Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

The purpose of the Kulturens Rige project is to teach eight Danish municipalities how to create and develop concrete, local, citizen-oriented cultural projects that, through involving participation, improve the health and well-being of citizens. At the same time, the project looks to create new ways and develop new knowledge about how art and culture can contribute to health promotion efforts. The project takes the form of a series of six joint full-day workshops and a final conference in April 2023, and in parallel, the participating municipalities will implement various health promotion initiatives in practice. The participating municipalities are Ringkøbing-Skjern, Høje Taastrup, Guldborgsund, Aarhus, Egedal, Rudersdal, Køge and an eighth municipality, which will be published later.

Culture is essential to our well-being and mental health. Culture gives us community and experiences that can develop us as human beings. Culture is medicine. Therefore, culture must be accessible to everyone. Technology can help with that. This was the central core of the Culture electrifies health exhibition, which showed examples of the potential of well-being technology that can help in making cultural experiences accessible to everyone, regardless of functional level. The visitors could see how technological solutions such as Virtual Reality, apps, and e-participation can bring cultural experiences to those who cannot participate on an equal footing with others – e.g. due to disability. The exhibition was hosted by Dokkx and organized with the support of Aarhus Municipality, from May 11, 2021, to November 1, 2021.

As part of a strategic focus on culture and health promotion in Aarhus Municipality, Transformation LAB was organized in Kulturhus Bunkeren on 6-10 April 2022, and it was designed to help people who are struggling with trauma or other vulnerabilities, through artistic and creative means. The Transformation LAB program consisted of a 5-day participant involvement event that focused on art and recovery courses. Through artistic expression, creative workshops, dialogue cafés, and professional presentations, both the guiders and the participants explored the question: "Can art heal people?". Transformation LAB was held in collaboration with Aarhus Municipality, FO-Aarhus, and Aarhus University, with support from the Culture and Health Fund, the Alsace Foundation, and the Sacrifice Foundation.

Together for Culture is the Deaconess Foundation's creative respite for people affected by stress, anxiety, or depression who need a break where they can have an experience with art and culture together with others. Supported by foundation funds, the project has been able to offer citizens five different cultural courses with, among other things, painting workshops, literature, and dance. The courses were developed and held in collaboration with local cultural institutions and artists in Frederiksberg.

Danish Hospital Clowns work to strengthen hospitalized children's joy of life and courage so that they can better face the course of the disease. The team involved in the project does not consist of volunteers, but on professionals who benefit from tailor-made hospital clown training, which is internationally recognized and takes 1 - 1/2 years to complete.
The clowns are taught a wide range of artistic tools combined with training in relationship building, neuropsychology, and collaboration with the staff. In the education and in the continuing education program, new methods are constantly explored in order to support and better understand the meeting between the clown and the child. Currently, the team has 61 hospital clown members, and 12 clown apprentices in training.
Currently, the Danish Hospital Clowns visit more than 30.000 children who are admitted to Denmark every year. In addition, since 2016 they have also worked at several of the country's child and adolescent psychiatric departments, and in 2018 they have entered into collaborations with residential facilities with children with severe autism.

Art in the public space for public health project aimed of raising awareness regarding the prevention of the coronavirus. 80 interventions were carried out in public spaces such as bus stops and parks, in cantons of San José, Heredia, Curridabat, Alajuelita and Desamparados, in November and December 2020. The project educated citizens to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in areas of greater contagion, transmitting the message creatively through interaction with characters. Each intervention lasted approximately 15 minutes and always took into consideration the health security measures indicated by the Ministry of Health. This initiative was born from the alliance of the Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements (MIVAH) and the Melico Salazar Popular Theater (TPMS), a body of the Ministry of Culture and Youth.

In the #DíaNacionalDelLibro, those who were vaccinated in Tecnópolis centre were able to take a book from the library made up of donations from the National Reading Plan, the National Commission of Popular Libraries (CONABIP) and the Library of The National Congress.

On a new anniversary of #NiUnaMenos, the first massive mobilization of the women's and diversity movement against gender-based violence, the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity and the Ministry of Culture of the Nation presented a series of artistic interventions in the Tecnópolis vaccination center. Within the framework of the National Campaign “Argentina United against Gender Violence” , an intervention was carried out on one of the walls of the vaccination center with gigantographs in sticker format of three illustrations that are part of the proposal “#CulturaNoViolenta – Illustrations with a raised voice”, created in 2020, which includes a guide for intervention in the territories by carrying out artistic actions for the prevention of gender-based violence.

In 2022, one of the largest vaccination centres against Covid-19 in the Province of Buenos Aires has been operating in Tecnópolis, in which more than 25,000 people have already been inoculated . Continuing with the cultural spirit of the Park, the Tecnópolis vaccination center also offers different artistic interventions to accompany the day and the moments of waiting after vaccination. Various artists performed classical, popular, tango and jazz music for those who went there that to get the Covid-19 vaccine and invited them to enjoy a different cultural experience at a time long awaited by everyone.

The Ministry of Public Health, through the Undersecretary of Community Health, Healthy and Non-Violent Environments, and the Directorate of Mental Health, completed the provincial mural competition under the slogan "Inhabiting the Public", which was held at the Secondary School Intercultural Bilingual Social Management No. 1 in the Toba neighborhood of Resistencia. The initiative was led by the artist Sergio Falcón and the community in general, with the aim of generating a work that reflects the imprint of the area with a tribute to its most recognized exponents. The artistic activity, which is linked to a series of territorial works initiated during the beginning of the pandemic, seeks to strengthen citizen participation as a mechanism of expression in different interventions and to add new containment strategies to mental health.