Programme that uses art with resources in the area of health, and that highlights the value of museums and cultural institutions as agents with the potential to be beneficial for the well-being of people

Projects:

Migrant women with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (Vall d’Hebron)

A group of twelve women from diverse cultural backgrounds who suffer from symptoms of traumatic stress have worked for ten sessions in the rooms of the Museum, accompanied by professionals from the institution and the hospital, with the aim of incorporating the arts as recourse to the therapeutic field.

"This initiative is part of a cross-cutting programme recently approved by the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS) that seeks to advance the use of the therapeutic value of the different artistic and cultural disciplines.".

 Art Gran – The elderly and loneliness (Public Health Agency of Barcelona)

Foto: Agència de Salut Pública de Catalunya

There is growing scientific evidence of the beneficial effects of art on people's well-being. Participation in arts activities by the elderly helps to reconnect them with the community.

The aim of the project is to contribute to the reduction of the loneliness of the elderly (from the age of 70) in the city of Barcelona through art workshops held in museums and heritage spaces. In 2019, the cultural facilities that are part of the project - Museu Picasso, MACBA, CCCB, Recinto Modernista Hospital de la Santa Creu y Sant Pau, CaixaForum and the Museu Nacional - have worked on the elaboration of the protocol of action and constitution of the 'team that had to carry out the intervention and the selection of the elderly participants. The 10 sessions of the project were to be implemented between April and June 2020, but due to the incidence of Covid-19, the project is still waiting for the health situation to change.

Respirar quadres – Breathing paintings (Municipal Care Homes of Barcelona)

Foto: Gemma Reguant

Covid-19 has highlighted the need to establish other ways of communicating that will ensure the well-being of people and alleviate their situation of physical and emotional isolation. The lack of air in a real and figurative sense has shaped the landscape of the illness: Covid patients have suffered it, but also people who have felt alone or isolated in their homes, the medical staff fighting against the pandemic, people from social organisations, overwhelmed and overrun by what was happening, and especially the elderly living in care homes.

The aim of the project, based on a selection of works from the museum, is to bring health benefits to people through breathing, sensory and bodily awareness accompanied by Gemma Reguant, creator of the method resulting from her research. and expert in voice and breathing.

The sessions take place in the 4 municipal care homes of the city of Barcelona in the morning and in small groups of elderly people who have been chosen by the management of the centres.

Forthcoming sessions: Friday: 5^th, 12^th, 19^th and 26^th February, 2021, from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.

Venue: Municipal residences: Francesc Layret, Fortpienc, Josep Miracle and L’Onada Parc Guinardó

Shared storytelling

Residència per a Gent Gran Fort Pienc. Foto: Gemma Reguant

Based on the observation a work or a set of works of art in the museum's collection, we will generate a conversation that will be a catalyst for memories, recollections and wishes. The activity will allow participants to build stories in a creative and shared way that add new, very personal and unique meanings to works of art. 

Onsite Sessions: 13^th, 20^th, 26^th April; 3^rd, 10^th, 17^th, 24^th, 31^st May 7^th, 14^th, 22^nd, 29^th June and 5^th, 12^th, 19^th, 26^th July 2021, from 10:00am to 1.00pm.

Venue: Municipal Care Homes: Francesc Layret, Fortpienc, Josep Miracle and L’Onada Parc Guinardó

Sessions online: 18^th and 22^nd May: AFAB (Association of Families with Alzheimer's Disease of Barcelona), from 11.00am to 1.00pm; 26^th May: VINCLESBCN, from 11.00am to 12 noon, 27^th May and 10^th June: Casals de la Gent Gran (Gràcia), from 11.00am to 12 noon.

To find out more we encourage you to read the article La taula de museus i accessibilitat visita a la gent gran.

Recuperart-19 (Catalan Health Institute, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Department of Culture)

The Catalan Institute of Health (ICS), in collaboration with the Department of Culture, proposes to the health community a programme based on the use of museums as environments for reflection and improving emotional well-being.

The programme is designed to be carried out individually and autonomously and focuses on the prevention and management of possible symptoms of anxiety, depression or even mild manifestations of post-traumatic stress associated with their professional activity during the Coronavirus crisis.

From a clinical point of view, it has been designed by the Psychiatry Service of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and the research group of Psychiatry, Mental Health and Addictions of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), headed by Dr. Josep Antoni Ramos-Quiroga, one of the two directors of the programme together with Guillem d’EfakFullana Ferré, coordinator of the ICS Health Arts Strategy.

Who can take part?

• Health professionals will only need to be accredited by showing their professional identification at any of the participating museums, which will offer them admission free of charge.
• They will be provided with a notebook specially prepared for the activity and an information card with a list of works from the museum around which the intervention will revolve. This booklet will be the guide to follow the activity, which will be self-guided, and details instructions and guidelines for the participant. The proposed activities focus on mindfulness, concentration, focusing, cognitive association, creativity, writing, drawing, and reflection.

Where is it carried out?

• The activity takes place individually and autonomously in the rooms of the museum’s collection.
• Timetable: from 10.00am to 6.00pm from Tuesdays to Saturdays, and from 10.00am to 3.00pm on Sundays.

Museums that participate in the initiative: Museu de l'Empordà, Figueres; Museu d'Art de Cerdanyola; Museu Arxiu Tomàs Balvey de Cardedeu; Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona; Museu de L'Hospitalet; Museu Pau Casals, El Vendrell; Museu de Tortosa: Històric i arqueològic de les Terres de l'Ebre; Museu Episcopal de Vic; Museu de Lleida: Diocesà i Comarcal; Centre d'Art La Panera, Lleida; Ecomuseu de les Valls d'Àneu, Esterri d’Àneu; Museu d'Art Modern de Tarragona; Museu de la Pell d'Igualada i Comarcal de l'Anoia; Museu d'Art de Girona; Museu de la Garrotxa, Olot; Museums of Sitges.

The programme The art of speaking is the result of the collaboration between the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya and the Lifelong Learning Education Service of the Department of Education of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Its aim is to foster competency-based learning of languages in the schools of adults paying special attention to oral communication and transmedia literacy, understood as a set of skills, practices, values, sensitivities, and learning strategies and exchanges applied in the context of new collaborative cultures.  

We organise working groups trained by educators from vocational training centres, special education schools, and professionals from the museum to share experiences that contribute new knowledge and ways of approaching artistic heritage from universal accessibility