In a world that is more globalized but also more fractured, where the green and digital transitions are becoming imperatives, and unknown societal risks are likely to appear, ambitious cultural policy goals re required.

On 9 and 10 March 2023, MESOC project partners participated physically and online to the final conference in Paris. It was an opportunity to present the knowledge, resources and tools developed during the three years of research.

The two-day event ended with the presentation of the MESOC Declaration, establishing the principles of a community of practice committed to fostering the role of culture in societal transformation. The view of the MESOC consortium is that we are at an inflection point where we must grasp this unique and invaluable opportunity to dig deeper into the relationship between culture, the arts and cultural heritage, and societal transformation.

The MESOC Declaration is the first step towards a more coherent European cultural policy ecosystem. 

24 November, 2022 | 10.00 – 14.30 CET

Online

Free, registration required

http://eepurl.com/ibVEFv

Policymakers, arts, cultural and health practitioners and experts are coming together on 24 November to showcase the potential that culture has on improving our health and well-being. The project CultureForHealth has launched their report collecting over 300 scientific studies on culture’s contribution to health and well-being, as well as providing policy recommendations for Europe.

During her State of the Union (SOTEU) speech on 14 September, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen stated “We should take better care of each other. And for many who feel anxious and lost, appropriate, accessible and affordable support can make all the difference.” She proposed a new initiative on mental health, a direct follow-up to calls coming from citizens during the one-year-long Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) process. The ninth proposal of the CoFoE asks for “a broader understanding of health” and the first measure demands to “improve understanding of mental health issues and ways of addressing them.” 

More than 85 million citizens in the EU were affected by mental health problems before the COVID-19 pandemic,  and since then the mental health crisis was exacerbated by a series of direct and indirect reasons including the pandemic, growing inequalities, forceful displacement of people due to war and political conflict, climate anxiety and the dynamic changes to work and the economy. It has become clear that new solutions and approaches are needed. With health and well-being as one of the strategic areas of the new Commission’s Work Programme, it is an intersection where culture could give a dramatic contribution. If it is given the opportunity – and the recognition.

The CultureForHealth project, an EU preparatory action – Bottom-Up Policy Development for Culture & Well-being in the EU, unveiled the “CultureForHealth Report – Scoping review of culture, well-being, and health interventions and their evidence, impacts, challenges and policy recommendations for Europe” in early November. The report compiles evidence from over 300 scientific studies that show that participation in cultural activities improves the health and well-being of citizens. It also provides a set of policy recommendations, gathering knowledge through roundtables with experts and practitioners.

With different EU Member States comes varying awareness of the critical role of culture and the arts in improving health and well-being at both the individual and collective levels. In the Nordics, there are already clear strategies developed around culture and health, while other countries have focused on short-term arts and health projects and art therapy. However, creating policies for sustainable, long-term interventions calls for the health, cultural and social sectors to co-design and work together, using knowledge of recent developments in methods and evidence across disciplines. One promising methodology is social prescribing, including culture on prescription practices, which is already established in the UK and the Nordics. Without these integrative approaches, the upcoming EU Mental Health Strategy would be outdated and would miss one of the key ingredients that can help EU citizens’ mental health get better.  

On 24 November 2022, the project is hosting an online launch of the CultureForHealth Report to present the findings, the policy recommendations as well as examples of interventions currently happening within cultural and health and well-being sectors. With the ambition to trigger a true policy change in the EU on all levels, the programme brings policymakers, arts and cultural practitioners, and health and wellbeing experts together to dive deeper into the findings of the CultureForHealth Report. Speakers will include MEP Pernille Weiss, member of the European Parliament, member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety; Georg Haeusler– Director, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission, Nils Fietje -Technical Officer in the Behavioural and Cultural Insights Unit at World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe who was involved in commissioning the WHO 2019 report on the subject and Veronique Wasbauer– Directorate General for Health & Food Safety.

CultureForHealth is implemented by a consortium consisting of Culture Action Europe, Trans Europe Halles, Central Denmark Region, The Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture, Cluj Cultural Centre, and Društvo Asociacija. The project is co-funded by the European Union.

CultureForHealth is the implementing project of the EU Preparatory Action: Bottom-Up Policy  Development for Culture & Well-being in the EU which aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge,  experience and success stories in the EU related to the role of culture for well-being and health, map the most relevant existing practises, carry out small-scale pilot work on the ground and provide a set of policy recommendations on the topic.

The full programme of the event on 24 November can be found here: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/810225817/

The CultureforHealth Report can be downloaded here: https://www.cultureforhealth.eu/news/the-cultureforhealth-report-is-now-available/

Contact:

Kornelia Kiss

Projects and Operations Director, Culture Action Europe 

kornelia@cultureactioneurope.org

Culture helps us foster a sense of meaning and identity, it  can expand horizons, place contemporary challenges within an historical frame, and inspire us to imagine a better future. Beyond economic benefits, promoting social cohesion, and inspiring contemporary creativity, the arts contribute to the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Although in 2019 the World Health Organization has published a report with evidence on the role of the arts in improving health, this evidence is not yet widely known and followed up on policy level in most countries.

Cluj Cultural Centre and its partners aim to bring together at Culture and Well-being Forum 2022 policy makers, practitioners and researchers from all around Europe to discuss the opportunities for joint policy and action among the health, cultural and social sectors. Following the CultureForHealth policy workshops from Denmark and Italy, the event is facilitating cross-sectoral and trans-European cooperation aiming to generate knowledge and compile policy guidelines on how to enhance well-being through culture.

The event consists of three days of policy dialogue, roundtables, workshops and conversations around inspiring case studies. It includes two days of public conference sessions and a one day ideathon where invited experts will draft recommendations for policies at local, national and EU level on how to harness the power of the arts to more effectively address global health and social challenges. The working sessions are based on the findings of the “CultureForHealth Scoping review of culture, well-being, and health interventions and their evidence, impacts, challenges and policy recommendations for Europe” to be officially launched on November 16th 2022.

The event will take place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania and it is planned for in-person participation. The event will be held in English, simultaneous translation into Romanian will be provided for the public session of the 27th of October.

Join us for the Culture and Well-being Forum 2022, which is dedicated this year to the CultureForHealth initiative!

The aim is to carry out a mapping of relevant EU, national, regional and local programmes, initiatives and projects on culture, well-being and health across the European Union. 

The mapping will:

• collect and make accessible a number of relevant initiatives on culture for well-being and health;
• identify the most relevant actors in the field of culture for health and well-being;
• provide insights related to the type of practices that are carried out in the field of culture, well-being and health in the EU, lessons learnt and highlight good policies and practices, to serve as a resource for learning and inspiration.

CultureForHealth responds to the objective of the Preparatory Action – Bottom-Up Policy Development for Culture & Well-being in the EU to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experience and success stories in the EU related to the role of culture for well-being and health. CultureForHealth is implemented by a consortium consisting of Culture Action Europe, Trans Europe Halles, Central Denmark Region, The Northern Dimension Partnership for Culture, Centrul Cultural Clujean, and Društvo Asociacija. 

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

We are looking for PROJECTS, PROGRAMMES, POLICIES that are linked to culture and health or to culture and well-being. We have a specific focus on EU projects, but they can be from anywhere in the world.  You can also share organisations, institutions active in these areas. 

TO CONTRIBUTE to the mapping project you can submit your project or projects you want to recommend through the website form. Entering a project on the mapping website takes 5 to 10 minutes. 

About the Art & Well-being project

Between October 2019 and December 2021, the Art & Well-being cooperation project explored the potential of the arts to enhance individual and community well-being at local and European level. Its aim was to develop new processes, activities, and networks to support cultural institutions, partnering with other stakeholders like municipalities, care centres, and urban planners across Europe, to create innovative projects, engage new audiences, and raise awareness of the challenges that urban dwelling and a fast-paced contemporary life pose to physical, emotional, and mental health. The project focused on three areas of action: artistic experimentation, research, capacity building and advocacy.

Project partners: 

CCC – Cluj Cultural Centre (RO) | Project leader | www.cccluj.ro 

Bozar – Centre for Fine Arts (BE) | www.bozar.be

UGM – Maribor Art Gallery (Sl) | www.ugm.si

BKF – Bruno Kessler Foundation (IT) | www.fbk.eu

Purpose of the report

This evaluation report aims to present the main conclusions reached by the consortium organisations and a series of external collaborators of the Art & Well-being (AWE) cooperation project, at the end of its two-year implementation period. It is intended to be a document for the partners, focusing on several qualitative aspects of their work together, as well as with other organisations and individual professionals involved in the project. The document could also provide several valuable insights  for other organisations working in the field of art which aim to integrate the well-being dimension in their organisation.

The paper mainly presents the common lessons of the project, but individual organisational experiences are often added to the overall perspective when it was considered that they bring extra value and showcase specific and useful perspectives. The final purpose of the evaluation is to offer a clear overview of the gains and challenges during the project and to facilitate the partners’ understanding and decisions on what could be continued further in each case. 

The report is the result of a round table and online discussions with representatives of the project partners – CCC, Bozar, UGM and BKF and an online questionnaire which targeted external collaborators of the project, i.e., artists, professionals, and organisations from the cultural and the non-cultural sectors (healthcare, education, etc.). 

The report was prepared by Bianca Floarea, independent expert.

In the context of the pandemic that tests the resilience of each of us, Cluj Cultural Centre proposed the Culture Pill for Well-being – an online platform that assesses the emotional state and offers customized cultural recommendations. The recommendations selected by a team of curators were adapted to the emotional states of the participants and included music, literature, film, visual arts and theatre. This programme also aimed to measure the impact of the cultural recommendations on people’s emotional states.

From October to December 2021, through online communication actions, people were encouraged to access the platform and to fill in the online form in order to receive customized cultural recommendations by email. During this period, 1200 people accessed the platform and  599 enthusiasts filled in the form and received specific cultural content to be consumed. At the end of this period, all participants received another online form which evaluated their state and emotions after the consumption, and also investigated the relevance of the cultural content and future directions for platform development. The post consumption form was filled in by 64 participants who initially engaged in the programme.

Culture Pill for Well-being results:

• Most of the participants in the programme were women – 81.47%. 
• The platform was most frequently accessed by young people aged between 19-24 (22.87%) and 36-45 (27.05%), but a wide spectrum of ages was  identified within the participants.
• Top preferences for the type of cultural content asked for recommendations: 1) literature (27.47%), 2) film (26.64%), 3) music (19.91%), 4) visual arts (13.56% ) and 5) theater / dance (12.62%).
• Out of the 599 participants who benefited from the Culture Pill for Well-being programme: 13.69% felt very well, 49.75% felt good, 4.67% neutral, 29.55% felt bad and only 2.34% felt very bad.

• Out of the 599 participants who engaged in the programme, only 64 responded to the post-consumption evaluation form: 64.06% felt very good, 18.75% felt good, 10.94% neutral, 6.25% felt bad and nobody felt very bad.

• For those 64 participants who filled in the evaluation form before and after consumption, a comparison on their states was made. It seems that the percentage of people who felt bad before has decreased after cultural consumption. It is noticeable that the percentage of those who felt good also decreased, but the percentage of those who felt very good increased by more than 50%.

• 69% of the participants considered that the recommendation was appropriate or very appropriate for their cultural preferences.
• 70% of the participants considered that the recommendation was appropriate or very appropriate for their emotional state.
• For 75% of participants, the consumption experience had a positive effect on them.
• The experience helped most of the respondents to enrich their knowledge, to experience amazement, beauty, to reflect on their life and to access a state of calm, energy.
• The probability of participating in a cultural event in the near future is over 50%.
• Over 80% of participants recommended the experience to other acquaintances.

Words associated with the experience:

Cluj Cultural Centre aims to use the results of this pilot initiative to develop a more sustainable and improved online platform oriented towards bringing customized cultural experiences based on the people’s emotional states.

The Culture Pill for Well-being initiative was developed within the Art & Well-being Project, in collaboration with the Centre’s Academy of Change, and carried out in partnership with the Babeş-Bolyai PsyTech University Psychology Clinic, Bookstory, TIFF Unlimited.

Culture helps us foster a sense of meaning and identity, it can expand horizons, place contemporary challenges within a historical frame, and inspire us to imagine a better future. Beyond economic benefits, promoting social cohesion, and inspiring contemporary creativity, the arts contribute to the holistic well-being of individuals and communities. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a difficult period which has highlighted even more the need for support in dealing with uncertainty and mental health conditions. Several studies documented the beneficial impact of art on our well-being during the pandemic. 

To find different perspectives on the question ”How does art contribute to our well-being?”, this publication draws attention to the results of the exploratory processes and activities of the Art & Well-being project, and presents stories of beneficiaries of cultural events, people who are working in the arts, and other professionals engaging with art in their work. 

The publication includes four main chapters. The first is dedicated to personal experiences.  Artists, therapists, medical practitioners, teachers and art lovers, as well as people who have simply had their first significant cultural experiences during the Art & Well-being project, share how art has helped them experience life fully, to be more aware, or to move through difficult times. The second chapter comprises essays and interviews reflecting the experiences of the four partner organisations who engaged with the use of art for health and well-being, while the third chapter presents photographs of artworks and activities carried out within the project. The fourth chapter sums up the learnings of the project and provides recommendations, for individuals, artists, policymakers and cultural institutions alike, on how to enable arts to positively impact both their lives and the lives of the people in their communities. 

The publication was coordinated by Cluj Cultural Centre and included the input from all partners – Bozar, UGM Maribor Art Gallery and Bruno Kessler Foundation, mainly the researchers and members of the Artistic Board. It will be used for dissemination in advocacy and transfer meetings that all the partners will have with different stakeholders in the future.

In the framework of the Art & Well-being project, Bozar together with their local partners Samana,  a smaller group of people with a chronic illness & informal carers and Mutualité Chrétienne, a Health insurance company, developed and implemented during February-December 2021 the Art on Prescription pilot project. The initiative had two different approaches: (1) qualitative programme and (2) quantitative programme.

The qualitative programme consisted in an interactive programme of multiple sessions for a fixed group of people with burn-out symptoms, CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), or fibromyalgia and a focus on art experience. The goals of the qualitative programme were: (1) to improve the well-being of participants; (2) to collect evidence on the effectiveness of the project; (3) sustainable implementation of the project.

The qualitative programme was coordinated by Bozar and each partner has its specific role in the process. Samana was responsible for referral, intake interview and selection of participants, meanwhile Mutualité Chrétienne was responsible for research design, data collection, processing and analysis. All the partners were involved in the communication of the initiative.

For the programme were selected 8 Dutch speaking participants, living in or around Brussels, who had the ability to participate both physically and mentally to all sessions and agree to participate in the study.

The persons selected to be part of the programme participated in a series of 6 workshops, every Friday, for 2 hours, after exploring alongside with a guide Bozar’s exhibitions. The workshops were structured in four main parts: (1) warm welcome and introduction; (2) discussions about personal experiences and art works; (3) reflections on their experiences. The results of the programme were evaluated by using different techniques: interviews, focus groups, observation, video recording and diary method. 

The quantitative ongoing programme consists of a number of tickets for exhibitions (1 ticket for 2 persons) delivered to beneficiaries of Mutualité Chrétienne. The goals of the quantitative programme were: (1) to broaden the scope of the beneficiaries; (2) to collect more data; (3) to raise awareness of the link between art & well-being among a broader audience. 

The final results of the Art on Prescription pilot project at Bozar are expected to be delivered in February-March 2022.

The closing meeting of the Art & Well-being (AWE) project brought together representatives of project partners and took place in Brussels, on 2-3 December 2021. The meeting was hosted at Bozar, the Centre for Fine Arts Brussels and participants included team members of the Cluj Cultural Centre, Bozar and Maribor Art Gallery. 

During the meeting each partner presented their project activities and results, sharing lessons learned through the implementation. One of the meeting sessions was dedicated to an in depth discussion on the cultural prescription piloted by partners. Benefitting from the presence of experts on audience engagement from Bozar, the session considered the benefits and shortcomings of various intervention models, analysed the experiences and the results of the implemented pilots, and included a discussion on further steps. The meeting was also the occasion to share the projects’ publication In AWE – Experiences of Art as Well-being. 

Bianca Floarea, an expert on assessment of cultural projects, was invited to facilitate an evaluation discussion, providing a qualitative perspective on the project cooperation and results and highlighting intentions to further work on the art and well-being dimension. The discussion was set up as a focus group structured on four dimensions: (1) Personal and institutional perspectives on art & well-being before and after the project; (2) Collaborations throughout the project; (3) Impact on audiences and (4) Professional practices.

Art & Well-being was designed as an exploratory project aimed to create innovative interventions, engage new audiences, and raise awareness on the challenges that urban dwelling and a fast paced contemporary life pose to physical, emotional and mental health of people in Europe. The journey that we have been through during the past two years has facilitated rich and inspiring art experiences, insightful reflections and research findings, productive collaborations and directly benefited individuals and communities. Project partners share the view that the project has been successful in reaching its objectives and bringing visibility and awareness around the power of the arts to support health and well-being.

The project was implemented by the Cluj Cultural Centre (Romania, lead partner), Bozar – Center for Fine Arts, Brussels (Belgium), UGM – Maribor Art Gallery (Slovenia) and Bruno Kessler Foundation (Italy) and was co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

_Performance: Don’t be so emotional

_Artist: Nika Rukavina

_Location: Horta Hall, rue Ravenstein 23, 1000, Brussels

_Dates: Friday 19 November, 18:30 → 19:30

One thing that women are taught, from a young age, is how not to be something or not to do something. Things that we are told during our lifetime have a huge impact on the way we see and perceive ourselves, on our self-esteem and the way we interact with the world around us. ‘Don’t be so emotional’ is a sentence that was repeated to the Croatian artist Nika Rukavina throughout her childhood and which had a great deal of impact on her behaviour and inability to deal with emotions.

During her performance at Bozar she carved the sentence in stone to replicate the pain that was inflicted on her by those words and then by breaking the stone she liberates herself from past traumas. In a second part of the performance visitors were invited to choose their own sentence, write it on plates and break it in order to experience their own symbolic liberation. 

More information here.