Culture and Health Forum, Turku (FI)

Monday, September 29

09:00-10:00 Registration, coffee & networking (Sigyn Restaurant & Lounge)

10:00-10:30 Welcoming words & art performance (Sigyn Hall)

• Welcoming words: Taru Koivisto, director, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland
• Circus performances by Turku Arts Academy students: Groovin’ in the Air, Isabella Hännikkälä and Ella Laitinen & My Inner Circle, Jaska Isola

10:30-11:15 Keynote: Prof. Christina Davies, Director of the Centre for Arts, Mental Health and Wellbeing, University of Western Australia. Topic: “Good arts, good mental health” (Sigyn Hall)

11:15-12:00 Introduction to CultureAndHealth Platform (Sigyn Hall)

12:00-13:00 Lunch at Sigyn (self-funded)

13:00-14:15 Parallel Sessions I:

• Bringing Culture and Health Policies Together: Sharing insights from the EU Member States Culture and Health OMC-report (Sigyn Hall)
  • Kornelia Kiss, Head of Culture and Health, Culture Action Europe
  • Edith Wolf Perez, Founder & Chairwoman, Co-Founder of ARTS for HEALTH AUSTRIA, Co-Chair, EU Member States’, “Culture and Health” Open Method of Coordination (OMC) Group
  • Bruno Gallice, OMC Culture and Health delegate, Cultural and Territorial Action Advisor, DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes – French Ministry of Culture, France & Laura Norppa, Ministry of Education and Culture, Senior Ministerial Adviser, Cultural Affairs, Finland; EU member states representatives from the OMC group
• Workshop A: Play and Creativity in Dance (Vulcan Hall)
  • Riina Kalmi, dance artist, Finland
• Workshop B: Person-centered music-making on hospital wards (Studio Theatre)
  • MusiCare-Team: Magdalena Bork, Stefan Heckel, Laura Bezold, Austria
• Showcasing Artist Practices A: (Rope Theatre)
  • Vanishing Dad. A project carried out with prisoners, Kuba Kapral, Poland
  • Creating and experiencing art in an end-of-life unit, Paul Peinture, painter, France
  • Dance Ambassadors, dance-based service concept for example for the elderly, mental health services, child welfare services and schools,  Regional Dance Centre of Western Finland, Sanna Meska, managing director, Finland

14:15-14:45 Coffee break & Posters & Stands

14:45-16:00 Parallel Sessions II:

• Panel Discussion: Youth Mental Health and the Arts (Sigyn Hall)
• Showcasing Artist Practices B: (Rope Theatre)
  • Participatory Kantele Concert, Marjo Smolander, musician, music pedagogue (MA), Finland
  • Hyde and Sick: Imagining New Walls in Psychiatric Care, Giovanni Bosco Iafrate, visual artist, Italy
  • Community Cares, Ioana Turcan, artist and cultural worker, Romania
• Workshop C: Songs from the Inside: Co-Creative Songwriting in Healthcare (Vulcan Hall)
  • Saaramaija Żórawski, music pedagogue (MA), musician
• Workshop D: Person-centered music-making on hospital wards (Studio Theatre)
  • MusiCare-Team: Magdalena Bork, Stefan Heckel, Laura Bezold, Austria

18:00 onward Evening programme

• Dinner, mingle and live music at Panimoravintola Koulu, Eerikinkatu 18.

Tuesday, September 30 

09:00-10:15 Parallel Sessions III

• Research Presentations: Session: Enacting health through theatre and drama (Rope Theatre)
  • Riku Laakkonen & Jenny Paananen, Tampere University: “Empathy in Action: Drama Workshop as a Safe Place to Practice Challenging Encounters in Nursing Home”
  • Eva Hallgren, Stockholm University: “Creating Together in Existential Fragility: Drama/Theatre Participation in Early Psychosis Care”
  • Jenny Wiik, Novia University of Applied Sciences & Tove Hagström, Yttra Tove Hagström: “The Song of the Tree – From Play to Activating Classroom Workshop for Teenagers”
• Showcasing Artist Practices C: (Sigyn Hall)
  • Sound Hug – creating a musical artwork tailored for tinnitus patients, Boštjan Simon, musician, Slovenia
  • Healing Walls: Art as Therapy in Institutional Spaces, Melinda Šefčić, Ph.D., Visual Artist and Researcher, Assistant Professor (external), Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, Croatia
  • Spectators of Well-being: From Observation to Participation Through Performance, Veronica Lista, theatrical educator, Italy
• Workshop E: “Expressing one’s true self through text, film and voice.” Co-creative artistic documentary film with and for children with serious medical conditions (Studio Theatre)
  • Lisa Partby, documentary filmmaker and pedagogue, Sweden
• Workshop F: Cut, Fold, Mad!: DIY zines making workshop (Sigyn Café Balcony)
  • Shambhavi Singh, University of Helsinki
• Workshop G: Humour in Healthcare (Vulcan Hall)
  • Maria Gundolf, RED NOSES Germany

10:15-10:45 Coffee break & Posters & Stands

10:45-12:00 Parallel Sessions IV

• Research Presentations; Session: Links between creativity and wellbeing (Sigyn Hall)
  • Elisabeth Punzi, Gothenburg university: “I can’t really describe everything this group has meant and done for me” – Creative workshops in a psychiatric outpatient clinic. An Interpretative phenomenological analysis
  • Viktorija Bogdanova & Inkeri Aula & Masood Masoodian, Aalto University: “The creative journey as a transformative process affecting well-being”
  • Sofia Elena Sacchini, Associazione Oltre… APS, Italy: Beyond Participation: Artivism, Prevention, and the Right to Collective Well-being
• European collaboration (Rope Theatre)
  • AWAKE: Arts & Wellbeing as a Creative Business and Future Livelihood, Dace Resele, Acting Head of the NDPC Secretariat, Latvia
  • CARE: Culture for Mental Health, Claudia Cacovean, Project Manager, Cluj Cultural Centre, Romania
  • Arts on Prescription in the Baltic Sea Region, Liisa Laitinen, Advisor, Arts & Health, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Finland
• Workshop H: Art in Sensory Rooms as Part of Psychiatric Care: Introducing a Collaborative Journey of Artists, Experts by Experience and the Hospital Clinical Staff in an Artist-led Project at TYKS Compass Hospital (Vulcan)
  • Nina Rantala, visual artist engaging interactive and communal processes, Finland

12:00-13:00 Lunch at Sigyn (self-funded)

13:00-14:15 Parallel Sessions V

• Research Presentations: Session: Arts and mental health in community practices (Sigyn Hall)
  • Marit Stranden, Norwegian Resource Center for Arts and Health: “In Motion – developing a guide that use dance artists’ embodied experience to make movements accessible and safe”
  • Keld Stehr Nielsen, National Centre for Arts & Mental Health – Denmark: “What can the grey literature tell us about the relation between art and mental health – and how to extract it”
  • Kai Lehikoinen, Research Institute, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland: “Socially Engaged Art as a Subject of Study”
• Showcasing Artist Practices D: (Rope Theatre)
  • THE NEEDS OF NEETS – Collaborative Working Beyond the “Safe Space”, Darrel Toulon, prime investigator & artistic director & Jonatan Salgado Romero, videographer, filmmaker, Austria
  • Block Theatre – About the universal language of wooden blocks, Roosa Halme, puppet theatre artist, Finland
  • Meeting people with circus on your eyes, Lida Kuusisto, circus artist, Finland
• Workshop I: TOSI-labra – An Arts-Based Method for Supporting Youth Wellbeing and Agency (Studio Theatre)
  • Pilvi Kuitu & Katriina Nylund, Cultural Centre PiiPoo & Tampere University, Finland

14:15-14:45 Coffee break & Posters & Stands

14:45-16:00 Reflective Panel Discussion & Closing, Art Performance (Sigyn Hall)

• Moderator: Natalie Giorgadze, General Director, Culture Action Europe
• Circus performances by Turku Arts Academy students:
  • Silky Smooth, Viktoriia Adamova & United, Isabella Hännikkälä, Ella Laitinen, Jaska Isola and Viktoriia Adamova

Please note, that the programme is final, but it remains subject to possible changes.

The CultureAndHealth Platform

The Culture and Health Forum is part of the Culture and Health Platform project (2024-2028).  The Culture and Health Platform project (2024-2028) [external link] aims to support European emerging artists who already have some experience working in the arts & health field and who want to develop their work further and join European cooperation. The project is coordinated by Culture Action Europe [external link] and involves 16 partners from across Europe. Taikusydän and Turku University of Applied Sciences represent Finland in the project.

The CultureAndHealth Platform is co-funded by the European Union (grant nr: 101176227). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.