in Finland and professional artists and designers. The focus has been on aesthetics and art that create care environments stimulating positive thoughts for staff, patients and relatives. Further the project sought to make the role of cultural worker visible in such projects and to create understanding between care and arts fields. An additional goal was to provide art students with experience of seeing art in a broad context. This project report describes the realization of three different health care environments where art and design have had a central role.

The Erasmus + project Handmade Well-being - Käsitöistä hyvinvointia was born out of the need to offer to older people more opportunities to engage in arts and crafts. In addition to the concrete results, the project participants' increased knowledge of the subject was important. Practicing art and handicrafts benefits the well-being of the elderly. Among other things, the coordination of the hands and brain function are improved and the mood is positively affected. Mainly people who lack professional skills work to lead the creation of art among the elderly. Artists and craftsmen, on the other hand, generally have no education in the care industry that would facilitate their work among the elderly.

The project Creative Person-Centered Care Art focuses on person-centeredness, creativity, art and culture and aims to investigate and develop the potential of these elements in elderly care in Swedish Finland. The goal of the project is to develop, implement and evaluate a model for what they call "creative person-centered care art" in the vocational training of nurses and carers and in elderly care in Finland.

The project aims to raise awareness of the potential of art and restorative justice in the treatment and rehabilitation of people with mental illness. Mental Health Matters through Restorative Art (MHM) aims to bring together a cross-sector, strategic partnership of organisations to support innovation in the adult education field by creating, piloting and disseminating educational material and tools tailored to the needs and realities of mental health professionals, restorative justice practitioners and artists in the participating countries (the UK, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Hungary) and across Europe. MHM is also designing and accrediting e-courses that enhance the skills and knowledge of adult learners, supporting in this way the setting up of, and access to upskilling pathways.