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.

The ART4PSY Project is exploring innovative ways of building understanding between people with severe mental health illness and the general population in order to facilitate their social inclusion, while in the same time it promotes transnational circulation of cultural and creative works produced by mental health patients. Additionally, ART4PSY supports mental health patients to explore the possibility for a career in the cultural and creative sector. Furthermore ART4PSY will promote social inclusion, fight stigma and increase public awareness of talents and skills of artists with mental health problems.
The project offers mental health patients from three different countries the opportunity to co-produce “The European Theatrical Performance”. Part of the project will be dedicated to the development of (a) a toolkit, which will gather methodology, good practices, activities and other material and can be used by mental health practitioners from all over the world; and (b) a digital library where artwork of mental health patients from all over the world will be exhibited and promoted. The project includes the development and implementation of three (3) ART4PSY festivals (one in each country), which include theatrical performance (starting from writing the play and going all the way to the show), painting exhibition and photography exhibition.

Introspection Music Experience (IME) is a 3-year European cooperation project that brings together musicians and composers with and without psychiatric vulnerabilities from Belgium, England, Greece and Spain. During this project, 12 solo artists and bands will collaborate with composers with experience of mental health challenges in order to create music together that will make new audiences aware of real experiences of mental ill health. IME will create a space for diverse communities to get to know each other, initiating a dialogue, sharing experiences, and finally, producing bold and authentic artistic expressions to share with the wider world. The artists will use music as a vehicle to talk about the reality of living with mental ill health from a first hand perspective, and thus contribute to the elimination of the persisting stigma towards mental illness and people living with it.

Ireland’s first and largest annual film festival, a renowned national & international celebration of the best cultural cinema. The 2018 edition included programmes for schools, families, a focus on film & mental health. The 2019 and 2020 editions had among their objectives: to encourage access to film for younger audiences including via an innovative new film & mental health OUTREACH programme delivered regionally; and to promote open, transparent & informed discussion & debate about film & mental health through ILLUMINATE film strand, unique in Ireland.

A cross-media project that tells the story of the creation of the Mediterranean Diet and explores why it is relevant to our lives today. It is based on the premise that the Mediterranean Diet is an integral part of world cultural heritage, and is a vehicle for promoting better health, hospitality, neighborliness, intercultural dialogue, creativity and sustainability. Connecting Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Croatia and Cyprus, the project is based on a contemporary photography exhibition and parallel activities including documentary screenings, educational programmes, photography workshops and culinary walks.
It aims to engage children, young people and a wider audience through workshops and events within and without the museums, inviting visitors to participate, taste and ask how the collective choices we make can lead to a more sustainable future. Bringing alive a history of sustainability, health and exchange, Foodprint seeks to inspire change and to connect a European audience with one of the world’s richest and healthiest food cultures.

Art4med is a cultural cooperation project that fosters encounters between art practices and biomedical health research. Art4med is a 2 years project (2020-2022) centered on the intersection of art, health, and biomedical research. It intends to foster these encounters between art practices and biomedical health research in a fast-changing societal environment, under the influence of big data, material and technical innovation. It addresses the exclusion of marginalized groups from healthcare, global migrations, collapses in environmental health and the need for radical care in these pandemic times. They propose to form a consortium: 5 partners from 5 EU countries will unite around their common interest to experiment and disseminate collaborations between hands-on medical humanities and investigative art methodologies. In 2021 and 2022, the consortium will propose 5 residencies, 5 symposiums, talks, co-creative methodology workshops, online collaborations, hands-on sessions, exhibitions, and a final publication and festival in Paris.
Art4med aims to:
- Build-up interdisciplinary transnational cooperation between artists and the health sector in order to support and produce exploratory artistic projects that promote access to healthcare;
- Open new fields of creative experimentation for artists to challenge the current status of science and healthcare;
- Enable cross-fertilization and sharing of knowledge, technologies, skills and experiences among artists, researchers and open/citizen science communities, and provide conditions for fruitful creative exchanges.
- Produce open and transferable resources to better understand co-creative processes between art, science and technology;
- Raise audience awareness of the role of artists in opening disruptive paths that significantly tackle societal and technological challenges in access to healthcare, beyond the scope of existing art-science peer communities.
During 2021-2022, Art4med takes the form of extended residencies, a series of workshops, seminars, and exhibitions in Finland and across Europe. Art4med is a collaboration between Makery (FR), Waag (NL), Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology (DK), Bioart Society (FI), and Kersnikova (SI). It is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. In 2021 and 2022, the consortium will propose 5 residencies, 5 symposiums, talks, co-creative methodology workshops, online collaborations, hands-on sessions, exhibitions, and a final publication and festival in Paris.

Open Source Body is an interdisciplinary festival organised every two years by Makery.info (curated by Ewen Chardronnet) with the aim of bringing together and encouraging collaborations between artists and health and biomedical research professionals. In 2021, Open Source Body was joining forces with the Cité Internationale des Arts and Volumes Lab / Oasis21 for three days of conferences, discussions, workshops and performances. Also it took part of the project ART4MED.EU (2020-2022), initiative co-financed by Creative Europe EU.

This research project evaluated the influence of art therapy in reducing palliative symptoms, on social availability and on perceptions of aesthetics in hospitalised palliative care patients. Another objective was to evaluate its influence on bereaved families. Art therapy sessions were routinely proposed in the setting where the study took place. Participants attended at least one session of art therapy performed by a certificated art therapist. To choose the technique and topic, the art therapist relied on the patient’s tastes as well as their physical abilities. It was considered that by allowing patients a choice they would be more committed to an activity that was meaningful to them. Several techniques were used: painting, drawing, photography, modelling and sculpture. The sessions took place either in the patient’s room or in the art workshop. Participants could be assisted by family members if they wished. The art therapy sessions mainly focused on orientating the patient towards a positive affective state. The number of sessions was depended on the project and the length of stay in the PCU.

Holistic Gymnastics is one of the workshops organized for the adults in Lahonce, with the philosophy of a bodywork that is preventive, educational and artistic, in a holistic approach of the body balance. It is taught by professionals in movement, dance and health. The approach is centered on the development of body awareness, proprioceptive and kinesthetic awakening, the learning aims at improving the quality of daily life. The movements and gestures are simple and they are preventive and educational. Each person learns at his or her own pace, without any specific guidance on the use of movement. Learning is progressive and holistic.

Accompanying clown project proposes an evaluative approach aimed at assessing and qualifying the effects (therapeutic, relational, economic, etc.) of the practice of accompanying clowns on the ecosystem of the Establishments of Accommodation for Dependent Elderly People (EHPAD). The hypothesis is that artistic practices can be integrated into the care of dependent elderly people, besides the traditional care approaches, that contribute to the improvement of well-being, both physically and psychologically. Whether it is about accompanying clowns, hospital clowns, or relational clowns, the approach can be beyond simple entertainment, to see the potential of this practice in terms of support and care for dependent elderly people. The phenomenon of aging populations and the lengthening of life expectancy are linked to a fundamental public health issue, that of dependency and autonomy, and raise the question of the means to be implemented for the care of a growing population of elderly people in a context where public spending must be controlled and rationalized.