Culture & Care: A Joint Call for Change
The “Culture & Care: A Joint Call for Change“ conference explores how culture and care can work together to build new ways of care that meet today’s complex social challenges. It highlights an ongoing paradigm shift from understanding care mainly as a medical intervention, to recognising it as a shared cultural and human practice. Care is not only about responding to illness, but also about fostering prevention, resilience, and quality of life – helping individuals and communities to thrive. Art and culture can play a vital role in this transformation, and you can register for the conference here.
The two-day conference brings together cultural and care professionals, researchers, policymakers, and community actors from across Europe. The provisional programme of the conference can be viewed here. Morning plenaries, which are held with leading European experts from policy, practice, and lived experience, will explore how culture can transform the way we think about and organise care. Meanwhile, afternoon sessions will offer parallel tracks of inspiring stories from the field and interactive workshops across three social themes:
- Young People and Mental Health & Well-being
- Older Adults & Intergenerational Initiatives
- Community-Rooted Programmes
By bringing art and care into dialogue, the conference explores how their encounter can enrich care practices while honouring the integrity of artistic creation. At the same time, critical questions and challenges that may arise within both the artistic and care sectors will be discussed and explored.
The conference is an initiative of Stad Leuven, KU Leuven, Vlaamse overheid, and Culture Action Europe’s work on culture and health.
Places are limited for the conference. Participation costs € 75,00 for one day of the conference, and € 125,00 to attend both days. If you are interested in participating but may struggle to cover the participation fees, then you can contact the organisers via email to try to find a solution.