Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

The exhibition "In Touch with" at the Museum of Contemporary Art, where works can be felt, viewed or interpreted for the first time through subjective experience, thanks to 3D printing or CNC machines was dedicated to persons with disabilities, who can enjoy art without hindrance. Reliefs and objects, obtained by 3D printing or work on a CNC machine are intended to be touched, and thus the exhibition, in accordance with modern museological standards, is taught to be accessible to people who have been deprived of sight, as well as to all who want to explore the artistic heritage in an interactive way. The exhibition includes 12 works from the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, which were realized by students from the Sculpture Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade.

On the occasion of the Mental Health Day, a sales exhibition of works proposed by the beneficiaries of the Center for Mental Health was set up in the center of Vršac. This humanitarian exhibition of paintings was opened in the city hall, and a workshop on "Hidden Face of Art" was held in the Mental Health Center. The Center for Mental Health was established in 2015 for patients who are in satisfactory medical condition and who do not need treatment. The workshop on the topic "Hidden Face of Art" was organized for them, and an exhibition of works created at other workshops were exhibited in the city, so that the people of Vršac could look at and buy them, but also to hear information about the work of the Center for Prevention, which was created by the Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Vršac.

The Department of Infectious Diseases and Travel Medicine at the L. Pasteur University Hospital Košice decided to implement an "art in the hospital" program at the request of the patients of the Psychosocial Center in Košice. Hospitalization is a stressful situation for people. The pleasant environment in the hospital significantly affects the health of patients and the cooperation with professional staff enable Psychosocial Center Košice make their stay in the medical facility as pleasant as possible. Their goal is to help patients alleviate their suffering and transfer them to the art world, at least for a short time, by painting and drawing. The corridors came to life with works of fine art that reflect the technique of "encaustics".

Critical magazine Kapitál, in their attempt to raise awareness on mental health of young people organized at A4 - a space of contemporary culture - a free admission event with discussions and presentations, bringing into discussion three strong projects via film, music and performance to respond to a series of questions related to the mental health.

The educational format EDU.pn of the Municipal Cultural Center focuses on the active mediation of Piešťany's regional history through creative workshops, professional lectures and art courses. The first workshop, entitled Arts and Health, focuses on mental and physical health care. The educational lecture and creative workshop was led by Michaela Košútová Guillaume, who works as a university pedagogue of art and art therapy at the Trnava University in Trnava. The workshops, dedicated to 12-15 people, were provided in the exhibition hall of the Old Pharmacy on Winterova Street.

An interdisciplinary project run between April 2016 and January 2017 examining the effects of group music making on the health and wellbeing of residents in nursing homes in Southern Switzerland. Four teams of musicians delivered a 10-week program of group music making in four nursing homes, one per home, combining in each session singing, rhythm-based activities, and listening to short, live performances. An experienced workshop leader and a researcher were part of all four teams to ensure consistency of delivery and interaction with participants. The total number of music students involved was 9, with 4–5 per team and some, on voluntary basis, involved in more than one nursing home. Students, who already possessed skills of advanced instrumental performance, were specifically trained to act as facilitators of the music workshops. The training consisted of being able to direct small groups of residents in singing, using the percussion instruments employed (boomwhackers, triangles, rattles, maracas, as well as common household objects such as spoons and graters), and to support learning in an appropriate and effective manner throughout the sessions.

The New Children’s Hospital in Helsinki is the largest children’s clinic in Finland having patients coming from all over the country. The hospital won the 2018 Finlandia Prize for Architecture shortly after it was given into use. The soundscape of the New Children’s Hospital was designed and implemented by Sound in New Media, Master of Arts, students from Aalto University’s Media Lab under the instruction of University Lecturer, Antti Ikonen. The soundscape is generative and the 60-channel IP-audio sound system covers all floors and elevators of the building. The sounds are designed according to the visual themes of the floors aiming at a soothing experience which also makes the hospital feel friendly for the children. The soundscape won the Grand Prix of International Sound Awards in 2019. The project is ongoing and the soundscape is developed and fine-tuned utilising feedback from both visitors and employees of the hospital.

Co-Health is a two-year Action Research project in the area of healthcare supported by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino (Savings Bank Turin Foundation). The project aims to plan, test and evaluate a transferable protocol concerning active education for doctors and nurses in order to strengthen their soft skills. The Co-Health project minds to use innovative techniques of the Social and Community Theatre methodology to strengthen the workers soft skills. The social theater was used for team work, the management of unforeseen events and stress. With the theater, for the first time, the faculties of Medicine, Obstetrics and Nursing are united in training. The Co-health program, interfaculty, started in January 2014 with 60 students from Turin and Cuneo who received training based on the Community Social Theater methodology to work in interdisciplinary teams, to become self-aware and act effectively in complexity.

Since 2019, together with the Public Libraries and the Reading Circle, a programme for the promotion of reading has been set up with a view to transforming waiting periods in hospital. And so, thanks to donations to the Medicine for Women Foundation 2000 books have thus been made available. The institution launches a network project for the promotion of Reading in the Hospital which starts from the S. Anna Hospital and becomes part of the Pact for Reading of the City of Turin. An ecosystem is born in interinstitutional collaboration with the Turin Civic Libraries , Iter - Turin Institution for Responsible Education , the Circolo dei readers Foundation , the AVO-Associazione Volontari Ospedalieri , the S. Anna University Hospital of Turin. The collaboration, established over a three-year time horizon, aims to give value to waiting time in the hospital, to reach new readers, to create a platform for the synergistic, organic development of existing projects, to launch experiments with great attention to processes and assessable in their impact and extensible in other contexts.

Foundation Onlus has activated a multi-year programme of studies through the first national platform title Cultura e Salute (‘Culture and Health’), together with over 60 cultural institutions. Among the pilot projects staged at St Anna, together with the Education Department of Castello di Rivoli, the Foundation activated what it calls a Cantiere dell’Arte (‘Art Workshop’) in order to transform healthcare spaces on the basis of patients’ desires. With collective painting projects – involving more than two thousand people – passageways, waiting rooms and whole wards have been given a new lease of life, becoming more hospitable with images and colours evoking the pleasantness of a garden, a metaphor dear to every culture.