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Action Group on Culture, Health and Wellbeing

Culture Action Europe has a growing membership engaged in or interested in the area of Culture, Health and Wellbeing. The discussions in the action group form the basis of CAE’s position in this area. One of the key outputs of this Action group is the recent CAE position paper on Culture Health and Wellbeing. On 21 May 2024, CAE organised an online consultation for its wide-ranging cross-sectoral membership and through a series of collaborative online drafting, concluded the final version of the position paper in September 2024. We would wholeheartedly like to thank our members for their invaluable contributions in this process.

CAE’s advocacy in this area will follow closely what is outlined in the position paper and builds on the policy recommendations of the report titled ‘The CultureForHealth report. Culture’s contribution to health and well-being. A report on evidence and policy recommendations for Europe’ that was produced in the context of the CultureForHealth project, the implementing project of the “ EU preparatory Action: Bottom-Up Policy Development for Culture & Well-being in the EU”.  

To summarise, our actions aim to achieve the following:

  • Raise awareness of the evidence
  • Build collaborations across the health, social and educational sectors
  • Move from project by project work to a systematic long-term change
  • Create an enabling environment for social innovation
  • Build argumentation for more cultural funding recognizing the value of culture for health and wellbeing
  • Bring in other sources of funding (eg health and social funding)  that could (co-)finance these actions and bring them on a larger scale
  • Focus the attention on more prevention
  • Enable more opportunities for artists and cultural workers – making working conditions better and long-term

CAE formed strong partnerships with the World Health Organisation’s Behavioural Cultural insights unit and cooperates on a case-by-case basis with Eurohealthnet, European Regional Health Authorities, and Mental Health Europe in the context of this work.

CAE submitted its input during the consultation of the European Commission communication on the Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health and the CultureForHealth report is also mentioned in the  EU Council’s conclusion.  

In the EU Work Plan for Culture 2023-2026, EU Member States decided to work together on the topic “Culture and Health” in the context of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC). The “Culture and Health” OMC group, which comprises representatives from both the Ministries of Culture and the Ministries of Health from interested Member States started its work in February 2024. The CAE Position paper on Culture, Health and Wellbeing aims to constructively contribute to this process.

With the launching of the Culture and Health Platform in cooperation with 14 organisations from all around Europe, we are committed to support, build the capacities, enable the mobility and give international visibility to emerging European artists working on the intersection of the cultural, health, care and social sectors. 

Useful resources:

1)    ‘The CultureForHealth report. Culture’s contribution to health and well-being. A report on evidence and policy recommendations for Europe (2022) in the context of the CultureForHealth project. See especially page 7, the Policy recommendations and the 8 challenges.

2)    The CultureForHealth database comprises 800+ projects, initiatives and programmes. We are continuously collecting, so do share your project.

3)    The Culture for Health and Well-being Compendium  – A Guide for Practitioners

and further resources produced by the can be found here

4)    The CAE position paper on Culture Health and Wellbeing