Art, culture and mental health (KKPH)

Art, culture and mental health is the organizer of The cultural happiness pill. They offer a diverse cultural program for care houses and adapted meeting places for people with mental health problems. They regularly organize courses, concerts or performances at the meeting places. The offer is especially aimed at those who for various reasons have problems seeking out cultural offers outside the care houses. Easier access to art and culture-related activities can contribute to increased participation and perhaps also experience of increased quality of life. Art encounters can create awareness, as long as the art reflects real human experiences. It can be said that these experiences largely constitute art. And this can be understood as public health work, in a broad sense.

In the project Thinking Room provided by KKPH, people with mental health problems can participate in courses with professional artists in various art forms, techniques and expressions. Participants interact with artists in small groups in the artists' spaces or the musicians' studio. Participation is self-defining, so people who sign up for the courses have defined themselves into the target group. The courses run over 2 to 5 hours, once a week, over 6 to 10 weeks.
KKPH is a collaboration between the City Council Department for Culture, Diversity and Gender Equality and the City Council Department for Work, Social Affairs and Housing. KKPH is organizational under the Ministry of Culture with a city-wide responsibility. It arranges courses and activities in the districts, at municipal activity houses for the target group, with funds from KKPH.

KKPH online gallery is a digital gallery on the website kkph.no. It is operated by Bergen Municipality, a structure part of the Ministry of Culture. The target group for the online gallery is people with mental health problems. Participation is self-defining. The number of annual exhibitions will vary, depending on whether separate exhibitions or joint exhibitions are set up in collaboration with other actors in the field of art / culture and mental health. Who gets an exhibition space in KKPH's online gallery is decided by the curator and gallery owner, in consultation with the artistic council.

Kraftverk is a collection of poems and short prose that is published twice a year, an online edition and a printed edition. Bergen Municipality publishes the magazine. This initiative gives voice to unrecognized writers who are or have been mentally ill, and who want to express themselves in a fictional language. All unrecognized writers who define themselves in the target group can submit texts for evaluation to be published in Kraftverk. Texts must not have been published publicly before, neither printed nor digital. Kraftverk receives between 150 and 200 texts for each release, and around 30 of these are published. The texts are evaluated by an editorial team. Each release of Kraftverk is celebrated with an open launch event: writers with readings, speakers on various literary topics, and guest artists participate.