Do you offer education /training in
ARTS and HEALTH and CULTURAL MANAGEMENT?
Invitation to join a mapping project
Do you offer cultural management courses, degree programmes or training modules in arts and health? ENCATC Thematic Area ARTS and HEALTH invites you to take part in a basic mapping work in order to share good practices and deliver information about the education/training possibilities in the field. The results of the mapping project will be published in the meeting at the Annual Conference in Helsinki.
We are focusing on good practices and curricula, both in basic education (BA, MA) as well as in adult and in continuing education. That can be training in applied art in general, joint courses for cultural management students and future social/health professionals as well as courses for artists to work within health settings or arts/cultural studies for social and health care professionals. Within ENCATC our strengths are in two areas: in education/training and in administration. The challenge is to find and develop relevant training programmes and curricula to meet the needs.
More specifically there are two main questions to be answered. Firstly, how to train arts/cultural practitioners to work within health care settings? What kind of approaches, qualifications, skills and competencies are needed to work in the context? Secondly, there is major interest in entrepreneurial activities in the wellbeing industry. How to develop cultural or arts based service concepts and products between cultural and social/health care sector? Art can be approached as a consumer service also in this context. Who is the customer then?
DEFINITION FOR ARTS AND HEALTH
We are dealing with activities, which fall into the interdisciplinary borderline area of art and culture as well as social services and health care. Within this Thematic Area we are focusing on the approach of an arts/cultural manager/coordinator or trainer in the field. We see art as a creative and cultural activity. Art can be any art form, an artwork or a performance. We are targeting the audiences which don’t have access to the art/culture due to their condition or hospitalization. What we are not dealing with is art therapy. – Please find further information at ENCATCs website/Thematic Areas/Arts and Health BLOG.
CHALLENGES, QUESTIONS…AND POSSIBILITIES
It may be said that in the context of arts and health there are four main areas which need to be studied further: those of applied art and culture itself, interdisciplinary and participatory team work and co-operation, arts/cultural management, and finally, education/training and research. There are several studies clearly indicating that cultural consumption and cultural pursuits have a positive effect on health. Also strategies in several countries have pointed out proposals for actions related to legislation, administration and funding; as well as education and information. The aim is to promote wellbeing and health on the individual, community and societal level.
Activities in this field, combining the culture/art field and social services and health care, cover a wide range of approaches. As arts/cultural practitioners we have important competencies to offer in order to enrich the cooperation with the social and health care sector.
Art used for social, rehabilitation or community purposes, art and arts based practices within health settings have been widely discussed during the past years due to several reasons. There is a growing demand and financial pressure for finding and developing new and more effective working methods in the field of health care and social services. For an artistic community this context can offer job opportunities. Arts and health are also viewed as a growing sector in meaning-intensive production and creative economy with beneficial cultural, social, employment and economic results.
In case you share these interests you are most welcome to join the ARTS and HEALTH Thematic Area! Next meeting will be in Helsinki, in connection of the Annual Conference in Helsinki on 13th-14th October 2011.
CONTACT:
Pia Strandman, Chair of the Arts and Health Thematic Area
Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Email: pia.strandman@metropolia.fi
Kódex Advisory & Consulting, Culture Management is an active member of the Art & Health working group by ENCATC