Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

From 2016 The National Association of the Creative and Cultural Industries holds an annual cultural forum, a public and meaningful demonstration of dialogue and collaboration between policy makers and experts in the CCI sector. The Forum aims at promoting dialogue and cooperation between professionals and policy makers in the creative and cultural industries. The edition from 2020 of the Culture and Well-being Forum discussed the CCI's contribution to the country's prosperity, provided an analysis of the country's situation, assessed progress, outlined future perspectives, and discussed topics: culture and well-being, culture and health, culture and economy, culture and image. The Forum aimed to tackle diverse topics such as the way in which culture could help to create social connections, innovations and novel ways to solve social problems. The panelists analyzed processes, case studies or best practices from around the world. Finally, this was an opportunity to formulate questions towards the authorities.

The aim of the project is to expand the activities of the art school by organizing socio-cultural educational activities and to provide psychological support through art and music to involve people with difficulties. People who are experiencing social exclusion, exhausted by the Covid-19 pandemic, living in difficult circumstances or experiencing other physical and psychological health problems need support. Representatives of Ukmergė Art School, which organizes art therapies as self-help tools, say that art does not only develop emotional intelligence and give a sense of community, but has also a healing effect.

Territory of Art is a project of the educational program "European School of Arts" of the national program Vilnius - European Capital of Culture 2009. The aim of the Art Territory project is to change the world by bringing more colors and good thoughts, joy and serenity where it is sorely lacking - in the Santariškės Vilnius University Children's Hospital. Art Territory uses art to create My Territory - a space closed to and for each person, decorated with unpretentious, understandable, selective and diverse art. An art that allows you to cuddle and talk about the colors and shapes that live in a hospital with children who have been here for half an hour or for a whole month. Besides the artworks that will enliven the hospital walls there is also an international conference, entitled Art for Health: Experiences and Perspectives that plans to bring together artists, health professionals, art managers, scientists and art therapists to discuss the relationship between art and health, about the impact of art on health or about art programs in hospitals.

ADAGIO offers recurrent free dance classes to older people in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in order to improve their physical, mental and social health. The classes are conducted by professional choreographers, pro-bono. The elderly are selected from the municipality's day center and seniors' clubs. Also, before the pandemic, HEPA organized every year a dance festival for the beneficiaries. The benefits of dance in older adults have already been proven in numerous studies and include: improved balance, muscle strength, bone density, mood, social inclusion etc.

The study explored the project A Song for the Mind, which is a private-based choir activity aimed at people with mental health conditions, their relatives and professional facilitators. The initiative is created and founded by the private mental health organisation SIND Herning Ikast-Brande and the private choir school Den Jyske Sangskole. The initiative is a user-targeted activity promoting meaningful choir lessons. The purpose is to create a recreational offer to people with mental health challenges during or post treatment. The focus is on developing an inclusive community, connecting culture stakeholders with other private and public organisations uncovering meaningful activities, non-pharmacological ‘treatments and unexplored mental health potentials based on the interaction between the participants and partners. The vision is to create a foundation or developing an arts and culturally based activity to people afflicted with psychological vulnerabilities, independent of age and illness.

The pilot project Art and Handicrafts in Emmaboda (KoHiE) was carried out as part of the three-year program Health and Culture in the health county of Kalmar County. KoHiE was planned as a recovery-oriented rehabilitation project aimed to investigate whether cultural initiatives in the form of study circles have an effect on perceived health and rehabilitation in people with mental illness. Two circles, one based on art activities, the other on felting, were carried out during the autumn of 2015 until May 2016. Each circle lasted for 10 weeks with two hits a week of three hours / hit and was led by an artist and a wool craftsman. The participation in cultural activities was a form of rehabilitation that facilitated recovery and thereby promoted the health of the participants. The community in the group was of central importance. The participants regain their faith in the future and for many it was to find a way forward, see opportunities, and to develop, both privately and in public arenas.

Ambulatory Art is a program of traveling exhibitions through hospitals and rural communities at risk of depopulation. Visited by patients, their companions, health professionals and residents of rural communities, they build a new relationship between the art event, the spectators and the hospital or rural setting. The aim is to bring specially curated cultural contents to these audiences, whether in hospital entrance halls, waiting rooms or wards, and they always hire cultural mediators. They foster to improve the health and well-being of hospitalized people, their families and health personnel through cultural content specially curated for these audiences. The project is also positive for cultural institutions, since they can see the visibility of their heritage increased exponentially, and for young emerging artists, who can benefit from new circuits for art.
Ambulatory Art transforms healthcare spaces by creating windows onto culture. The different physical and digital formats make hospital stays more pleasant for patients and their companions while offering benefits for health professionals as well. The mediation activities facilitate access to contents, creating links between new audiences and culture as a vehicle for improving their health and well-being.
Cultura en Vena has launched a call for cultural mediators to generate employment among the professionals in the sector who either live in or have a connection with the communities where the activities are carried out. The organisation gives them training on the role of culture in improving the physical, psychological and spiritual health of patients and rural communities.

The Society of Social Psychiatry P. Sakellaropoulos is a non-profit, scientific organization, which was founded in 1986 by the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Professor Panayiotis Sakellaropoulos. In 2021 they organized a Forum on the topic Art and Mental Health emphasizing the importance of the art contribution during the treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation of the individuals. Within the Forum, the beneficiaries of the mental health services of the NGO and a team of professional teen dancer created the "For you" video-dance momentum.

From 2007 until now, Art4More has been established as the first festival in Greece to connect art with mental health. Art4More Mental Health & Arts Festival is an innovative international festival dedicated to contemporary art, mental health and public awareness of social issues. It is organized annually by the K.S.D.E.O. on the occasion of World Mental Health Day (October 10). The festival is designed to be in line with the city and its dynamics, inviting visitors to play an active role in the awareness process. Each year a new theme is selected, bringing together contemporary international works in the fields of art, music, film, architecture, theater, dance, new media and design and providing exhibitions, workshops for children and adults, screenings, discussions, events, music concerts, etc.

The Mental Health Programs of KEDIVIM of the University of the Aegean proposed a nine-month training program entitled: Art therapy with an emphasis on the visual arts lasting 436 hours. The program is aimed at conscious trainees, who can work independently and intensively, at their own pace of learning, in order to cope with asynchronous teaching with enriched and demanding content. The programs are designed for the general public with the philosophy and principles of lifelong learning, aiming to provide trainees with a strong comparative advantage in the labor market. Art therapy is an internationally recognized model and takes place in the context of mental health, education, supporting agencies for vulnerable groups, etc. It is a method to combat depression, anxiety disorders without or with parallel medication / monitoring.
The art-therapy_edu program is addressed to psychologists, teachers, graduates.