Art and Culture as Therapy at the Symposium for "Practitioners in Arts and Health" in MoMA Nov 18–20, 2025

It was a real privilege to be invited to take part in the Symposium for "Practitioners in Arts and Health" at The Museum of Modern Art in MoMA (Nov 18–20, 2025) and present scientific results of the project Art and Culture as Therapy and the network of museum projects in Iceland. Health and museum professionals, caregivers and artists met, shared and exchanged knowledge and experience, mainly about Dementia. An invaluable experience for all - celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Meet me at MoMA" program! 

 

What I take with me are many things, - the sessions on laugh, story-making, the great work of the artist Janine Antoni. The most immediate thoughts are that many museums offer specific programs for caregivers and they GREATLY appreciate that care shown to them. Also a question was brought up about how medical students are taught empathy. Often actors come into play, here museums could also play an important role.

 

From the perspective of the medicine and key speakers:

Susan Magsamen is the founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab), Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a faculty member in the Department of Neurology.

Ad, Mary Sano, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

 

A roundtable of international perspectives on Global Insights and Cultural Programming designed for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, was facilitated by Lara Schweller, Associate Educator of Access Programs and Initiatives, The Museum of Modern Art. 

Featuring: Halldóra Arnardóttir, PhD Art Historian and part-time teacher at Iceland University of the Arts; Adriane Boag, Program Convener, Access and Inclusion, National Gallery of Australia; Cristina Bucci, Coordinator MTA System, Museum of Tuscany Alzheimer’s; Evi Kaisari, Schools & Community Engagement Senior Manager, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center.

Art and Culture as Therapy as part of Treatment and Care for Dementia through Person Centered Medicine

The project Art and Culture as Therapy was included at the 13th International Congress of Person Centered Medicine in Reykjavík 6/7 November 2025. The organisers felt there IS a need to introduce “Art as a therapeutic tool” for person centred treatment. 

The 13th annual international congress on Person Centered Medicine was planned for by the Icelandic Alzheimer Society in collaboration with the International College of Person Centered Medicine. Held in Reykjavik, it’s main theme was “Person Centered Medicine and Care in Dementia.” The field of dementia is person centered in a different ways from most other fields in medicine as the person in the center is progressively loosing cognitive abilities. The person centered approach also needs to take into account the different stages of cognitive deterioration.

Other lectures on "Art as a Therapeutic Tool” were Michael Timmons who spoke about the "playlistforlife" project in UK and Pro. Werdie van Staden at the University of Pretoria in South Africa who spoke about the use of art from the perspective of philosopy.

 

Inclusive Museums for well-being and health through the creation of a new shared memory

The Museum Studies at University of Iceland, with the rest of the collaborative Universities has completed this Erasmus +project!

The Inclusive Memory project aims at promoting the building of a common shared social memory realised through a museum based social inclusive system, through the link Art-Health-Wellbeing. It is based on the concept which sees museums as teaching and learning environments, and Universities as active social actors, both strengthening their role of cultural integration facilitators. The core idea of the project stems from the potential benefits of the cooperation between HEIs, Health and Social care Institutions and Museums, as a strategic partnership to advance in museum education as well as in museum experience in order to support the design, realization, monitoring and evaluation of art-based activities and actions specifically addressed to people with social care and health problems.

https://www.inclusivememory.unimore.it

We hope you enjoy the reading and that it turns out to be of inspiration for your projects and programs!

Art and Culture as Therapy takes part in the conversation con COMMON GOOD: Dialogue on Community Art.

ReykjavíkurAkademían in collaboration with The Icelandic Disability Alliance, Reykjavík Arts Festival, Iceland University of the Arts, City of Reykjavík, Reykjavík City Theatre and Art Without Borders hold a lecture series COMMON GOOD: Dialogue on Community Art. 

The series take place from Feb 16th – June 15^th 2022.  

 

 

Second event of five takes place Wednesday March 16th at 12 pm. 

Live stream in icelandic with English subtitles and icelandic sign language interpretation followed by online discussion.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81109752788

ART AND COOPERATION: FINDING CREATIVITY AND WELL-BEING Cooperative & developmental projects at the Iceland University of the Arts 

Inclusive memory. Inclusive Museums for well-being and health through the creation of a new shared memory

Art and Culture as Therapy is one of the pillars in the European partner project Erasmus+ KA220-HED: Inclusive memory. Inclusive Museums for well-being and health through the creation of a new shared memory led by Universita degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena Italy. 

 

The Inclusive Memory project aims at promoting the building of a common shared social memory realised through a museum based social inclusive system, through the link Art-Health-Wellbeing. It is based on the concept which sees museums as teaching and learning environments, and Universities as active social actors, both strengthening their role of cultural integration facilitators. 

 

The role of the University of Iceland, department of Museum studies is: Design of the Pilot-courses to train future museum professionals, social care givers, school teachers and healthcare personnel into the idea of Museums as Inclusive Spaces.

 

The Universities that collaborate in the project are:

Universita degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia – Modena, Italia

Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia – Madrid, Spain

Zètema Progetto Cultura Srl – Rome, Italy.

Universidade Aberta – Lisbon, Portugal

University of Iceland– Reykjavík, Iceland

Inter Alia– Athens, Greece

Institut Catala de la Salut– Barcelona, Spain

SWAIP Webinar: Social Inclusion and Well-Being through the Arts and Interdisciplinary Practices

 

SWAIP Webinar

Social Inclusion and Well-Being through the Arts and Interdisciplinary Practices

Date: Thursday 10th June from 14:00 to 16:30 CET (12:00-14:30 Icelandic time)
Organizer: Iceland University of the Arts
Location: On-line
Registration deadline: 8 June

The event will be in English

In this webinar about the SWAIP Erasmus+ project (2018-2021), we celebrate the findings of the process and introduce a new study programme, expected to launch autumn 2022 at the Iceland University of the Arts. The goal of the SWAIP study programme is to introduce students to art‘s abilities to make connections, facilitate well-being, empowerment and strengthen self-confidence. Emphasis is on training flexible and sensitive artists, capable of relating to advanced ideas and finding new roles in the constant changing society.

The project is funded by the Erasmus+ programme.

Art and Culture as Therapy in Museum Picasso Malaga

Organized by Museum Picasso Malaga, the Art Laboratory for Memory Loss addressed people who work within the cultural sector and museums, in cultural and social management, are experts in cooperation development, social agents, and people affected by the process of cognitive deterioration, their caregivers and families. During the morning and afternoon sessions, focused on Art and Memory, professionals within the cultural sector offered participants tools which they could apply in their respective professional fields. 

With the participation of Halldóra Arnardóttir, with title Art, Science and Alzheimer, she started her session with a greeting, and a physical and emotional warm-up. In continuation, she explained the project „Art and Culture as Therapy“ put into practice at the Demencia Unit at the Virgen de la Arrixaca Hospital in Murcia, and drew out the main aims and conclusions in relation to factors such as emotions, quality of life and social communication. This was an interactive talk and aimed to find elements that showed why and how the arts could help the scientific investigation and be part of a non-pharmacological treatment for Alzheimer. What were the tools that arts could offer the investigation? 

The second part of the session focused on practical cases inside the exhibition Calder-Picasso, evocing emotions and stimulating dialogues about preselected works. For example, the conversation about "Woman seated in a Red Armchair" started with "how is she sitting?" and finished with "a woman embracing a baby, a mother".

The "MuBAM Alzheimer Project" in Prague October 2-3, 2019

International conference „Culture Connects. Social inclusion: creative partnerships of culture with other sectors”, took place in Prague, Ministry of Culture, on October 2-3, 2019. The event was organised by National Information and Consulting Centre for Culture (NIPOS), Czech Ministry of Culture and other partners.

The aim of the conference was to open the discussion on the role of culture in the process of social inclusion, its situation in the Czech Republic and inspiration from Europe and abroad. 

Spain was represented by the MuBAM Alzheimer Project and its speaker took part in the panel discussion of “Health and Culture”, introduced the MuBAM project in the “Culture and Institution” section, as well as took part in discussions.

See further about the program and Conference:

Culture Connects

The Network keeps growing within Art and Culture as Therapy for Alzheimer!

Art and Culture as Therapy for Alzheimer’s in the Seminar: Health and Culture create Welfare- 27-28 March 2019, St Petersburg, Russia.

The seminar is arranged within the framework of the Nordic-Russian project Quality of Life - Health and Culture, which focus on how culture is used in health care and rehabilitation of children, adults and elderly people, including people with special needs. The objective of the project Quality of Life - Health and Culture is to strengthen Nordic-Russian cooperation and exchange of knowledge on culture in health care. Culture and health is a relatively new growing knowledge field in the Nordic countries and NW Russia. A healthy population has a positive influence on the countries’ competitiveness, growth and innovative capacity. The combination of culture and health cooperation contributes to increased sustainability within health care.  

The project is financed by Nordic Council of Ministers and the Health Committee of the City of St. Petersburg is co-operation partner in Russia. Other partners are: City of Turku, Finland, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm Sweden, and Ministry of Welfare, Iceland.