Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

Bubbles of Imaginary is the first project of the Doctors of Imaginary Association, dedicated for children aged 4 to 16. It was set up in close collaboration with the team of the Immuno-Hematology and Pediatric Rheumatology Unit of the Necker Hospital - Enfants Malades, in 2003. It has been ongoing since September 2004 and contributes to better living during the time of hospitalization and bone marrow transplant protocol. Frédérique Subtil has taken over from Laurence Bosi since 2011 on this program. She intervenes individually at the bedside of patients, two afternoons a week.

House of Culture and Well-being is one of the Citizens Programme of the Local Council in the Ajuda neighborhood from Lisboa. It is an open and free space with a daily, regular and varied offer of activities aimed at all ages within the scope of culture and well-being. The goals of the programme are to promote monthly events, such as book launches, music concerts, meetings, cinema; to be a place of conviviality between people who are in a situation of isolation or social exclusion; to develop inter-generational activities; to promote a culture of participation; to give space for young graduates to boost their projects with the community; to create a safe space for socializing and for practicing various activities.

The project's idea started during the preparations for the Basic Mental Health Kit, another initiative of the ManifestaMente organisation. Artists are often the ones who best convey a message, that's why they did song about mental health. The journey of getting their final song: an artist wrote some accessible, play, respectful lyrics about mental health, another artists made some illustrations and animated them to the sound of music and Telma Pereira was chosen as singer. In this initiative ManifestaMente is engaging and challenging the general public/ artists to share the song, invite others to do another version of the song and sing it, to create their own version of the song and share the created content via social media channels, by using #cantarpelasaudemental. The last challenge would be to create a personal song on the mental health topic.

Art for Health is collaborative project, under the big umbrella of projects for the candidacy of Faro city to become the European Capital of Culture in 2027. The aim of the project is to promote the well-being (physical, mental and social) of health professionals through culture in the city's hospital, especially after an overwhelming pandemic for everyone. Art relieves the emotional tension felt by health professionals and tension is even greater nowadays. The pandemic has changed the daily lives of all of us, but especially of those who are in contact with patients. Artistic interventions took place in the cafeteria of the hospital, because this is a space through which all the hospital's health professionals pass: doctors, executives, administrative staff, technicians, nurses, auxiliary staff, etc. The artworks to be exhibited results from conversations carried out between the artists, health professionals and the Faro2027 team. All users of the cafeteria have the chance to get in touch with the artist through digital means.

The Pharmacy Museum in Porto carried out a thematic visit, entitled "Art and Health", on August 24th 2020 to mark the Artist's Day. The visitors were invited to take a journey through the way art has served health over the centuries. The objective was to present the history of health and pharmacy over time, relating, in the context of its collection, the different cultures and civilizations that are part of its permanent exhibition.
Participants took a journey through the history of health and pharmacy, where different artistic manifestations of each people and civilization were unveiled, from the iconography of ancient Egypt, using anthropomorphic forms, through Italian majolica at the service of iconography religious, to the representation of elements of nature in the exotic Islamic pharmacy.

The Regional Charity Červený Kostelec got EEA Grants for the renewal of the baroque area at the home of St. Josef in Žirč. The purpose of the project was to save the cultural heritage of the very valuable baroque complex of the Home of St. Josef in Žirč with the aim that this area can serve the disabled and non-disabled people and thus become a meeting place for them. The facility is the first and so far the only one of its kind in the Czech Republic that provides comprehensive services to people affected by multiple sclerosis and their loved ones (approximately 450 people from all over the Czech Republic each year). The project helped the general public, but also disabled people to make greater use of historic buildings and land, for learning and relaxation. The outside area was used for daily relaxation and for regular cultural events and meetings.

The Stalwarts project aimed to promote relational health in schools through engagement with arts. It was an innovative cross-sectoral higher education project based in 5 European countries: Estonia, Italy, Norway, Portugal and the UK. It brought together 3 inter-disciplinary/professional groups: school-based teachers and educators; creative arts therapists/trainers and university staff. The teachers and educators were drawn from 5 different contexts: one residential special school; one ‘second chance’ school; one ‘production’ school and two mainstream schools that specifically prioritise inclusive educational practice. National partnerships were established between the schools and their local universities involving creative arts therapists, researchers and specialists in inclusive educational practice and music education.
One of the project’s outputs was: ‘A Framework for Impact Studies.’ This output includes comprehensive guidelines on the planning, implementation and evaluation of small-scale classroom-based enquiries (impact studies) in this innovative field of therapeutically-informed teaching practice. 35 enquiries were conducted by the teachers and educators in the 5 schools during the first year; 86 during the second, as part of the university modules.

Another new initiative in STALWARTS was the introduction of theoretical underpinning and relevant measures relating to the impact of music and the arts on affective and cognitive function using a neuroscience-informed approach. The strapline for the STALWARTS project was ‘Relational Health in Schools,’ with the intended impact of embedding policy in learning and practice. Hence, the main target group for the whole partnership was those children and young people affected by adverse life conditions, including early childhood trauma. This related to another project output: ‘Relational Health in Schools in Context.’ This resource for the modules includes relevant national policy documents and theoretical contexts for promoting relational health and wellbeing in European schools and with an objective to reduce ELET (Early Leaving from Education and Training). There was reference throughout STALWARTS to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in safeguarding young people’s entitlements to music and arts experiences.

Promoting well-being through the arts was a joint project of the art education organisations in Valkeakoski, Finland. The coordinator of the project was the town's centre for education and well-being, and the partners were Valkeakoski Music School, Valkeakoski Lifelong Learning Centre (basic education in dance and drama), and the Emil School of Fine Arts and Crafts. One of the central objectives of the art education organisations in Valkeakoski is to develop their organisational cultures. The adoption of the new national curriculum for art education in 2018 brought with it clear development needs. The town administration has been restructured in anticipation of a major national reform of health and welfare services. The new organisation reflects the new tasks of the municipality in the promotion of residents' well-being. Art education as a means to promote well-being and prevent social and health problems has a major role in this task. The adoption of the new national curriculum brings along the need to train teachers to meet the new contents and requirements. In order to add a European dimension to education, it is also necessary to increase the language skills of the staff. The goal of all consortium partners was to increase their cultural competences and gain skills to emphasize multicultural aspects in teaching and to get new insights into learning environments.

Voices from the Margins is a literary translation project and comes as a continuation of the Parthian Europa Carnivale. In this project of translations from European languages, the publisher is tackling contemporary struggles that can result in marginalization, such as mental health, old age and alienation, immigration and displacement, disability, sexuality, family strife and loneliness. The titles chosen reflect these issues, as well as the unique cultural elements of the countries they represent.
Voices from the Margins is a project that highlights the universal aspect of these struggles and aims to create a common thread that links readers across cultures and borders. We are confident that the works we have selected are of a high quality and reflect the themes of the project. Auguste Corteau's award winning novel 'The Book of Katerina' (Bookseller- Public prize, 2014) is the story of a woman facing depression and how this affects her life and family; 'La Blanche' by Maї-Do Hamisultane tells a story of displacement, of a Moroccan girl who is uprooted and starts her life over in Paris; 'Death Drives and Audi' by Kristian Bang-Foss (European Union Prize for Literature, 2013) is an intergenerational road-trip story about healing and reconciliation; 'In the Name of the Father (and of the Son) by (European Union Prize for Literature, 2011) is a story of alienation and re-discovery between a son and his dead father through the latter's WWII diary; finally, 'Night Circus and Other Stories' by award-winning author Uršuľa Kovalyk tells the tale of a young woman coming to terms with her sexuality in a politically turbulent time in Slovakia.

The general objective of the project is the inclusion of adults with and without disabilities through art and creative expression. The project seeks to work across stigma, isolation, social exclusion and the difficulty of access to the cultural and artistic world through empowerment, training, and the creation of participatory spaces. Delyramus et Laboramus will continue the work of a consortium that has already collaborated in a previous project co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme (Delyramus: Developing Audiences: Music, Luthiers and Mental Health, 2018-2020), reinforcing its objectives, updated by the results obtained and the accumulated experience, increasing its impact and giving a step further to ensure the sustainability of the project.