Mapping of Initiatives on Culture, Health and Well-being

The Cultural City it is an ambitious project in the psychiatric clinic EPS Barthélemy Durand, in Etampes, France. This project is providing regular interventions of professional arts (photography, dance, music, literature etc.) for patients, health professionals and city inhabitants – in this way not only ensuring equal access to arts and culture to all, but also with its inclusive approach contributing to the de-stigmatisation of the patients with mental health issues. Next to these everyday activities, the project envisages a fundamental reconstruction of the territory of the hospital by building a whole complex of buildings for arts & culture and also by developing a new navigation system in and around the territory of the clinics in order to open up towards the city.
The Cultural City Barthélemy Durand implements the cultural policy of the Public Health Establishment (EPS) Barthélemy Durand (Essonne), specialized in psychiatric care. It reflects the will and the requirement of the management of the care establishment to understand culture as the driving force of a new institutional dynamic, in favor of cultural rights. The Cultural City is a transversal space with 70 structures that make up the EPS Barthélemy Durand. It offers artistic encounters, a program of shows, artistic residencies, a program of amateur artistic practices, a well-being center and a space for collective reflection, in connection with the cultural structures and the inhabitants of the territory.

In 2017, with the support of TrygFonden, the Parkinson's Association was able to launch the country's comprehensive project Dance with Parkinson's. The project, which was to run for a three-year project period, aimed to increase the quality of life, self-esteem and health among people with Parkinson's Disease and their relatives. The goal of the project was to bring the country's Parkinson's families together in a joint project centered around dance training, music and the joy of life. This was to be done by training dance instructors who could get help to set up dance teams throughout Denmark and hold dance lessons for Parkinson's sufferers and their relatives. The project was launched with the hope that many of the dance teams would be so well established that they could continue after the end of the project.

Time for Reading has taken the form of a partnership project between the Reading Association, Central Denmark Region, Aarhus University and five municipalities in the region (Holstebro, Viborg, Ikast-Brande, Herning and Horsens). The project involved collaboration between libraries and health centres, and it offered reading groups to promote mental health, for people affected by depression or stress. The reading groups were facilitated by reading guides trained in the Reading Association and took place in the aforementioned five municipalities. Participants in the reading groups were searched via the health centers. They were men and women between the ages of 18 and 60 who could be referred to reading groups as part of prevention. These were people with mild to moderate depression, stress, anxiety or people with mental dissatisfaction due to a physical illness. Besides the reading groups, Time for Reading also had a research dimension. The practices carried out in the reading groups using the guided joint reading method were tested in relation to mental well-being, symptomatology and social cognition. In this way, an evidence base was created for future interventions, which both actors in the cultural and health sectors, municipalities and the Reading Association will benefit from.

The Sound Art E-motion Association is a Romanian NGO which sustains the complementary therapies, the therapeutic work with music and other arts for prevention and intervention, in order to increase the life quality of the beneficiaries, to represent their professional interests and to sustain the practitioners activity.

Considering the burdening of the Covid 19 pandemic, Bozar explored within the Art & Well-being European project how arts and culture can help us to cope in this confusing and threatening world. In this framework they organized a debate and invited a series of interesting speakers, including Dirk De Wachter, Luc Van Gorp, Kristine Timperman, Nils Fietje, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven and Julie Rodeyns to explore together the concept of arts on prescriptions (i.e. doctors to prescribe a book or a film instead of pills when symptoms of depression or distraught are manifested) and its potential to be implemented at Bozar.

A one-year pilot program started in 2018 in Montreal, through which the doctors recommended an unusual treatment—a prescription to visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, by offering patients and their caregivers or family members free admission to the museum. Any doctor who was a member of the Médecins francophones du Canada could participated in the program, writing up to 50 museum prescriptions per year, each one good for two adults and up to two children.
The program was an extension of the MMFA’s existing work in the field of medicine, which in 2017 saw the museum found an Art and Health Committee. The institution is involved in 10 art and health-related clinical trials, studying the effects of art on patients suffering from conditions such as eating disorders, breast cancer, epilepsy, mental illness, and Alzheimer’s disease.

In 2021, the Brussels-City councillor in charge of culture and tourism launched a three-month museum prescriptions initiative involving the CHU Brugmann psychiatry department prescribing patients visits to the five public museums in Brussels: The Sewer Museum, The Brussels City Museum, The Fashion & Lace Museum, the Centrale Museum for Contemporary Art and The GardeRobe MannekenPis Museum. The concept of ‘museum prescriptions’ refers to the practice of doctors prescribing culture as a treatment for patients suffering from stress, burnout, mental illness and anxiety. Naturally, it is not an alternative to tried and tested medical approaches, instead it is supposed to function as a supplement. The cultural initiative was aimed to alleviate some of the pent up stress from the pandemic and social distancing measures.

The forum offers the opportunity to present best practices, discuss and share experiences among practitioners, and engage in dialogue with experts and decision makers about institutional collaborations and support structures needed to scale up cultural well-being projects and interventions. The Culture and Well-being Forum was initiated by the Cluj Cultural Centre in 2018. The 2021 edition of the Forum was organised within the Art & Well-being European project and included conference panels and inspirational talks, case studies, workshops, policy discussions and an artistic programme.

During the Eurocities Culture Forum 2021, a year when health was on everyone’s minds, this link between culture and well-being was the number-one question for cities. During this event was explored the complex relation between culture and wellbeing, the effects that the cultural experiences can have on the health and quality of life. This is a relation that each city handles differently, whether through social prescriptions for art events in London, through the ‘culture vitamins’ programme in Aarhus that aims to use cultural events to motivate people to find employment, or Barcelona’s work tackling gender inequality through culture.

Switch2move is one of the leading organizations that is committed to the well-being of older people. Switch2move wants to create a better daily life for the elderly and in particular for people with health issues such as dementia and Parkinson. Switch2move is committed to these groups by offering combined exercise programs with the aim of improving: physical functions, thinking ability and general health. Switch2move gets people moving, using their own strength, so that strengths, weaknesses and needs are expressed in the movement. Self-direction and own strength are not self-evident for everyone and people are guided in this with the help of dance and music. The active aging programs lead to physical, mental and social improvements and caregivers see the effects - more fun and connection, less stress.