Over the past ten years, the landscape at the intersection of culture and care has undergone significant change. We have been following these developments on the national and international stage with great interest . On 26 and 27 February, the Culture & Care conference took place at ‘t Stuk in Leuven; a fascinating two-day event at which national and international experts in the cross-sectoral landscape of culture and care shared their experiences and knowledge with a diverse audience. The conference not only sharpened our knowledge, but also our questions. We are happy to share the insights we gained and the themes that continue to challenge us.

The traditional approach to healthcare is increasingly reaching its limits

We are living in a global mental health crisis. According to WHO data, one billion  people worldwide live with mental health problems[1] . In Belgium, almost one in six people struggle with their mental health[2] . Loneliness, exacerbated by the COVID period, plays an important role. At the same time, the healthcare sector is under enormous pressure: the demand for care is growing faster than the available resources and staff can keep up.

During an inspiration session at the Department of Culture, Youth and Media , prior to the ‘Culture & Care’ conference,  WHO researcher Nils Fietje emphasised the importance of promoting and preventing mental well-being. Because many factors that influence public health lie outside the healthcare sector, cooperation between different domains is essential for the development of strong promotion and prevention programmes[3] . Culture can play an important role in this.

Culture works, and the figures confirm this

During the conference, the importance of cultural participation for public health was substantiated several times with new data. International research[4] shows that participating in cultural and creative activities leads to better health outcomes and a higher level of well-being.

This insight is also strongly felt by citizens. According to recent Eurobarometer survey results, 87% of Europeans believe that cultural activities improve their emotional and physical health. The number of Europeans actively participating in cultural and artistic activities has grown significantly in recent years[5] . There is no lack of public support, but it appears that some steps still need to be taken to embed culture in health and welfare policy.

During the closing panel of the ‘Culture & Care’ conference, Kornelia Kiss (Culture Action Europe) pointed to the growing urgency in Europe to translate evidence-based insights into concrete policy. For example, the development of EU guidelines on culture, health and well-being is one of the 20 flagship actions in the EU Culture Compass[6] .

In Flanders, too, the cross-sectoral landscape of culture and care is gaining increasing interest. There is a growing awareness of the development of this landscape in both the culture and healthcare sectors, as well as in policy. This was also evident from the diverse composition of speakers and audience members at the ‘Culture & Care’ conference. They no longer needed to be convinced of the added value of closer cooperation between culture and healthcare.

At the same time, there was also critical reflection on the current reality and the observation that such cooperation is not always a matter of course in daily practice.  Important issues still require further reflection and answers to prevent this cooperation from degenerating into an unhappy marriage. We would like to highlight three of them.

How can culture be effectively embedded in (preventive) healthcare practices?

Research shows that both active and passive cultural participation contribute significantly to a healthy life[7]. Organising cross-sectoral cooperation at policy level is one thing, but effectively encouraging individual citizens to participate in culture, not only because it is inspiring, relaxing and interesting, but also and precisely because it is healthy, is quite another. During various debates at the conference, the idea was put forward that culture, like sport, should be firmly anchored in the public health system and individual health prevention. To achieve this, action is required from various sectors and actors in the landscape.

During the panel on Arts on Prescription, experts Lieve Nagels, Inga Surgunte, Paul Milbank and Isabel Vermote emphasised that, in addition to raising awareness, guiding citizens towards cultural care initiatives is crucial. The right intermediaries, care providers, community workers and artists, are indispensable links in this process. They speak the language of different sectors and facilitate the necessary connections. Their role in guiding participants often proves decisive for the success of individual care pathways in a cultural context.

How can we consolidate existing projects at the intersection of culture and care while also creating a context in which new projects can emerge?

This was the question that preoccupied many and was often raised implicitly or explicitly during the various panels of the conference ‘ Culture & Care’. Several voices at the conference indicated that there is already a lot of experimentation taking place at the intersection of culture and care, but often on an ad hoc basis and with little chance of sustainability. This increases the need to scale up projects with growth potential.

During the conference, various ideas emerged about how upscaling could be achieved. For example, it was emphasised that it is essential to identify existing projects and initiatives at the intersection of culture and care. A logical next step is to connect initiators and actively support knowledge sharing. This was also emphasised several times during the panel discussion ‘Making Change Happen in Culture & Care’ with Anna Kint (Freckle & vzw Coconuts), Jolle Desloover (Durf2030), Sieg Pauwels (vzw De Wissel) and Veronika Skliarova (cultural manager & theatre producer).

In addition, various voices indicated that room for experimentation remains necessary for culture-care projects. Instruments such as the Flemish Government’s subsidy for innovative partnership projects, which this year focused on participation, inclusion and the connection between culture, well-being and education, offer opportunities to stimulate new initiatives at the intersection of these policy areas[8].

How can we guarantee equal cooperation between cultural and care actors?

A recurring concern within the culture-care landscape is the risk that art will be instrumentalised in the service of the care sector. It is crucial that culture-care projects not only help participants or care institutions, but also strengthen artistic practice and the development of artists. There is no doubt that art and culture contribute to the health of participants, but the question remains: what does collaboration with the care sector also offer the artists and cultural workers who help shape, organise and supervise such culture-care projects?

Inga Surgunte, an expert in cultural policy and one of the driving forces behind the Interreg project Arts on Prescription in the Baltic States[9] , emphasised that it is essential to identify the needs of artists in these types of projects and to respond to them as effectively as possible.

Various panels at the conference emphasised that not every artist needs to be involved in cultural care projects. However, it is important that artists who are naturally socially engaged and see a role for themselves in this landscape are able to do so under fair working conditions, with proper remuneration and structural job security. A culture-care landscape can only be sustainable if the collaboration is valuable to all parties.

What now?

There is clear momentum in Flanders to further develop the cross-sectoral landscape of culture and care. For the first time, a single Flemish minister, Caroline Gennez, is responsible for both culture and welfare. During the closing debate of the conference, she explicitly expressed her belief in the cross-sectoral landscape. Based on the idea that ‘culture is food for the mind’, the minister advocates structural cooperation between the policy areas of culture and care. The Secretary-General of both the Department of Culture, Youth and Media, Bart Temmerman, and the Secretary-General of the Department of Care, Karine Moykens, also spoke hopefully about future policy cooperation.

The first steps have already been taken. IDEA Consult, in collaboration with VUB, iscurrently conductinga research project commissioned by the Department of Culture, Youth and Media with the aim of mapping the cultural-healthcare landscape in Flanders. In addition, this study should provide input for further shaping Flemish policy in this cross-sectoral field in the coming years.

This is a very exciting development to which IDEA Consult is keen to contribute.

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[1] Over a billion people living with mental health conditions – services require urgent scale-up

[2] Mental health in Belgium: challenges and actions for an appropriate approach | Independent health insurance funds

[3] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response

[4] What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review ; Culture and health – Publications Office of the EU ; Home — CultureAndHealth Platform

[5] Eurobarometer publishes findings on Europeans’ attitudes towards culture | Culture and Creativity

[6] Culture Compass for Europe – Culture and Creativity

[7]https://cultureactioneurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/C4H_Report.pdf

[8] https://www.vlaanderen.be/cjm/nl/cultuur/cultuur-en-economie/innovatieve-partnerprojecten

[9] https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/arts-on-prescription/