Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

The Madrid Health Center (CMS) in Usera is one of the municipal health promotion centers most involved in the Healthy People Strategy, which has been carried out in the city of Madrid since 2010. In the following period a collaboration between the Faculty of Fine Arts and the CMS emerged and the CMYK Project was developed and implemented.
Las Meninas initiative comprises a set of exercises which consist of showing the well-known painting of Las Meninas by Velázquez, and trying to make the group retain the general composition and everything they can say about painting. After a while they will show this same empty, deconstructed painting (without the characters appearing) and they encourage people to try to place where the characters were to reconstruct the painting. A set of pulleys is also designed to explain in the workshop the gears of synaptic neural connections.

The Madrid Health Center (CMS) in Usera is one of the municipal health promotion centers most involved in the Healthy People Strategy, which has been carried out in the city of Madrid since 2010. In the following period a collaboration between the Faculty of Fine Arts and the CMS emerged and the CMYK Project was developed and implemented.
A room for everyone is a project for young people to stimulate them to go to the center's sexual and reproductive health program. The objective was to get young people to trust the professionals who are in the center and understand it as an educational, fun and helping meeting point. The ideal room is designed with young people between 15 and 17 years old. In collaboration with local associations, antique furniture is collected, which is then recycled and redesigned, from the teachings of Fine Arts students. These also offer the young people of the institute three furniture, coaching and photography workshops. The furniture is then installed in the health center in "a room for all". Friends and family are invited to get to know it (and to know the center and its services) and use it. The center and the young people gain a beautiful corner, which the young people consider their own and where they will feel at ease when they want to visit the center.

The Madrid Health Center (CMS) in Usera is one of the municipal health promotion centers most involved in the Healthy People Strategy, which has been carried out in the city of Madrid since 2010. In the following period a collaboration between the Faculty of Fine Arts and the CMS emerged and the CMYK Project was developed and implemented.
In the CMYK Project participants in a memory workshop must choose the colors and drawings that suggest certain concepts (distance, joy, pain, health) and musicians play the right melody. The results are analyzed collectively and projected on the façade of the health center.

Art and Health arises from the collaboration between Madrid Salud and the Faculty of Fine Arts for the realization of projects that emphasize the potential of arts as means for the health promotion, and which can generate a positive and direct impact on the personal and social life of citizens. The main purpose of this initiative has been to carry out art and creative projects within the programs of the Madrid Community Health Center of the Madrid City Council with the collaboration of Fine Arts students. Under this programme a series of initiatives were performed. Some examples include: CMYK Project - Memory workshop using color and music as main elements in the Madrid Usera Health Center; “Paths to go through” has been a project focused mainly on the development of the creative capacity of people over 65 years of age, who are not dependent, and who participate in the Usera Community Health Center, etc.

The MIR Project is a program with triple social impact: clinical research, health humanization and job creation among young musicians. Fundación Cultura en Vena aims to improve people's lives by injecting culture where it does not usually reach. Their main areas of action are health centers and rural communities at risk of depopulation. Within the general objective of Cultura en Vena of implementing artistic practices in hospital environments, the Internal Resident Musicians (IRM) has the more specific purpose of normalizing the presence of the musician in clinical protocols, supported by scientific evidence that justifies the use of live music in certain medical treatments. Scope of the project: hospital humanization, clinical research, employability of the musicians. The concept alone is groundbreaking: employing a musician in the health system as hospital staff, with the aim that their work contributes to what doctors do, improving the prognosis and health outcomes that can be observed in patients.

SaludArte is a unique project that emerged in 2019 from IDIVAL in collaboration with the Botín Center and the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital. SaludArte Group is a multidisciplinary team of professionals from Valdecilla that works to design and develop a program of artistic activities with the aim of improving the well-being of professionals and the experience of the people who come to the hospital. During the SaludArte project health workers participated in a 4-week training created and evaluated by the Botín Center and Yale University to improve the well-being of the health and non-health professionals of the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital, through the realization and enjoyment of artistic activities. In addition, they participated in various exhibitions of the Botín Center.

Within the "Aesthetics and re-humanization of hospital space: art for health's sake" project, 11 Croatian artists performed artistic interventions in three Croatian medical care facilities: Rebro Hospital, Clinic for Women's Diseases and Obstetrics (Petrova), and the Clinic for Children's Diseases Zagreb (Klaićeva). The project was dedicated to artistic aestheticization, as well as the re-humanization of the children's hospital space with an emphasis on the contribution of the new freshness and serenity of the hospital space, but also to the positive therapeutic effect through art. The aim of this art project was to transform the experience of being in the hospital space for children and parents, as well as employees. The project drew on recent scientific research worldwide that suggests that art can play a significant role in providing psychological and emotional support to children hospitalized for illness.

The Art for Health Foundation was founded in 1991 after a meeting of artists and journalists with employees of the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic in Mánes. Its activity focuses on the creation and correction of the environment by artistic means and on the support of education in the Czech Republic. Since the beginning, the foundation has been working with artists, art school students, and health professionals to improve the environment of medical and social facilities. The endowment projects are based on the fact that the modified, friendly and cultural environment has a very positive effect on the mental and health status of patients, especially pediatric patients, and thus indirectly helps the work of doctors and all health professionals in treatment. In 2022, the foundation initiated a Grant procedure, inviting Czech organizations that lead projects focusing on youth or projects aimed at using art to improve the environment of medical and social facilities to apply for funding.

The Artful: Art and Dementia program aims to create new connections and life-enriching experiences through contemporary art for people living with dementia and their support networks. The programs is delivered Onsite - in 6 weekly 2-hour visits to the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, small groups are supported by trained artist educators to engage with and respond to contemporary art in the galleries. The gallery experiences are followed by a hands-on creative artmaking sessions with refreshments. To accompany the program, an ‘Artful at home’ pack is distributed to each participant. The pack includes artmaking activities (and all materials) to extend creative engagement in between each Museum visit. On Week 6, the program concludes with an open celebration and exhibition session, to coincide with one of Artful Community Days. Family and friends are invited to view the participants’ work made during the program. The programs is delivered Online from your home - an online program for those people who are unable to come into the Museum of Contemporary Art or prefer to join from home. In 6 weekly 45min zoom sessions, a small group of participants engage in fun and creative activities led by trained artist educators. An ‘Artful at home’ pack with all supplies needed for this program will arrive at your home a week prior to the programs commencement. Both online and onsite programs are created specifically for people living with dementia and their support partner. People living with dementia are also welcome to attend individually, if preferable. We tailor the programs around each unique group of participants.

The Beaney is a therapeutic museum that can help improve visitors health and wellbeing. Contemporary research has confirmed that museum collections have restorative and therapeutic qualities, enhancing people’s mental and physical wellbeing. With this in mind, The Beaney has developed an award-winning health and wellbeing programme, which uses its unique building and collections to create a ‘tonic’ to enhance a visitor’s experience.