Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

Ars-PD Study is an exploratory pilot trial investigating feasibility and therapeutic potential of artistic experience in patients with parkinson’s disease. From a scientific viewpoint, the creative process of art making involves the use of sophisticated neurological functions such as abstraction, associative ideation, divergent thinking, visual imagery, visuospatial planning, sensory-motor integration, and eye-hand coordination. These functions could theoretically be engaged by art-based interventions in order to improve different clinical symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. Indeed, according to the preliminary results from an ongoing study carried out by the research partners at the Marlene and Paolo Fresco Institute at NYU, proctored art therapy seems to hold significant therapeutic potential to improve a broad range of symptoms in patients affected by Parkinson’s disease. Following a dedicated art therapy program, beneficial changes were observed in patients’ visual skills, motor function, and psychological wellbeing.
Fresco Parkinson Institute Italia is further develop this fascinating line of clinical research bridging art and neuroscience and they developed the ARS-PD Study a research project exploring the effects of an art-based intervention specifically thought to address psychological and physical limitations experienced by patients affected by Parkinson’s disease in their activities of daily living. Participants are engaged in different creative projects under the supervision of internationally renowned artists while the clinical research team investigated the potential effects of this intervention on their symptoms by means of clinical, psychological, behavioral and kinematic assessments through a scientifically rigorous and reproducible methodology. The study was conducted by the research team of the Villa Margherita Fresco Parkinson Center in Arcugnano, Vicenza coordinated by Dr.Alberto Cucca, MD.

Le Compagnie Malviste is a Social Promotion Association present for more than ten years on the national territory. The mission of the association is to spread more and more the practices of social and community theater with the fundamental aim of stimulating intergenerationality, cohesion and social mobilization. Le Compagnie Malviste deals with promoting social theater as a means of spreading health and well-being. It operates nationally and internationally to offer individuals, organizations and institutions, scientific consultancy services, planning, methodologies and training in the field of theatrical work with people and communities. This theatre company develops different project on the relation between culture and health. They work on the intergenerational dialogue between youngsters and elders. They also develop theatre expression workshop with people suffering from degenerative dementia and their caregivers.

T-essere memoria project is an experimental approach launched by the Educational Services of the Archaeological Heritage Office of the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage of the Autonomous Province of Trento with the aim of making the Fiavé Palafitte Museum accessible also to people affected by diseases related to dementia that are difficult to accompany in a museum or participate in archaeological laboratories at this stage of life. The project involved about 90 residents of the Alzheimer centers of nine Trentino APSPs who took part in meetings, practical workshops and visits to the museum.
The project consisted of four themed meetings open to all citizens with the presentation of the book "When are we going home?" written by Michele Farina who tells how Alzheimer’s emptied his mother. The "Sound, silence, music: rethinking the relationship with the person with dementia" will be held on with interventions by educator Stefania Filippi and student Evelin Boccone. The third meeting presents another book "Return to the father" by Loretta Zanella with the participation of Renzo Dori, president of the APSP of Povo. T-essere memoria concludes the meetings with a conference "Active aging: the importance of physical activity" held by Andrea D'Andreatta. The exhibition "T-be memory", at the S.A.S.S. was developed through the exhibition of artifacts, very simple and essential but rich in meaning to stimulate the memory of participants and to resurface forgotten memories or gestures, then the project included a laboratory phase in which all patients demonstrated their ability to "know how" despite the disease.
A second phase of the process involved pupils from two preschools and four primary schools who designed and built effective tools and materials for communicating with people with dementia and then interacting with the elderly. The path carried out has highlighted how the museum, if made usable and participatory, can have a social role and help improve the quality of life for patients but also for families and those who care for them.

The aim was to continue to carry out the activity, albeit remotely, in accordance with the physical distance measures imposed by the Covid19 health emergency, and to respond to the need to offer well-being and leisure to participants – elderly people, for an improvement of their quality of life. By applying the Time Slips method developed in 1998 by Anne Basting, participants have the opportunity to express their creativity through the construction of stories born from the guided observation of an artwork. Imagination, stimulated by artwork and a series of targeted questions, allows participants to tell themselves and communicate their emotions. The method provides new stimuli and approaches to the work of art to keep the dialogue alive and stimulate the word and imagination. The distance mode implies the active participation of caregivers who through a collaboration with the staff of the Foundation have assumed the new role of cultural mediators.

The BeGo Museo Benozzo Gozzoli in Castelfiorentino, leader of the Museums for Alzheimer's project of the Empolese Valdelsa network of museums (MuDEV), in 2013 joined the training project Art in your hands. The training course was aimed at setting up activities dedicated to people with Alzheimer and their caregivers. Starting on 2014, the activities at the museum for people with Alzheimer's are currently held regularly and are included in the stable offer of the museum's educational services.
In 2018, the project further expanded reaching 12 museums and newly involved 7 libraries. The project network has expanded including 10 structures in the area, sich as nursing homes, day centers, voluntary associations. The aim was to broadening the offer of opportunities for participation in the community, accessibility for people with dementia and for those who take care of them. In this sense, appointments during which poems were read, commented on and generated, starting from a targeted solicitation of ideas, sensations and emotions of the participants - the elderly and caregivers.
In 2020 , due to the COVID - 19 emergency, the activities in the museums were suspended; the MuDEV with the project work group continued online its work to keep alive the bond built up over the years.

Dedalo project is a health promotion project born in 2018 from an agreement between Azienda Sanitaria Local Health Authority of Vercelli, the Municipality of Vercelli and University of Eastern Piedmont, aimed at promoting promotion of healthy lifestyles for the adult population of Vercelli. Dedalo's activities cover 4 directions: Good Food, Wonder and Amazement, Moving Together and Discovering the Territory. From 2021, with the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, they are developing the project Wonder and Amazement, which imply organizing cultural activities in collaboration with museums, theatres, libraries, public and private bodies in the area.

An innovative project by the Carrara Academy in collaboration with ASST Bergamo Est and FERB Fondazione Europea Ricerca Biomedica Onlus, which takes shape in the museum-hospital relationship, becoming part of the offer of paths that see art as a cure, relief and well-being. Custodire Memorie represents an experimental therapy that responds to non-pharmacological needs, approaches and methods, for which the Gazzaniga Alzheimer Centre of Excellence is known and appreciated. Some paintings from the museum, in the form of reproductions, enter the rooms of the Centre in Gazzaniga together with sensory elements specially chosen by the working group, made up of museum educators and health workers. With the help of a therapist, the patient browses through a large album of works and is invited to choose one through which to stimulate memory and emotions. The works become silent carriers of experiences, help feelings to flow and patients to find themselves.

culturalMENTE is a project that the Civico Museo Archeologico di Camaiore dedicates to people with Alzheimer's and their carers. Launched at the beginning of 2019 as a pilot project, it envisages the launch of two distinct series of appointments; each of these is divided into 3 meetings, designed and led by museum and geriatric educators. The three meetings take place in the Civic Archaeological Museum of Camaiore, in the Museum of Sacred Art of Camaiore and along the historical centre of the municipality. Through the project it is aimed to provide to participants new stimuli, excitement and shared moments of serenity immersed in the evocative artistic and archaeological heritage of our territory. Through this project the museum wants to open up to people with Alzheimer's and their carers, in order to achieve the full involvement of all subjects within the cultural offer of the Municipality of Camaiore.

CoOPERAtività is a project aimed at people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia and their carers, set up in collaboration with the RSA Le Magnolie and the Casa di Riposo C.S.D. Il Gignoro. It is part of the Liget programme of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore. Through dialogues, creative storytelling and gestural expression, carried out at the Museum and monuments of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, it aims at various objectives, such as the promotion of well-being, the expression, management and sharing of emotions, the generation of new forms of communication, the opportunity of social inclusion by breaking down the stigma that surrounds people with cognitive impairment and their families, integration in a network of cultural and social support.
The CoOPERAtività project is included in the network of the Tuscany Region: Tuscan Museums for Alzheimer's.

The Pascali Foundation proposed the Art in Memory project in which the psychologists accompany a group of people suffering from mild dementia and together with their families were involved in a guided tour that stimulated them through the artworks encountered along the way.
Art in Memory was born with the aim of raising public awareness of the emotional and behavioral disorders that inevitably arise in patients with dementia and the importance of the "Museum-Therapy" in improving the quality of life of patients and families. The disease, in its progression, can involve any function of the individual by inducing disorders in the behavioral, cognitive and emotional spheres, leading from the psychopathological point of view to determine the substantial exacerbation of the original personality. Given these premises, the aim of the project is to offer an opportunity to meet patients, caregivers and practitioners, creating common meanings that pass through the different channels of art. The objectives of the project are therefore to stimulate communication and emotion through the work of art, to foster relationships between participants, to offer meeting opportunities, to propose pleasant, stimulating activities that are appropriate to the needs and preferences of people with Alzheimer.