Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

The proposed project is aimed at drug addicts and the territory of the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy, who need specialized interventions for the promotion and prevention of mental health. The project aims to integrate group therapy for learning to cope with craving and the carpentry workshop, which is called Made (Im)perfect. Made (Im)perfect is the brand created within the social carpentry workshop of the Ortica Day Center. Each object is a handmade unique piece, each with its own history, its origins, its own characteristics: just like all of those who work on this project.
With the purchase of these products it is possible to economically support the care pathways of people who have social and psychological frailties. The objects are created by the people who participate in the proposed healing activities, including group therapy about craving.
The organisers want to propose and implement in the area: how to learn strategies for managing the restless mind (when under the effect of craving) and create in everyday life.

In the carpentry objects created you will find imperfections, different dimensions and perhaps some errors: this is what makes us unique and special.

We create unmistakable and unique wooden products, mixing INVENTIVENESS and MANUAL SKILLS,
to make the living spaces personalized.

We believe that wood looks like us,
it is a weather resistant material,
but at the same time ductile and transformable
by careful hands.

We, with our differences and fragility, are committed to giving a second chance to the scraps from which the object you are holding in your hands is born.

This second chance that we give to objects is reflected in the nature of the subjects, who aspire to create a life worth living for themselves.

The Cultural Prescription Project in Central Alentejo is part of Transforma - an Inclusive Culture Program for the Central Alentejo promoted by CIMAC and co-financed by the European Social Fund. It is one of the experiments the organisers want to launch in Central Alentejo, in Portugal, and they are formally working with the health care services of 8 municipalities, the cultural agents and the link workers form those municipalities, in a way they can provide the patients and citizens an experience through arts and culture to minimize mental health issues as well as other issues. The project is soon to be implemented, and it will finish by November 2023. The organisers want to plant the seeds so it can continue after this date, with the efforts of the municipalities, the primary health care units and the cultural agents of the region.

The role of arts and culture in supporting the health and wellbeing of the citizens is well recognised by Birmingham City Council. Throughout the last year, the Birmingham City Council worked to champion their local grassroots community organisations to conduct arts, culture, and health projects specific to communities. The projects aimed for participants to become ambassadors of good health and to empower them to share knowledge with their own and other communities, allowing for active learning to occur. Projects identified a range of measures that helped with the prevention, management, and treatment of a range of different health outcomes. Furthermore, projects were delivered in wards with high levels of social and economic deprivation, helping to reduce health inequalities for the citizens within those areas. 28.9 per cent of projects were delivered in the wards that were the top 10 most deprived, while 75.6 per cent of projects were delivered in the top 20 most deprived wards. This suggests that the majority of participants were from some of the most deprived areas of Birmingham, which identifies further the impact of targeted, local, and place-based public health commissioning, specific to arts and culture.

This performance is based on the shared very personal stories of the participants (i.e. students), which the actors immediately performed on stage. People shared their memories that still haunt them. The theater troupe acted out these situations and people said they were inspired by it. The joint analysis of the specialist and the audience was also important.
In the hall, where paintings of people suffering from mental health were also displayed, a nice synergy was created, the staged situations were also discussed. Among people in audience were teachers, youth workers and a group of social workers, such as Uku Presmann, crisis worker and member of the group of participatory theater.

The meditative works and improvisations of the French impressionist Claude Debussy, the more intense Georgian composer Gia Kantseli, the American minimalist Philipp Glass were heard. But also a musical journey guided by a doctor of music therapy into the deep layers of the soul. The audience also depicted their soul landscapes visually with the help of paper and chalk - while before listening to the music and after the pictures showed where they dived. Performers: Helen Lokuta - mezzosoprano, Karl Johann Lattikas - vibraphone, Tanel-Eiko Novikov - marimba, Alice Pehk - music therapist.

The program is structured based on the basic principles of the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (BMGIM), an internationally recognized deep psychological receptive music therapy method. Some participants were just interested in listening the music, some shared their experiences, some enjoyed the part visualization of their inner world. With the director of Kohtla-Järve Gymnasium, the organisers continue to develop the topic of how to bring the new concert-workshops (spring 2023) to the students. On meetings with authorities of city government and cultural center discussed how to arise the interest of the people of this region according to their special problems, attitude and habits.
Works by Kancheli, Glass, Vasks.

Christmas is not a time of hope and peace for all of us. Psychologist Kristjan Puusild, Sissi Nylia Benita and Stella Maria Sillaste talk about the dark side of the brightest time of the year, in a podcast of mental health for the young people. The show is hosted by Heili Vaus-Tamm and analyzed the impact of art events, family traditions, Christmas music and a mental health series on a person with a sensitive nature. Along with mental health specialists, the show also features young people themselves, who tell their stories of experience and share how themselves view the problem.

‘LifeLine: Achieving the Impossible’ was a large-scale participatory project focused on the art of funambulism - wirewalking using a balancing pole – as a powerful tool for improving mental health.
People of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities from across Europe learned the dynamic art of funambulism as a way to improve physical and mental wellbeing. The project culminated in a spectacular highwire event over the River Corrib and Claddagh Basin in Galway City (IE) on 16th July 2022 - a cast of 130 community participants and professional highwire artists came together to perform a stunning display of hope, strength and resilience over one of Ireland’s most iconic waterways.
Funambulism is both a spectacular circus art and a surprisingly accessible participatory activity for people of all ages and abilities. It is also a powerful mindfulness tool that promotes mental wellbeing; walking on a wire conveys a sense of ease and simplicity, yet it requires focus, self-belief and courage. Crossing a tightwire is symbolic of overcoming challenges, facing fears, and taking control of your own body and mind. We use funambulism as a tool to teach techniques for managing fear and self-doubt, and help participants discover their inner-strength and resilience.
The site of the highwire spectacle was chosen due to its significance in the lives of the Galwegian community. To Galwegians, the River Corrib is iconic in the personality of the city, but also represents great loss having been a site of suicide. LifeLine came from the desire to reinfuse life, hope and courage into a landscape carrying great sadness and beauty, drawing on the transformative power of circus arts to deliver wellbeing impact and provoke discourse on mental health across the island of Ireland.
The LifeLine Spectacle featured performances by professional highwire artists Oliver Zimmermann, Andrea Loreni and Ellis Grover, a 42-person European Youth Ensemble, the premiere of the Creative Europe funded show 'BassAlto,' and highwire walks by community participants from across Ireland and Europe.
The foundations for LifeLine were created during a previous project, ‘Wired Crossed,’ produced by Galway Community Circus in partnership with the European Centre of Funambulism and École de Cirque de Bruxelles as part of the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture programme. Between 2016 – 2020, they led a major capacity-building programme for funambulism participation in Europe, working with 10 European Youth and Social Circus schools across 10 different countries. ‘Wires Crossed’ led to creation of the world’s first methodology for funambulism participation and 2 accompanying training-for-trainers programmes in applying this methodology with community participants. Wires Crossed was funded by Erasmus+, Creative Europe, and the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.

They aim to be a positive and inclusive professional network for Art Therapists who are British Association of Art Therapists members and who are involved in, or interested in, developing work with museums and galleries.

Artlink Central is one of Scotland’s leading participatory arts organisations, with over thirty years of experience developing community-led projects. Artlink Central runs a range of wellbeing activities also for people affected by dementia.