Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

This initiative was framed within the lines of action of the Ministry of Health of the Community of Madrid to humanize health care spaces. An objective of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital was to create spaces, activities and initiatives that help its patients to have a hospital stay as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. More than 150 people participated in its creation.

In the pandemic context, UNESCO has launched the #ShareCulture and #ShareOurHeritage communication campaigns, which promotes virtual access to world heritage sites and even to practices linked to the knowledge of living cultural heritage or intangible heritage of the communities around these sites. Through an alliance with the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Guatemala, these campaigns are promoted, as well as the different activities of artistic and cultural expression that are broadcast daily online, with the aim of supporting more people to have knowledge and access to these important cultural activities.

In Catalonia, the Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat and Institut Català de Salut have partnered to create RecuperArt-19 project for health professionals, who are suffering from emotional stress related to the management of Covid-19. RecuperArt-19 proposes the creation of an activity in various museums in Catalonia to improve the emotional state of health professionals from techniques and resources based on art and culture. This activity can be performed individually and autonomously, with the aim of preventing and managing the anxiety, stress and depression associated with your professional activity during the coronavirus crisis. Recuperart-19 involves cultural resources in health management, personified in 16 museums throughout the community. The cultural institutions propose a selection of between 3 and 5 works from their permanent collection, located in spaces that allow calm and introspection. On these pieces, viewers can make a sheet that adapts to the artist's notebook. Healthcare professionals can enter cultural institutions for free and participate anonymously with an artist's notebook. This little notebook proposes a series of activities to get to know the museum, relax, concentrate on the selected works, draw them, write stories, etc.

In 2019, Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) signed a collaboration agreement to carry out different actions aimed at exploring the potential of art as a tool for patients and families to enjoy its therapeutic and emotional benefits. This pioneering initiative is part of a transversal program recently approved by the Institut Català de la Salut that seeks to advance in the use of the therapeutic value of the different artistic and cultural disciplines. The joint creation of actions that combine perspectives and methodologies of the arts with health practice can lead to new therapeutic options available to health professionals. As for the National Museum, the project is part of its strategy and the work it develops to guide visitors, transforming the facility into an inclusive space to reach broader sectors of society. This collaboration agreement will begin with a project aimed at studying new art therapies in health, in the field of psychology. The initiative will start with women who have a post-traumatic stress disorder, of diverse cultural origin (immigrants or refugees) and who suffer from situations of social vulnerability. The psychological treatment will combine new didactic strategies from the Museu Nacional and the principles of therapeutic intervention for emotional support in situations of fragility in women established by the team of the Vall d'Hebron Psychiatry Service. The patients will receive a psychological treatment divided into two groups: one of them will do it entirely in the hospital and the other will go to the MNAC to check whether the fact of being treated in a non-health environment, such as a museum, and applying to the treatment sessions the advantages of art, gives them more satisfaction and improves their quality of life, as well as reduces symptoms derived from post-traumatic stress. The objective of this project is to obtain more scientific evidence of the benefits of art in health and that they can be offered publicly to the people we serve in the future.

In 2020, the Rijksmuseum designed a project for social purposes to celebrate the 414th birthday of Rembrandt, whose Night Round continues to be restored in front of the public. They performed the #NightWatchOnTour, in which they created a digital replica of the iconic Dutch work and took it to a nursing home in Amsterdam. With pandemic, this at-risk population is banned from leaving their homes. But if the users of the residence cannot access the museum due to health restrictions, the institution is concerned with bringing the culture to all those who need it.

Since 2017, Fundays have given conferences and workshops for caregivers and relatives of people living with Alzheimer's and dementia, providing tools for the incorporation of artistic activities and therapeutic art as support to slow the progression of the disease and improve the quality of life of people suffering from this disease. They also offered individual and group sessions for people living with Alzheimer's, dementia and / or cognitive impairment. They were using various modalities of expressive therapies to stimulate the physical and cognitive abilities of people in a playful and creative environment, that allows the expression of feelings and ideas through the creation and interpretation of artistic objects.

Since 2016 Fundays promoted the Dance for Parkinson's Program in collaboration with the ANEP Parkinson Monterrey, A.C., in order to offer people living with Parkinson's disease a space where they can coexist, share and express themselves through movement and dance in a safe environment, without fear of being judged and seeking at the same time to create a support network that allows them to "sustain" each other when needed. Considering this program, new headquarters have been opened and the organisation frequently collaborate with various health institutions to bring the program to more people in the country and beyond.

Dance for Parkinson’s Scotland is a nationwide programme consisting of 10 hub locations delivering weekly creative movement classes for people living with Parkinson's and their families/carers. Dance for Parkinson’s Scotland has specific objectives in arts and health/wellbeing: exercise is evidenced as positively affecting Parkinson's symptoms; the movement sessions are specifically designed to address common Parkinson’s concerns such as balance, flexibility, coordination, gait and social isolation; the classes are delivered by trained dance artists and musicians (live music is a key component); the creative and artistic focus centres the individual participant's experience and, alongside physical benefits, develops confidence, creativity and expression (ie mental wellbeing); the sessions are more than just exercise classes, there is a strong focus on the social element and the supportive relationship that participants nurture with each other.

This initiative seeks, through artistic interventions, to avoid aggressions and discriminatory actions towards workers in the health sector, and invites the people of Mexico to respect them, while paying tribute to them for their commitment to the population. Through the presentation of two murals, public and private sectors, as well as civil society organizations, launched the civic awareness strategy "Homage to the heroes in white", with the aim of promoting solidarity towards health personnel facing the pandemic. The officials believe that the results of this strategy will be a permanent tribute to the dedication of health personnel.
The artistic interventions were located on the roof of the Technical Secondary School number 41 "Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz" and in the Higher School of Nursing and Obstetrics of the National Polytechnic Institute, and are the works of the muralists Leo Monzoy and David Hernández (Dagoz).

Open Eye Gallery and the University of Salford are partnering on their 3rd annual event entitled Who Cares? -Symposium exploring the role of art and design in health and care. In 2022, key speakers together with students and the wider public explored the interconnections between art, design, creative technology, health and care. They particularly reflected upon the role of culture in health and well-being during an ever shifting global context. In discussion people coming from across the art, design, health and social care setting were encouraged to participate, to ensure a diverse discussion as possible and support opportunities for future collaborations.