Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

CoOPERAtività is a project aimed at people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia and their carers, set up in collaboration with the RSA Le Magnolie and the Casa di Riposo C.S.D. Il Gignoro. It is part of the Liget programme of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore. Through dialogues, creative storytelling and gestural expression, carried out at the Museum and monuments of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, it aims at various objectives, such as the promotion of well-being, the expression, management and sharing of emotions, the generation of new forms of communication, the opportunity of social inclusion by breaking down the stigma that surrounds people with cognitive impairment and their families, integration in a network of cultural and social support.
The CoOPERAtività project is included in the network of the Tuscany Region: Tuscan Museums for Alzheimer's.

The Pascali Foundation proposed the Art in Memory project in which the psychologists accompany a group of people suffering from mild dementia and together with their families were involved in a guided tour that stimulated them through the artworks encountered along the way.
Art in Memory was born with the aim of raising public awareness of the emotional and behavioral disorders that inevitably arise in patients with dementia and the importance of the "Museum-Therapy" in improving the quality of life of patients and families. The disease, in its progression, can involve any function of the individual by inducing disorders in the behavioral, cognitive and emotional spheres, leading from the psychopathological point of view to determine the substantial exacerbation of the original personality. Given these premises, the aim of the project is to offer an opportunity to meet patients, caregivers and practitioners, creating common meanings that pass through the different channels of art. The objectives of the project are therefore to stimulate communication and emotion through the work of art, to foster relationships between participants, to offer meeting opportunities, to propose pleasant, stimulating activities that are appropriate to the needs and preferences of people with Alzheimer.

Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto (Mart) is the centre of modern and contemporary art in Italy, it puts on large thematic exhibitions, the results of years of research, national and international temporary exhibitions and artistic programmes on twentieth century art periodically reconceived and renewed making use of its collections. The museum has a collection of around 20,000 works among them paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures.
Mart’s Education department organizes different projects to assist individuals with physical or mental disabilities in co-production with third parties working in the various therapeutic and other fields. Blind people have the opportunity to participate to two different tactile itineraries: one at Mart Museum and the other at the Futurist House of Art Fortunato Depero.

Free Body is the Palazzo Strozzi project that combines works of art and dance dedicated to the inclusion of people with Parkinson. It is structured in cycles of free appointments open to all, where movement and gestures are conceived as interpretative and relational modes of expression. The meetings are conducted by museum educators, dance teachers who have followed the professional training course Teaching Course On Dance Well - Movement Research For Parkinson's Disease. Speech, movement and dance are ways to explore the space of the exhibition and the works exhibited in the rooms: paintings, sculptures, installations become the starting point of a physical and emotional journey during which participants are invited to observe, listen and listen to each other. The intent of the Free Body is to provide new stimuli to increase mental well-being and encourage the social participation of people with Parkinson, creating real dancing communities. At the end of each exhibition there is a public event which takes the form of a performance or collective action.
The project was born in 2018 thanks to the commitment of the Fresco Parkinson Institute of Florence and the Parkinson Center of Villa Margherita of Vicenza, international excellence for research and treatment on Parkinson and movement disorders and in collaboration with the Dance Well project promoted by CSC - Center for the Contemporary Scene of Bassano del Grappa.
The activities take place mainly in the rooms of Palazzo Strozzi but from 2020 remote initiatives have been activated on the occasion of the Tomás Saraceno exhibition.

The National Gallery of Umbria organized the Museum, the space of memory , a project of social inclusion characterized by a series of monthly meetings dedicated to the well-being of people with mental disorders and to all those who take care of them, in an attempt to break down inequalities and the consequent social stigma.
The practice ensures that visitors are welcomed into the museum by trained personnel who explain the meeting in detail so that everyone can feel at ease. Subsequently, people are accompanied in front of the carefully selected works of art, to observe them. The next phase is dedicated to a careful and delicate cognitive stimulation through "communicative passages" that stimulate the elderly to tell their reflections, emotions and sensations. Visitors, through the narration, are led to connect pieces of personal life to the work of art and to share their impressions and considerations with others through a free conversation. Subsequently, what emerged from the discussions of all is expected to be summarized by a museum assistant and presented.

With Many Voices is a project devoted to people living with dementia and their caregivers, which the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi first launched in 2011. For each exhibition, a series of meetings are organized for families and people living inresidential care homes, offering a pleasurable, stimulating and emotionally uplifting experience for sharing and seeking ways of communicating through the emotions triggered by works of art. The meetings are designed and conducted together by the museum educators of Palazzo Strozzi together with geriatric educators.
The main goals were to make exhibitions accessible to people living with dementia and people who care for them, focusing on each individual’s capability rather than on the deficiencies they have built up, and on the goal of “possible well-being” rather than on an (impossible) recovery of all their functions. The project also focuses on the ability to observe, to feel emotions, to imagine, all capabilities that are maintained for longer than their logical and cognitive counterparts. Other important aim is related to caregivers who are shown a new way of communicating. The project also sets out to prompt a change in society’s perception of this condition through encounters with the public in the exhibition, offering people with Alzheimer’s and their family members new opportunities for social relations and reducing the stigma attached to those experiencing this situation of fragility.
During the COvid-19 pandemic, through the project were activated a number of on-line modalities that allowed connection during the health crisis, an especially difficult moment for families having to cope with the stress of dementia.

The project Nati con la Cultura | Born with Culture is being applied throughout Italy, promoting the role of museums for parental support. Culture thus becomes a key element for babies to thrive and to adopt a healthy lifestyle right from their very first steps. "Nati con la Cultura" was born in 2014 from a project conceived at Sant'Anna in Turin - the largest and oldest gynecological and obstetric hospital in Europe - by the Onlus Foundation in collaboration with the Modern Art Museum to build a path that associates the moment of motherhood and fatherhood with an educational opportunity, accompanying the parenting role.
With the kit dedicated to the new born (over 7000 a year by parents from 85 countries), the doctors deliver a Cultural Passport, recommending cultural participation as a resource for good bio-psycho-social growth. The cultural passport is an invitation from the museum that will freely welcome the whole family from the first year of age of the baby. The cultural passport is a welcome of citizenship to newborns and a initiative for parental support, being a resource in the educating community. Practically, on being discharged from the hospital, along with their Health Kit, each child is given a Cultural Passport which over the child’s first year of life, grants the family free access to 36 museums throughout Piedmont, recognised as Family and Kid-Friendly by the Museum Season Ticket network.
The evidence of the research outlines the fundamental elements of the experience to be developed by a museum in order to be suitable for children and families. These have been collected in the Decalogue of orientation and in two Manifestos: one for museums and one for families. Museums that meet the requirements indicated in the Decalogue and welcome families with a Cultural Passport will be able to use the Born with Culture certification.

Co-Health is a two-year action research project in the field of health with the support of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino. The project aims to design, experiment and evaluate a transferable training and intervention protocol for doctors and nurses to enhance their soft skills and in particular the abilities for patient relationship management, relationship management with relatives, communication of the treatment path, carry out effective teamwork. The achievement of these competencies is aimed at increasing the overall level of quality of training of health personnel and improving the quality and effectiveness of the care relationship with the patient. The premise of the project is that soft skills are central to a successful outcome of the patient's care path. The Co-Health project intends to use innovative techniques of the Social and Community Theater methodology to enhance the soft skills of the operators. In this project, for the first time, the faculties of Medicine, Obstetrics and Nursing are united in training. The Co-health program, interfaculty, started in January 2014 with 60 students from Turin and Cuneo.

The Albergo della Luce project was conceived and implemented by the Social and Community Theater Center of the University of Turin in collaboration with the OTAF Foundation (Ticinese Childhood Assistance Opera) for the centenary of its history. The title of the project is inspired by the ancient name of the first building dedicated to OTAF one hundred years ago. The project, conceived according to the methodology of the Social and Community Theater, is based on the direct involvement of non-professionals in the creative process through a multiplicity of theatrical work methods and uses the methods of narrative theater to give voice to the many experiences of a community. The community narrative starts from the individual stories of its members and creates a great collective story. Each person revealed their own little piece of life, shared emotions and memories. The many fragments of life collected during the meetings were combined in the form of theatrical representation and narration and, with photographic documents and musical accompaniments, they went to reconstruct the history of the Albergo della luce.

The Arts and Health, La Manufacture association was created in 2015 following consultation work involving, alongside the Regional Department of Cultural Affairs ( DRAC ) and the Regional Health Agency ( ARS ) from Ile-de-France, actors from the health sector and the artistic world. Its creation was then aimed at a double challenge: defining a new organization aimed at promoting the development of the Culture & Health program in Ile-de-France and strengthening the involvement of actors in the field by giving them an active place. The association created a dynamic network involving people and structures from diverse backgrounds in the development of artistic and cultural actions in health settings, wishing to contribute to the promotion and development of these shared approaches, to their promotion and to the improvement of professional practices . It has occupied, since its creation and until the end of 2021, a role of operator and adviser within the framework of regional policy on Culture & Health.