Fresco Parkinson Institute

Art Therapy (AT) can be defined as “a mental health profession utilizing the creative process of art making to help people solving conflicts and problems, developing interpersonal skills, reducing stress, and increasing self-awareness”. The creative process of art making can unveil subconscious information that can be then formally addressed by the art therapist. As such, AT is not primarily concerned with the aesthetic quality of client’s art products. The guided use of artistic expression aims to improve physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing by promoting individual’s sense of normalcy, competency and wellbeing, despite ongoing physical or psychological disabilities. Community-based AT initiatives have addressed stigma, promoted empowerment, aided social inclusion, and created arenas of safety for participants. Community engagement in the arts was specifically found to increase a sense of belonging, enabling participants to cultivate relationships, become more active, and connect to health relevant information.
Fresco Parkinson Institute plan to offer an art-based intervention for people burdened by Parkinson Diseases in form of a Community-Based Art Program. In this clinical population, the engagement in supervised, art-based activities may indeed serve as an effective adjunct to pharmacological therapies, to improve functional independence, psychological wellbeing and overall quality of life for both patients and their loved ones. The community program will be held in two Art Labs located in the cities of Florence and Vicenza, respectively. The labs will be open on weekdays and patients will be asked to schedule their appointment ahead in order to ensure the proper enforcement of social distancing measures and a smooth access to the art settings. Each daily session will include individual or group of 3-5 PD patients. Patients will be reached primarily through the local associations of patients on the territory. This initiative is intended to honor the fundamental Mission of the Fresco Parkinson Institute Foundation to improve the quality of life of people with Parkinson’s disease and their loved ones by bridging Art and Neuroscience.

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.