This knowledge transfer panel, part of the “Beyond Creation” project, features a profesional conversation with Kornelia Kiss, responsible for Research and Development at Culture Action Europe, Rarița Zbranca, programme director of the Cluj Cultural Centre, Oana Nasui, cultural researcher.
The Historical and Contemporary Connection Between Culture and Health
The connection isn’t new historically—ancient practices around birth and death, Greek temples where Asclepius presided over both healing and arts—but it’s emerging as a policy topic. Artists have always understood cathartic transformation. The current attention stems from multiple crises overwhelming mental health systems, requiring new solutions that empower people to cope with complex realities (Kornelia Kiss).
The Pandemic as Policy Catalyst
The pandemic made decision-makers experience isolation firsthand and turn to culture at home, opening their ears to existing evidence. The EU’s “Conference on the Future of Europe” captured public mental health concerns during lockdowns, leading to von der Leyen’s comprehensive mental health approach (Kornelia Kiss). The Culture for Health report‘s timing created a perfect policy entry point. Beyond mental health, the loneliness agenda emerged—young people feeling lonely despite social contact—potentially elevating social health from a mental health subset to an independent pillar alongside physical and mental health.
Evidence Base and Research Methodology
The Culture for Health report reviewed 8,000 abstracts from two scientific databases, including 310 studies, examining wellbeing alongside health for the first time systematically. Beyond quantitative research, extensive consultations with practitioners, artists, and patients through roundtables and online meetings identified field challenges and needs through direct questions about what works and what’s needed (Rarița Zbranca).
Policy Framework Development
The research produced four policy blocks: dedicated financial support, knowledge and awareness building, training and peer learning, and localization of culture-health-wellbeing discussions. Fortunate timing aligned with EU member states deciding their culture work plan, leading to an Open Method of Coordination group and the September 2025 report “Culture and Health: The Time to Act is Now”—an evolution rather than duplication, providing a roadmap requiring years of implementation (Kornelia Kiss).
Bridging Theory and Practice
A crucial shift occurs from theoretical frameworks to grassroots implementation. The key questions: How do these policies manifest nationally? Where do artists wanting to work in this field go? Who should cultural organizations collaborate with—psychiatrists, doctors? How do they access funding? What practical steps exist beyond policy documents? (Oana Nasui)
The Culture for Health database emerges as a practical tool: 850+ projects from across Europe searchable by art form, target group, or keywords. The purpose isn’t just showcasing existing work but enabling learning, avoiding reinventing the wheel, and reaching the next level by understanding others’ challenges in advance.
The Funding Gap Problem
Bottom-up initiatives already exist, often unpaid or insufficiently paid, but without top-down support they remain marginalized despite growing evidence and multiple crises creating urgency. A structural problem exists: applying to cultural funding means competing on innovation criteria where culture-health projects aren’t prioritized; applying to health funding raises eligibility questions and forces competition with established health priorities. Culture-health work falls between sectors, even though cultural activities with cancer patients prevent secondary conditions like depression. The field needs dedicated calls. Social prescribing, specifically culture-based social prescribing, offers one tested methodology already within health systems. Institutional pairing—elderly homes near conservatoriums—creates natural partnership opportunities (Rarița Zbranca).
Beyond Project Cycles to Sustainable Models
The project-by-project approach creates problems: arts prescription programs typically run 8-10 sessions building group cohesion, then end abruptly without continuation pathways. While permanently funding individuals’ hobbies isn’t viable, societies need infrastructure connecting formal interventions to ongoing opportunities. The vision: cultural centers (numerous in Romania and Hungary) functioning like gyms—offering four or five different activities where people choose what suits them (Kornelia Kiss). The CARE project‘s awareness campaign aims to normalize cultural activities as health practices alongside running or exercise, removing the perception of culture as optional or indulgent (Rarița Zbranca).
Cultural Engagement as Normal Activity, Not Luxury
A conceptual reframing positions culture not as luxury, treat, or reward but as normal everyday regular activity—going to theater like any routine health practice (Oana Nasui, Rarița Zbranca). This connects to guilt issues, especially for women reading instead of doing “productive” tasks like laundry. Understanding that cultural engagement is beneficial removes that guilt, representing a significant mindset shift. Supporting this perspective acknowledges gender dynamics in how leisure and cultural activities are valued.
Two Levels of Evidence
The evidence base operates on two dimensions. First: general arts engagement as a protective health factor improving mood and social health—the recommended “dose” is over two hours weekly, achievable through 20 minutes daily reading plus weekend performances (Rarița Zbranca). Second: targeted protocols for specific conditions with established research—museum activities for dementia, dance for Parkinson’s—now implemented globally. This diversity means arts and health encompasses everything from simple personal practices to specialized clinical interventions (Kornelia Kiss).
Practical Implementation for Cultural Organizations (Rarița Zbranca)
Cultural organizations don’t need entirely new programs. They can extend existing audience development and educational activities to welcome different groups with different needs, recognizing that engagement with collections and exhibitions brings health and wellbeing benefits. This approach integrates culture-health work into existing infrastructure rather than creating parallel systems.
Restoring Humanity to Healthcare (Rarița Zbranca)
The philosophical foundation: this movement brings humanity back to contemporary understandings of health. In current healthcare, you’re a patient—a medical case. When engaging with arts, even in hospitals, you become a complete human being again. This represents an enormous step in reconceptualizing health beyond purely medical frameworks.
Resources from Kornelia and Rarița
CARE awareness campaign promoting cultural engagement for mental health, with evidence-based messages about music reducing stress, arts improving happiness, museum visits enhancing social connection, dance supporting physical activity, and a recommendation of 2+ hours of arts weekly for better wellbeing.
WHO Evidence Report. WHO’s 2019 landmark scoping review synthesizing over 3000 studies identifying arts’ major role in preventing illness, promoting health, and managing treatment across the lifespan.
Art & Well-being project (2019-2021) led by Cluj Cultural Centre with partners from Belgium, Slovenia, and Italy, exploring arts’ potential to enhance individual and community wellbeing through research, cultural prescriptions pilots, and artistic productions.
Music and Motherhood pilot project in Cluj implementing WHO protocol through group singing intervention for new mothers experiencing postpartum anxiety and depression, conducted in Romanian and Hungarian with 8-12 mothers per group over 10 weekly sessions CcclujCCC
“Culture and Health: Time to Act” – September 2025 report from EU Open Method of Coordination group recommending strategic actions to unlock culture-health potential across EU member states, launched at MONDIACULT 2025.
Research from Art & Well-being project studying cultural engagement during COVID-19 pandemic (May-July 2020) with 1559 respondents across Europe, assessing impact of arts participation on wellbeing during lockdowns.
Study assessing arts’ impact on overcoming burnout through specially designed cultural prescriptions pilot project within Art & Well-being initiative.
Social Prescribing Feasibility Study for Romania – Report by Romania’s Economic and Social Council, exploring the implementation of socio-cultural prescriptions where doctors refer vulnerable patients to non-medical community activities (cultural, sports, social) to improve health and wellbeing while reducing pressure on healthcare systems
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The project material is part of the project “Beyond creation” is co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund
