Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

Senior theater project began in January 2014, in a joint work between the social action sector and the culture sector of Silves municipality, in 4 locations: Silves, S.B. de Messines, Armação de Pêra, Tunes.
The aim is to provide theater workshops for elderly over 60+ years old to foster an active mind in a healthy body and promote active aging; to promote the practice of art to people who are not very familiar with the theater; to create a safe community where elderly can feel free of sharing ideas, their knowledge and implication for their performances; to foster the appreciation culture from the public's reaction after the performance. The idea of the project is to create autonomous groups of elderly that are willing to create theatrical moment by themselves and can go on the stage freely. Workshops are being done with the groups on their creativity, collective intelligence, group dynamic and inclusion, writing a text for a performance, healthy behaviours, etc.

Hearing Voices is a project by Marionet, in partnership with MOV (Hearing Voices Movement – Portugal), CES (University of Coimbra Center for Social Studies (CES) and Radio Aurora of Hospital Júlio de Matos, that intends to deal artistically with the hearing voices phenomena, depicting its significance, sensory perception, changes over time, moments of crisis but also of alternatives, and its place in creating a narrative of the self. Most recent research indicates that 4% of western people hears voices. The aim is exploring the ways through which voices can act as important social, cultural and political forces. This project is framed by the activity on the intersection of Theatre and Science, and the exploring of ways to articulate these two fields in the transmission of knowledge. What is proposed, thus, is the creation and public presentation of a theatre show that can foster reflection on the phenomena, together with several other initiatives aimed at a wider promotion of the theme. They are applying research-based theatre methodology, interviewing voice hearers and their caretakers, wherefrom they build the show’s dramaturgy. Aside from that, a sound installation was created to simulate the hearing voices experience, roundtables were held on the theme, podcasts were recorded and promoted together with Radio Aurora, and a set of articles published by the newspaper Público. The whole process was registered on video, with the aim of producing a documentary afterwards. An inquiry is also to be made to the audience of the spectacle so as to evaluate the project’s impact and the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary initiative of this nature. Concerning social intervention, this project means to foster understanding of the hearing voices phenomena as well as the diversity of ways in which it is understood and experienced, defying stereotypes, fighting stigma and discrimination, and promoting positive responses to related experiences, bolstering consciousness of the variegated ways to deal with confusing or difficult voices, creating safe spaces for sharing and involving the media in presenting realistic depictions of the hearing voices phenomena and related experiences.

Chromosome Surprise association organizes every year the meetings S'Handifférence arts. The event is built around artistic and musical workshops for children and adults with Down's syndrome. Through innovative and adapted methods, this association wishes to offer them the personal blooming which will allow them to open the doors of an ordinary social life.

This project started with the exhibition "L'eau dessinée" of the François Schneider Foundation, in the frame of BD2020. With the Foundation's team, the idea of creating an original illustration scenario was born. Stéphane Piatzszek, author and scriptwriter, has committed himself to this project, proposing a constructive alternative, both individual and collective. During 10 sessions from January to March 2020, 20 adults in psychiatric care from Rouffach Hospital Center have been engaged in the creation of a scenario illustrated by comic strips. In September 2020, a public exhibition on the theme of ocean pollution was opened with the artistic results of the patients. Stéphane Piatzszek's intention is to adapt the strength of this writing method to comics for an audience of non-professionals, in order to offer them something to highlight their aspirations, their dreams, their desires or their worries. The elaboration of a comic book scenario is anchored around the construction of a central character, with a strong identity and identifiable character traits. Each participant has created his or her own; each unique character will live an adventure and evolve according to what happens to him, the situations and encounters he will experience. The first difficulty lies in the writing of the comic strip; few words to express a lot or the art of ellipse. The second was to succeed in the illustrations, interpreting the story, with the constraint of only one idea per scene, in short, to propose a sequential narration in images. In the end the artists succeeded to overcome the challenge of this complex stylistic exercise.

Hidden Anger/ ColèreS planquée is the anagram for the French term for multiple sclerosis (MS). The artist having the disease, but feeling good, have asked women that she knew to interpret her personal representations and fears of MS and its degenerative factors. Considered incurable, multiple sclerosis affects over 300,000 people in Europe. The exhibion was hosted by the Lille Hospital, as part of their rich Cultural Agenda in the healthcare unit.

Vénus Project is an artistic action created by Centres d’Art Spacejunk to raise awareness in the fight against breast cancer. The artistic expression allows to approach the subject outside the medical sphere, in a sensitive and non-normative way, by calling upon the subjectivity and the cultural universe of each participant. The relationship with the body that the artistic mediation establishes arouses a reflection and favors enlightened choices concerning the health of women. There are 4 directions in which the project is active: (1) Photoshooting: this takes place in the springtime. Women volunteer to pose bare-chested in front of the camera. The photographs are then printed on canvas and serve as a support for the artistic creations of the artists and women who participate in the workshops; (2) Workshops: The objective of the workshops is to get around the taboos surrounding health and breast cancer screening, and to offer time for collective exchanges with the presence of health professionals. These workshops are set up in Isère, in the Rhône and since 2021 in the Drôme, with social and associative partners; (3) Exhibitions: they bring together the works made by participants and artists during the workshops, in order to raise awareness about breast cancer prevention. The diversity of the works exhibited is an invitation for each spectator to nourish his or her reflection on health; (4) Like a firework, a charity sale of the Venus works closes each edition. This event takes place at the end of the year. The profits are given to associations to give a financial boost to women suffering from breast cancer. The Venus project exists in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, in the Rhône since 2009, and in the Isère since 2016.

This initiative was proposed by the Mutual Agricultural Society in order to prevent suicide and to raise awareness of the psychosocial risks of farmers through a theatre show. "Un temps de cochon" is based on the testimonies of a dozen farmers who may or may not have experienced financial, family or social difficulties in order to discuss the farming profession. The troupe "En compagnie des Oliviers" has touched the audience with its interpretation of professional and personal moments experienced by farmers. Through moving, dramatic and humorous lines, the prevention messages on psychosocial risks incurred by farmers and their families were heard. The participants were also invited to be active as they were asked by the artists to sing in chorus. A moment of conviviality with local products concluded the shows, which allowed exchanges sometimes quite late in the night.

The ArtsEqual project, is a 6 years project, coordinated by the University of the Arts Helsinki, examines how art as a public service could increase social equality and well-being in Finland in the 2020s. The project fosters the arts as public service and aims to develop strategic steps towards equality. They are carrying out one of the largest research projects in arts and art pedagogy in Finnish history, an interdisciplinary research coordinated by the University of the Arts Helsinki.

For the five years, the aim of the completed development program was to create a broad and well-established funding base for activities that support the well-being through arts and to change the current structures and attitudes towards the activities. The goal was to use art as a natural part of everyday life.

Puppets Project got born from the wish of bringing creative work within a psychiatric service for children and teenagers by the Compagnie Pipa Sol, an organisation which is bringing the art of puppets closer to the general public for many years. The puppets are seen in this project as a great pedagogical tool that can facilitate the expression of the children and it is a great mediator between reality and imaginary. The project was opened for 6 hospitalized children from the Théophile Roussel Hospital Center and 3 groups of 8 teenagers. They have discovered different types of puppets and techniques, how to manipulate the puppets, they co-created scenarios, draw the characters, built puppets, perform and present their artistic moment in front of the public.