Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

Therapeutic Photography Workshops comprise a year-round program by the non-profit organization Eyes of Light - Arts in Health Hub. The workshops are provided free of charge, to all adults who have experienced cancer in their lives. The project began in 2019 and it aims to improve the emotional well-being and the quality of life of cancer patients and survivors.
The workshops are a combination of photography with other creative and participatory practices, such as self-awareness techniques, group photo-shootings, painting and collage, body expression, group games, etc. The organization has been recognized internationally by the Phototherapy Centre of Canada and has been awarded as the "Best Therapeutic Photography Workshop Provider" by the Private Healthcare Awards 2021 of Global Health & Pharma in the United Kingdom.

Improving the quality of life of cancer patients and reducing the negative impact that socio-sensory isolation can have on them is the goal of Look of Life. The virtual reality project is conceived by the Onlus Foundation, the Menomale Cultural Association with the Human Inspired Technology Research Center of the University of Padua and the multimedia partner Deye VR. Look of Life aims to evaluate the clinical outcome and the use at home of an innovative technology with Gear VR viewers that allow the enjoyment of 360° immersive videos. The proposed experiences have the potential to give a relaxing moment, awaken the attention and the pleasure of discovery through emotions such as wonder, joy and amazement that the disease often risks removing from the daily life of the patient and his family.

The Unforgettable Van Abbe programme consists of interactive tours for visitors dealing with Alzheimer’s disease. Looking at art in an interactive way offers them the opportunity to express themselves and to engage in a dialogue with their environment. The programme focusses on the positive, creative and inspiring aspects, not on the disease. During an Unforgettable tour, participants are seeing artworks together and they are engaging in conversations. By sharing stories, memories, associations and ideas, the participants bring the artworks to life.

The Salutearte group, now recognized as an official group by resolution of DG 286 of 17/04/2018, is an open group of curators interested in a research and planning on the theme: Culture, Art, Theater, Participation, Well-being and Health. Their mission is to bring art and beauty into the hospitals, and convert it into a place of care, as an element of cultural innovation; to activate artistic processes that are shared and attended by the curates, their carers and by the hospital community; to generate health and well-being especially within participatory artistic projects and processes; to bring the theme of care back to the center of politics, especially in this time in which everyone is increasingly exposed to the fragility of pain, suffering and illness; to create networks and meeting rituals for individuals and build a renewed sense of belonging through a common mission.
They develop a series of projects as: Cutting and sewing; Humanization of health centres; Hand Hygiene week. Art education; Piano inauguration of the AO Mauritian Order; Let’s hug each other: Put a Christmas in the hospital; Humanization of spaces and relationships with anesthetists and nurses; The First Lay Rite to honor the deceased of the first Covid wave.

Mindfulness in the Museum is an invitation to observe and get to know each other, an opportunity to live the art experience intensely. The practice of mindfulness helps to open the space between our thoughts and emotions and discover a higher level of knowledge of the art. The immersive experience, led by Marco Peri, is a path of meditation inspired by the works of art of the MART. Any mindfulness practice in the museum it consists of a keynote session, three meditation sessions and a concluding discussion among the participants to share the experience. Mindfulness in the Museum training workshop it is intended for museum educators and mediators who want to learn more about mindfulness and how to integrate and apply it in their projects.

Cultura di Base is one of the four pilot projects of the Cultural Well-being Lab promoted within Well Impact, the experimental path undertaken by the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation to identify projects, places, languages ​​and cultural relations of prevention and care. Positioned on the thematic axis of "culture for the humanization of places of care", Cultura di Base is a project of the Foundation for architecture / Turin in collaboration with Circolo del Design, ARTECO, ASL City of Turin and the Order of Doctors of Turin. Cultura di Base intends to experiment the opening of medical spaces for general practitioners of the ASL City of Turin in places of culture from the 8 districts of the city of Turin, characterized by an "intense architecture", that is of recognized quality for the design of spaces and in the communication of emotions. These places become waiting rooms and doctor's visit rooms and host patients involving them in a completely new cultural and architectural experience. The experimentation aims to demonstrate that the experience of a medical visit in places of culture contributes to decreased stress associated with waiting, increasing the well-being and psycho-physical comfort of patients and caregivers, improving their relationship.

In The Public Eye is a project developed in collaboration with the hospital and private individuals. Born in 2017 from a collaboration between the Art Museum of Italian Switzerland, Lugano (MASI), the Cantonal Hospital and private individuals, the exhibition project In the public eye originated from shared reflections between artists, architects, historians of the art and doctors, regarding the presence of works of art in daily life and in health centers. The Civic Hospital is a public place, which belongs to all of us and which perhaps, in a moment of our life, we are called to attend. In the public eye takes art outside the usual spaces, inserting it in a context such as the hospital one, without imposing therapeutic approaches, times, interpretations, but allowing the works themselves to communicate in a subjective way, to dialogue with the viewer, leaving him express their emotions in a genuine and introspective way.

In accordance with the Quality Standards in Health, trainings are provided to support the personal development of the personnel working in Dr. Ersin Arslan Training And Research Hospital. In this context, a painting course dedicated to the employees has been started with the support of the management and the artworks of the medical staff were exhibited in the hospital.

In 2020, within the "Art and Health Hand in Hand" project of the Selçuk University, poems and folk songs sung by some singers, presenters and voice actors were dedicated to healthcare workers fighting the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. Through the project, artists and medical students supported the struggle of healthcare professionals. In 2021, in cooperation with Çorlu State Hospital and Public Education Center, within the “Art and Health Hand in Hand” project, 550 handcrafted works made by the trainees of the Public Education Centre were exhibited on the corridors and walls of Çorlu State Hospital.

Art, culture and mental health is the organizer of The cultural happiness pill. They offer a diverse cultural program for care houses and adapted meeting places for people with mental health problems. They regularly organize courses, concerts or performances at the meeting places. The offer is especially aimed at those who for various reasons have problems seeking out cultural offers outside the care houses. Easier access to art and culture-related activities can contribute to increased participation and perhaps also experience of increased quality of life. Art encounters can create awareness, as long as the art reflects real human experiences. It can be said that these experiences largely constitute art. And this can be understood as public health work, in a broad sense.