Journal of Applied Arts & Health - Volume 6, Issue 2, 2015

This article considers how arts and cultural activities can arguably play a significant role in addressing public health issues. While culture and health projects gather momentum in the rest of Scandinavia, it appears that Denmark is lacking behind. This article looks at why this might be, reflecting on the structure of the health care system and policy-making in the health sector in Denmark. In the process, the article identifies the sociopolitical situation and recommends a way forward requiring an interdisciplinary approach, recognizing that while some initiatives are happening the lack of a cross-sector approach makes it difficult to develop a strategic field for arts and health in Denmark. This article makes recommendations for a national and a Scandinavian network, to inform decision-making processes for an interdisciplinary political approach, and to uncover untapped potential in arts and health projects.

The primary aim of this article is to introduce how culture and health, as a field of enquiry as well as practice, is organized conceptually in Sweden. A secondary and minor aim is to launch a more general discussion of the relationship between ‘culture’, ‘arts’ and ‘health’ and their implication for multi-disciplinary research. After introducing how ‘Culture and Health’ as an academic as well as applied field of enquiry has been introduced in Sweden and giving some examples of current research, I relate this project to a more general discussion of definitions of health and culture in a Swedish and an English-speaking setting. In particular, I show that ‘Culture and Health’ in a Swedish setting encompasses both ‘Arts and Health’ and ‘Medical Humanities’. Finally, I offer some pragmatic considerations on why a multi-disciplinary perspective is vital for ‘Culture and Health’, ending up in a concluding presentation of the implications of this multi-disciplinarity for the organization of the field of ‘Culture and Health’ in Sweden.

This article documents the practice of act2 and Teater Vildenvei, two collaborative theatres in health companies in Norway. Based on an analysis of the companies’ aims and objectives, their ethos, their particular working methods and the plays they have produced, I will examine the values that underpin the work of the two companies. The aim here is to assess what strategies the companies use in their work to promote health and well-being for marginalized and socially excluded groups in society. Working with people affected by addiction and mental health service users, respectively, act2 and Teater Vildenvei are using the medium of theatre to facilitate change processes that help the participants gain access, networks and a voice to enable empowerment. If health is the manifestation of empowerment, what might the empowerment of these voices mean for both individuals and for the groups at large? This article will not address the health effects of theatre in terms of medical effects, but it will assess why some participants of act2 and Teater Vildenvei describe the interventions as ‘better than medicine’ and ‘good medicine’. A tentative explanation is that both act2 and Teater Vildenvei provide radically different solutions to people’s problems than those offered by the biomedical model of health. Instead of treatment and diagnosis, act2 and Teater Vildenvei focus on resources, personhood, enablement, social support and empowerment in their attempt to promote health and well-being.

The article discusses the role objects can play in creative projects that aim to support older adults living with dementia in residential care settings to tell stories about their lives. The role of objects in the telling of these stories is explored through a discussion of projects by Stanislaw Przybylski, an animator based in Sweden, and by Age Exchange Theatre Trust, an arts and reminiscence charity based in London. The article draws on Jennifer Gonzalez’s concept of autotopographies to propose that collections of personal artefacts can be a significant form of self-representation. The role of objects in object-based storytelling practices is questioned through Bill Brown’s ‘Thing theory’ that proposes a difference between encountering recognizable objects and engaging with the materiality or thingliness of them. These theories are applied to the projects to question the role and significance of objects to the participants’ life stories and sense of self. The article proposes that the narratives of the stories relating to participants’ lives and the art-making process itself become fragmented and deconstructed when working with people with dementia and that arts facilitators with object-based practices may be particularly well equipped to respond to this.

This article discusses two research projects, which took place during the period 2012–2015 at the Storm P. Museum. The projects were headed by Iben Overgaard and Nelli Sørensen. The intention was to study how the museum space can contribute towards an inclusive environment that stimulates the creation of communities between socially lonely people. The first project was an art workshop for mentally vulnerable adults who were often stigmatized and therefore felt socially excluded. The second project was a reminiscence workshop for lonely elderly people in which the participants talked about their own life-experience and discussed the influence Storm P’s art had had on their family and on social culture in Copenhagen, while the museum contributed with narratives about Storm P’s art and life. Both projects emerged from a wish to study how workshops in a museum context could enable participation in activities that both stimulate relational processes and contribute to the participants’ experience of greater meaning in their lives. The projects were funded by The Danish Agency for Culture and Frederiksberg Municipality. The projects provided a space for collaboration between the museum and the target groups. The participants found the art and reminiscence projects at the museum meaningful, both socially and culturally. We found that the Storm P. Museum has potential as an agent of social inclusion via co-creation, and that museums may address community building and recovery. The projects proved to be mutually beneficial, as participants had life-enriching experiences and felt less lonely, while the museum and the researchers gained valuable sociocultural knowledge.

The article examines how community music therapy (CoMT) can be a support in the everyday life of asylum-seeking and refugee children living in a municipality in Norway. It presents the central aspects of CoMT, with emphasis on performative issues. Self-performance and performance of social systems are discussed in relation to three case examples. It is argued that these performative issues can contribute to fulfilling relevant needs in the lives of asylum-seeking and refugee children.

Teater Inter AKT is an independent theatre company founded in 2005 and based in Malmö, Sweden. The focus of the company’s is to create performance work that addresses issues of justice and equality and is committed to providing a platform for those in society whose voices are rarely heard. This article documents a project entitled ‘To be Where You Are – Presence, Trust and Empathy in Geriatric Care’. The project was commissioned by Annica Forsgren, Coordinator of Research and Development Welfare of Local Authorities in Skåne on KFSK, and drew on the personal experiences of Nina Norèn, actor and director with Teater Inter AKT, who had cared for her elderly mother who had dementia.

The role that the arts can play in the promotion of health has been a point of increasing focus over the last two decades, particularly in Scandinavia. This bibliography provides an overview of some of the research that has been conducted in Scandinavia, including articles on public health, cultural activities, music and drama-based interventions, clown doctors and museums. Some of the articles describe successful, innovative projects that have already been conducted, while some provide arguments for future movements and some present evidence from formal research studies.