Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

European cooperation project whose main goal was audience development, bringing people and culture closer together. The project particularly focused on European musical heritage of the 15th-16th centuries. One of the objectives was to recover the potential of European organological (14 instruments) rich heritage in order to reach with them vulnerable collectives (especially people with mental health problems) as participants of implementation of project and dissemination of early music. In addition, a network of key partners in both the cultural / creative sector (museums, music academies, musicians, musicologists and schools luthiers) and the social sector (entities non-profit involved in social integration of people with disabilities through cultural activities will be created / artistic / creative) was created, following the route that the instruments under the project took: Zaragoza (Spain) - Italy - Rest of Europe.

(In)Visible project brings together professional actors and users of Associação Recomeço, and its main objective is to combat discrimination and the stigma of mental illness through the arts. The project is part of the Portuguese Partnership Support Program - Art and Mental Health whose main objective is to stimulate the development of artistic projects, such as way to combat discrimination and stigma associated with mental illness.

Strategic policy document adopted in 2018, which provides the framework for cooperation on culture at the EU level. It builds on the 1st European Agenda for Culture launched in 2007 ”to address current societal challenges through the transformative power of culture”. The New Agenda establishes enhanced working methods with Member States, civil society organisations and international partners. It has 3 strategic areas, with social, economic and external dimensions.
The social dimension is where ”well-being” is explicitely mentioned in the policy text. Aimed at harnessing the power of culture and cultural diversity for social cohesion and well-being, the Agenda seeks to: ”foster the cultural capability of all Europeans by making available a wide range of cultural activities and providing opportunities to participate actively; encourage the mobility of professionals in the cultural and creative sectors and remove obstacles to their mobility; protect and promote Europe's cultural heritage as a shared resource, to raise awareness of our common history and values and reinforce a sense of common European identity.

The strategical policy document acknowledges that cultural participation improves health and well-being and cites research that confirm that cultural access is an extremely important catalyst for psychological well-being, preceded only by the absence of disease. Policy collaboration under the New Agenda is currently supported from 2021 by Creative Europe and other relevant programmes under the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027.

Memory is a contemporary circus project, which aims to study what makes us human: the ability to imagine and create realities that transform and shape each one's experiences. It is a brief exploration of the strange nature of our consciousness. It is intended to bring to the "naked eye" the complexity of the brain and its "disorders" in a natural way, to demystify them, approaching them through the contemporary circus. Learning to control impulses, emotions and everything that comes from the imaginary world of every human being is not an easy task, but it is a struggle that is fought daily.

The project idea came from Carolina Caldeira's desire to study in depth the difference between loneliness and solitude, and how these two concepts could be related to insularity.
The aim was to demystify the importance of introspection, from the therapeutic practice of psychological counseling, and together, experience the impact of being geographically isolated on an uninhabited island, contemplating the natural processes around and within themselves. The experience took place on the Selvagens Islands, between August and September 2021, and lasted 18 days, with the support and collaboration of the IFCN, Institute of Forests and Nature Conservation. The project has been financed by the Portuguese Partnership Support Program- Art and Mental Health ( DGARTES ), a team of Mental Health professionals (Rumo) and two visual artists ( André Moniz Vieira and Juliana Lee. Portuguese Partnership Support Program - Art and Mental Health.

In 2020, following the Partnership Agreement signed with P28 - Association for Creative and Artistic Development, the Directorate-General for the Arts opened the Partnership Support Program - Art and Mental Health, whose main objective was to stimulate the development of artistic projects, such as a way to combat discrimination and stigma associated with mental illness. The support line, which corresponded to an investment worth 300 thousand Euros, aimed to create synergies that contribute to overcoming the challenges currently faced by the mental health area in Portugal, through the arts. In a period drastically affected by the pandemic, culture and art became instruments that could raise awareness of mental health and be acknowledged for their positive impact on individual and collective well-being.