Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

In response to the world wide increase in Mental Health & Well-being issues suffered by people, particularly by women and girls as a result of Covid 19 lockdown 2020- 2021, a team of multi-art form artists from Scottish Opera worked with a group of women in the rural Scottish Borders region to develop coping mechanisms via the medium of music, visual arts and creative writing to address a range of issues including loneliness, social isolation and feelings of disempowerment and to help build emotional resilience.
Workshops in creative writing, musical composition and a wide range of visual arts including photography, mixed media and technologies and sculpture were delivered in two locations in the Scottish Borders region for around 40 participants ranging in age from 17 to 65 years. The workshops were promoted through a range of local health care and cultural partners including the NHS Border Mental Health services teams and the social prescribing network. The sessions were advertised for women, transwomen and those wholly or partially identified as female as the aim was to provide a safe and supported emotional environment for the participants to discuss and explore creative responses to a wide range of life challenges including loneliness and social isolation, bereavement as well as relationship issues, coercion, lack of self determination and self-esteem. Many of the women and girls who attended the weekly workshops shared their own experiences of situations where they felt unable to control their own lives or felt dominated or repressed by those around them. They were encouraged to contribute to the development of a narrative structure for the (eventual) exhibition - divided (like many operas ) into four 'acts' - each of which represented a stage in the disintegration of Lucy/Lucia's mental and emotional health: however with the final act (IV) being an affirmation of the truth that they had capacity to change their personal narrative and avoid becoming a 'victim' like Lucy/Lucia.

VisualEars Rooms project explored the impact of a virtual activity involving vision and auditory stimuli on the mood of the audience. Eight musical pieces were selected, and 28 visual artists from around the world each visualized two musical pieces. 56 works of art were created and hung in eight 3D virtual rooms. Upon measuring the mood of the audience pre and post the exhibit, VisualEars Room showed an improvement of the mood of the visitors.

The key mission of the European Dance Network (EDN) is to cooperate in securing a sustainable future for the dance sector and to improve relevance for diverse dance among society. In the pursuit of this mission, EDN initiated the #DanceAndWellBeing campaign as a reaction to the many restrictions to training, practicing, learning, rehearsing and presenting dance across Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic. Between November 2020 and February 2021, 17 weekly online dance classes led by artists associated with 12 EDN members took place. Participation in the dance classes was free of charge and neither prior dancing skills nor a dance background were required.
The campaign built on the increasing awareness that artists and dance professionals’ practices are shaped by the notion of ‘care’ alongside a set of transversal factors and values, including equality, accessibility, diversity and well-being. In this context, and through its campaign, EDN wanted to reaffirm the essential role of dance in our societies and in maintaining physical and mental well-being. EDN is also aware of the potential connections between dance practices and policy and societal goals such as those outlined in the SDGs. All of these aspects underpin the Dance and Well-being report.
Dance and Well-being Report represents a review of evidence and policy perspectives: how dance can contribute to ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages

On Boblberg users can create new social relations and communities based on their common interests. It’s an informal forum where it’s not about setting up and presenting the perfect picture, but rather it’s a space where they have a unique opportunity to find other people in the same situation, with the same interests. On Boblberg new communities are created every day. Thousands of citizens have become a part of a new community through Boblberg. The sky’s the limit when it comes to the possibilities of getting new companions. It can be anything from new friendships, a workout or walking buddy, reading, food, or knitting clubs, a place to volunteer, or something else entirely.

A model for low threshold and inclusive art activities is created in project Art, Inclusion and Social Innovations. Development work is based on co-creation together with participants (youth) and professionals from different sectors. In addition a model for increased employment of artists and creative professionals is built during the course of the project. Both models and other project results are to be implemented in communal and regional service structures in Pirkanmaa region.
Project Art, Inclusion and Social Innovations plans and organizes art interventions together with young unemployed people (NEET and others under 30), art professionals and other cross-sectorial service providers. Participant support is individualized and activities happen both in real life as well as digitally. As a result the young participants’ well-being, inclusion and working and functional capability are enhanced. New routes towards personal empowerment, employment, studies and further paths are created. Expected number of participants in the project is around 250 young persons.
Collaboration with employers from various fields is an important part of the project´s aim to increase supply of work for artists. A network of companies is to offer new working opportunities within the field of social, well-being and employment services for professional artists and creative workers.
The project is divided into three phases, first phase being the piloting of the operating models. The models and best practices will then be re-tested, expanded and later embedded in the art, culture and well-being services for the young unemployed persons in Pirkanmaa region.
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare is the coordinator in the project and provides the project structure with the knowledge on inclusion of the unemployed and other vulnerable groups. The Cultural Centre PiiPoo and City of Tampere are the partnering organizations and executing expert bodies of the project. The project is funded from the European Social Fund’s priority axis of social inclusion.

It is an artistic project conceived and curated by Daniela Di Gennaro, which aims to develop awareness-raising initiatives on the issue of gender-based violence and is aimed at different target audiences, from children to adults, by using the language of art as a facilitator of communication. The project intends to use all artistic disciplines, from visual art, to dance, to theater, to music. Meetings, workshops, laboratories, performances are organized, which use catalyzing expressive languages ​​to reach the very young range in particular. The activities are taking place in a room set up for the occasion whose setting is designed in such a way as to create a warm and welcoming place, in which everyone can feel naturally welcomed and listened to.

In the juvenile detention center of Airola, in the province of Benevento, in southern Italy, the organizers are involving youth in the well-being experiences, developing a new approach based on gamification and theatre. They are creating an original game thanks to meaningful outcomes from the internal communities. Its name “Let me see the moon” comes from the youth’s deep feeling: looking for the light!

MANCHUGE: re-create lab is a multifaceted project that brings the joy of creative craft to a whole new level. The organizers bring people of different categories together in the MANCHUGE community. The format of the lab is aimed at strengthening the psychological health of both the individual and the community, as well as developing emotional intelligence by participating in creative projects and working with different materials. It is important for them to unite people through work, joy and creativity, to make projects for the city, business and society. They promote the values of sustainable and the concept of "zero waste", so they have developed a system to work with manufacturing businesses in their city and receive from them waste paper, cretonne, textiles and wood. They work with these materials and prolong their life by making art. They believe that they can create a large network of laboratories around the world with the MANCHUGE philosophy. MANCHUGE it is a word you shout when everything works out exactly as you intended.

A small user led charity that improves the lives of people living in the locality who are experiencing life changing mental health issues through a range of arts activities and peer support.

Keeping memories is an innovative project by Accademia Carrara in collaboration with ASST Bergamo Est and FERB European Biomedical Research Foundation Onlus, which takes shape in the museum-hospital relationship, becoming part of the offer of paths that see art as treatment, relief and well-being. Keeping memories represents an experimental therapy that responds to non-pharmacological needs, approaches and methods, for which the Alzheimer's Center of Excellence in Gazzaniga is known and appreciated.
Some of the museum's paintings, in the form of reproductions, enter the rooms of the Gazzaniga Center 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 goes through a large album of the works and is invited to choose one through which to stimulate memory and emotions. The works thus become silent bearers of experiences, they help feelings to flow and patients to find themselves. In the museum caregivers attend instead a psychological path with psychologist and museum educator.