Originally recorded on 8 May 2018
Speakers: Daisy Fancourt (Wellcome Research Fellow, Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, University College London); Eva Bergquist (Head of Department of Culture, Stockholm County Council); Monika Kosinska (Programme Manager for Governance for Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe)
If medicine is an art, can art be a medicine? Increasingly, researchers have shown that there are real, physiological benefits to cultural participation. Singing in a choir, for instance, can improve health outcomes for people with chronic lung diseases. Participating in art therapy, experts are saying, can reduce trauma for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Governments across Europe and the world are realizing that there is an untapped, low risk, and often highly cost effective health and well-being benefit to cultural participation.
In this seminar, three international experts discuss the health effects of cultural participation and the potential of using arts and culture to improve health and well-being. They explore how culture and arts are used in health promotion, examine how cultural participation affects health and well-being, and discuss the challenges and benefits of deploying arts and health policies.
