Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

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.

Located in the spaces of the Mole Vanvitelliana of Ancona, the museum was created to make art accessible in every possible way, offering everyone the chance of a sensory experience in a museum context. Formed in the early ‘90s with the aim of documenting the entire history of the material culture and the plastic arts, the collection has been enriched over time with numerous acquisitions and today comprises around 300 works. The Museo Tattile Omero is an innovative and one-of-a-kind museum that help visitors discover art by using your hands and senses. Visitors experience new sensations and unexplored emotions thanks to an “inclusive” journey of discovery into the history of world art and architecture.

Shared Sentence make films and podcasts with people who want to share their lived experiences. They collaborate with other organisations to promote the materials in order to influence social change. Shared Sentences has specific objectives in arts and health/wellbeing: building skills, increasing confidence, creating films that represent lived experiences, and show the range of services offered by Glasgow Criminal Justice so people can access them.

F’Ħakka t’Għajn (All of a sudden) is a community theatre project by older adults and theatre practitioners. Through recreational dramatic activities, workshops and discussions, the group collaborates to produce a theatre performance.
The project investigates the impact, in terms of wellbeing, confidence, social engagement and sense of belonging, that active theatre collaboration can have on a group actors and non-actors, mostly aged over 65.

The Suitable Citizens project engages with the challenges of integration and inclusion of third country nationals in arts events and projects. It aims to bring artists and non-professionals together to work in a non-hierarchical process of co-creation, and to study the impact of participatory art on societal challenges related to a sense of belonging and citizenship.
Amid prejudice against migrants, the project aims to empower third-country nationals through the training of creative skills. As well as this, the dissemination stage of the project aims to shift perceptions of this participant group.
The project is a collaboration with the local branch of the Jesuit Refugee Service – an NGO which works with migrants to provide practical support and advocate for their rights in Malta. Jesuit Refugee Service has brought participants to the project through their networks, taking note of potential participants’ language, availability and interest in creative tasks.
The participants will attend a series of workshops, first focusing on photography skills with mobile phones, then learning about silk-screen printing techniques, and finally working on sewing and design skills.

The project introduces people with dementia living in the community to creative storytelling, in a bid to stimulate memory, reduce social isolation, and empower caregivers to support their family members using creative skills.
The project equips participants with key creative skills, providing an enjoyable space for self-expression, validation and prioritisation on the participants' own terms. Play, in particular, is being used on account of its ability to explore expressional potential, meaning-making and relationship building.

The project consists of 122 pottery sessions during 127 weeks for children who are facing a loss or serious illness in their family, which affects them socially and psychologically. Together with Alka Ceramics, the project uses clay according to Patricia Sherwood's book "Clay Therapy", which provides direction for using the powerful medium of clay to help children face various problems including anger, sadness, and fear. The project psychotherapist listens to the children describing their creations and provides explanations to any questions the children might raise.