NCK is heading up a new network project about Cultural heritage and well-being with funding from Nordisk Kulturkontakt, together with its partners Århus University (Tine Fristrup), Oslo Museum, Bymuseet (Linken Apall-Olsen), and Estate Academy of Rumsiskes Museum (Gita Sapranauskaite).
Research has shown the potential of culture to positively influence people’s health and well-being. In the face of an aging western population and an increasing number of people with mental health problems, these effects contribute to individual life quality as well as to the reduction of costs in the public health sector.
This project wants to establish a Nordic-Baltic network for researchers, cultural heritage institutions and other stakeholders in order to serve as a think-tank for future activities.
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Heritage and Health activities in the Scandinavian-Baltic area:
The Nordic Network for Arts & Health Researchers took place on 21 -22 May 2019 hosted by the Clinical Research Center, Primary Care, Malmö.
The call for papers and the registration is now out and can be found here.
The link to the proceedings from the network meeting in Turku, Finland in November 2017 can be found here: https://taikusydan.turkuamk.fi/yleinen/nordic-arts-and-health-research-conference-arts-academy-turku-finland/
First meeting in Copenhagen 13-14 March 2018
The project partners at their first meeting at the National Museum in Copenhagen.
Second meeting and seminar in Östersund 21-22 November 2018
At a seminar with Nordic-Baltic stakeholders from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Lithuania, we discussed the possibilities of cultural heritage institutions to contribute to health and well-being. The biggest challenges seem to be to find resources for new activities, to create sustainable structures within one’s institution, and to build collaborations with the health sector where the different disciplines do not compete, but complement each other.
Anita Jensen from Aalborg University’s Centre for Arts, Culture and Health in Denmark gave a talk about Arts, Culture, Health and Wellbeing: An overview. You can find out more about her research here and download the slides of her presentation here.
Gita Sapranauskaite from the Estate Academy of Rumsiskes Museum presents examples for activities related to well-being at Lithuanian heritage institutions, among them hippo- and dolphin therapy at open air and maritime museums.
Linken Apall-Olsen presented activities at Oslo Bymuseum, like work with patients who suffer from dementia.
