Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

Tomax Teatro deals with theatrical productions, video production and training. Theater courses in Bologna are divided according to age and individual experiences. For Tomax Teatro, the first objective is to convey the wonder of human exchange through art, by searching for one's roots, beyond social masks, origin, ethnicity and religion.
Tomax Teatro provides a free course of 3 months (12 meetings) for retired people. Through creative writing, the psychological and cognitive aspects of each individual participant are enhanced. Participants learn to “tell” their stories, to transform private life experiences into shared stories. They develop the ability to unravel the skein of confusing memories and to identify the highlights of each story and then translate them first into visual images and then into usable and shareable writing. Through the theater they go on to work on the body, on physicality and on sociality: the creation of the working group is an essential condition for being able to get involved without fear of judgment and to abandon the intimate dimension of writing and arrive at that of the theater.

Art Therapy (AT) can be defined as “a mental health profession utilizing the creative process of art making to help people solving conflicts and problems, developing interpersonal skills, reducing stress, and increasing self-awareness”. The creative process of art making can unveil subconscious information that can be then formally addressed by the art therapist. As such, AT is not primarily concerned with the aesthetic quality of client’s art products. The guided use of artistic expression aims to improve physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing by promoting individual’s sense of normalcy, competency and wellbeing, despite ongoing physical or psychological disabilities. Community-based AT initiatives have addressed stigma, promoted empowerment, aided social inclusion, and created arenas of safety for participants. Community engagement in the arts was specifically found to increase a sense of belonging, enabling participants to cultivate relationships, become more active, and connect to health relevant information.
Fresco Parkinson Institute plan to offer an art-based intervention for people burdened by Parkinson Diseases in form of a Community-Based Art Program. In this clinical population, the engagement in supervised, art-based activities may indeed serve as an effective adjunct to pharmacological therapies, to improve functional independence, psychological wellbeing and overall quality of life for both patients and their loved ones. The community program will be held in two Art Labs located in the cities of Florence and Vicenza, respectively. The labs will be open on weekdays and patients will be asked to schedule their appointment ahead in order to ensure the proper enforcement of social distancing measures and a smooth access to the art settings. Each daily session will include individual or group of 3-5 PD patients. Patients will be reached primarily through the local associations of patients on the territory. This initiative is intended to honor the fundamental Mission of the Fresco Parkinson Institute Foundation to improve the quality of life of people with Parkinson’s disease and their loved ones by bridging Art and Neuroscience.

Ars-PD Study is an exploratory pilot trial investigating feasibility and therapeutic potential of artistic experience in patients with parkinson’s disease. From a scientific viewpoint, the creative process of art making involves the use of sophisticated neurological functions such as abstraction, associative ideation, divergent thinking, visual imagery, visuospatial planning, sensory-motor integration, and eye-hand coordination. These functions could theoretically be engaged by art-based interventions in order to improve different clinical symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. Indeed, according to the preliminary results from an ongoing study carried out by the research partners at the Marlene and Paolo Fresco Institute at NYU, proctored art therapy seems to hold significant therapeutic potential to improve a broad range of symptoms in patients affected by Parkinson’s disease. Following a dedicated art therapy program, beneficial changes were observed in patients’ visual skills, motor function, and psychological wellbeing.
Fresco Parkinson Institute Italia is further develop this fascinating line of clinical research bridging art and neuroscience and they developed the ARS-PD Study a research project exploring the effects of an art-based intervention specifically thought to address psychological and physical limitations experienced by patients affected by Parkinson’s disease in their activities of daily living. Participants are engaged in different creative projects under the supervision of internationally renowned artists while the clinical research team investigated the potential effects of this intervention on their symptoms by means of clinical, psychological, behavioral and kinematic assessments through a scientifically rigorous and reproducible methodology. The study was conducted by the research team of the Villa Margherita Fresco Parkinson Center in Arcugnano, Vicenza coordinated by Dr.Alberto Cucca, MD.

Le Compagnie Malviste is a Social Promotion Association present for more than ten years on the national territory. The mission of the association is to spread more and more the practices of social and community theater with the fundamental aim of stimulating intergenerationality, cohesion and social mobilization. Le Compagnie Malviste deals with promoting social theater as a means of spreading health and well-being. It operates nationally and internationally to offer individuals, organizations and institutions, scientific consultancy services, planning, methodologies and training in the field of theatrical work with people and communities. This theatre company develops different project on the relation between culture and health. They work on the intergenerational dialogue between youngsters and elders. They also develop theatre expression workshop with people suffering from degenerative dementia and their caregivers.

T-essere memoria project is an experimental approach launched by the Educational Services of the Archaeological Heritage Office of the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage of the Autonomous Province of Trento with the aim of making the Fiavé Palafitte Museum accessible also to people affected by diseases related to dementia that are difficult to accompany in a museum or participate in archaeological laboratories at this stage of life. The project involved about 90 residents of the Alzheimer centers of nine Trentino APSPs who took part in meetings, practical workshops and visits to the museum.
The project consisted of four themed meetings open to all citizens with the presentation of the book "When are we going home?" written by Michele Farina who tells how Alzheimer’s emptied his mother. The "Sound, silence, music: rethinking the relationship with the person with dementia" will be held on with interventions by educator Stefania Filippi and student Evelin Boccone. The third meeting presents another book "Return to the father" by Loretta Zanella with the participation of Renzo Dori, president of the APSP of Povo. T-essere memoria concludes the meetings with a conference "Active aging: the importance of physical activity" held by Andrea D'Andreatta. The exhibition "T-be memory", at the S.A.S.S. was developed through the exhibition of artifacts, very simple and essential but rich in meaning to stimulate the memory of participants and to resurface forgotten memories or gestures, then the project included a laboratory phase in which all patients demonstrated their ability to "know how" despite the disease.
A second phase of the process involved pupils from two preschools and four primary schools who designed and built effective tools and materials for communicating with people with dementia and then interacting with the elderly. The path carried out has highlighted how the museum, if made usable and participatory, can have a social role and help improve the quality of life for patients but also for families and those who care for them.

The aim was to continue to carry out the activity, albeit remotely, in accordance with the physical distance measures imposed by the Covid19 health emergency, and to respond to the need to offer well-being and leisure to participants – elderly people, for an improvement of their quality of life. By applying the Time Slips method developed in 1998 by Anne Basting, participants have the opportunity to express their creativity through the construction of stories born from the guided observation of an artwork. Imagination, stimulated by artwork and a series of targeted questions, allows participants to tell themselves and communicate their emotions. The method provides new stimuli and approaches to the work of art to keep the dialogue alive and stimulate the word and imagination. The distance mode implies the active participation of caregivers who through a collaboration with the staff of the Foundation have assumed the new role of cultural mediators.

The BeGo Museo Benozzo Gozzoli in Castelfiorentino, leader of the Museums for Alzheimer's project of the Empolese Valdelsa network of museums (MuDEV), in 2013 joined the training project Art in your hands. The training course was aimed at setting up activities dedicated to people with Alzheimer and their caregivers. Starting on 2014, the activities at the museum for people with Alzheimer's are currently held regularly and are included in the stable offer of the museum's educational services.
In 2018, the project further expanded reaching 12 museums and newly involved 7 libraries. The project network has expanded including 10 structures in the area, sich as nursing homes, day centers, voluntary associations. The aim was to broadening the offer of opportunities for participation in the community, accessibility for people with dementia and for those who take care of them. In this sense, appointments during which poems were read, commented on and generated, starting from a targeted solicitation of ideas, sensations and emotions of the participants - the elderly and caregivers.
In 2020 , due to the COVID - 19 emergency, the activities in the museums were suspended; the MuDEV with the project work group continued online its work to keep alive the bond built up over the years.

Dedalo project is a health promotion project born in 2018 from an agreement between Azienda Sanitaria Local Health Authority of Vercelli, the Municipality of Vercelli and University of Eastern Piedmont, aimed at promoting promotion of healthy lifestyles for the adult population of Vercelli. Dedalo's activities cover 4 directions: Good Food, Wonder and Amazement, Moving Together and Discovering the Territory. From 2021, with the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, they are developing the project Wonder and Amazement, which imply organizing cultural activities in collaboration with museums, theatres, libraries, public and private bodies in the area.

An innovative project by the Carrara Academy in collaboration with ASST Bergamo Est and FERB Fondazione Europea Ricerca Biomedica Onlus, which takes shape in the museum-hospital relationship, becoming part of the offer of paths that see art as a cure, relief and well-being. Custodire Memorie represents an experimental therapy that responds to non-pharmacological needs, approaches and methods, for which the Gazzaniga Alzheimer Centre of Excellence is known and appreciated. Some paintings from the museum, in the form of reproductions, enter the rooms of the Centre in Gazzaniga 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 browses through a large album of works and is invited to choose one through which to stimulate memory and emotions. The works become silent carriers of experiences, help feelings to flow and patients to find themselves.

culturalMENTE is a project that the Civico Museo Archeologico di Camaiore dedicates to people with Alzheimer's and their carers. Launched at the beginning of 2019 as a pilot project, it envisages the launch of two distinct series of appointments; each of these is divided into 3 meetings, designed and led by museum and geriatric educators. The three meetings take place in the Civic Archaeological Museum of Camaiore, in the Museum of Sacred Art of Camaiore and along the historical centre of the municipality. Through the project it is aimed to provide to participants new stimuli, excitement and shared moments of serenity immersed in the evocative artistic and archaeological heritage of our territory. Through this project the museum wants to open up to people with Alzheimer's and their carers, in order to achieve the full involvement of all subjects within the cultural offer of the Municipality of Camaiore.