WELL-BEING RESIDENCY NETWORK

Introduction to well-being residency

Art and culture are fundamental parts of humanity. While we have often encountered great enthusiasm and interest from social and health sectors towards the use of creative and art- based methods, experiencing and making art in the social and healthcare sectors can be challenging for many different reasons. In this document we aim to guide the reader through some of these challenges and offer solutions, based on the experience grounded through various think thanks and try-out art residencies.

The potential of the collaboration between arts and social and health care institutions

Services provided by municipalities rarely go beyond the traditional arts environments such as museums and theaters or arts education institutions. This system excludes many people who are unable to access the services. Furthermore, creative activities in health and social care settings are often organised by the staff and mainly consist of stimulating activity, as opposed to professionally-led art-based methods. Expertise of art professionals is utilized mainly in short-term projects where activity ceases at the end of project funding. This creates a demand for a sustainable model for long-term cooperation between social and health institutions and professional artists. By merging art residencies and socially engaged art, well-being residency is a concept which addresses this demand.