Care through Creativity | 2024

On February 16, 2024, the whitepaper ‘Arts in health in the Netherlands; A national agenda’ was launched at the Care Through Creativity event in Groningen. The event filled the Grand Theatre with an inspiring program of arts in health practice, research, as well as conversations with leading Dutch experts and scientists. The event also featured international guests such as Christopher Bailey, Arts in Health Lead for the World Health Organization; and Kornelia Kiss, Head of Research and Development for Culture Action Europe.

Care Through Creativity was both festive and active for participants: Violinists Krista de Wit and Luca Altdorfer engaged audience members in person-centred music making; dance for health specialist Andrew Greenwood turned the audience into a sea of dancing jellyfish. Another highlight was Christopher Bailey’s performance of ‘Vanishing Point’, a monologue about his loss of vision and what it taught him about human perception, connection, and the healing power of art. 

Presenting the whitepaper on arts as care 

‍The white paper contains an action agenda for strengthening the arts in health field in the Netherlands. At the event, the agenda was presented by some of its authors, who were also steering committee members of the project: Tineke Abma, director of Leyden Academy, and Barbara van Leeuwen, professor of surgery at UMCG, who gave an overview of the paper and its agenda. A panel on research included senior nurse and researcher Hanneke van der Wal-Huisman; participatory arts-based researcher Barbara Groot; and LKCA manager of policy and participation Marlies Tal, discussing arts in health in hospitals, long-term care and the social domain.

A conversation with Christopher Bailey, Kornelia Kiss, and Ferdinand Lewis dove deeper into several aspects of arts in health, including scientific evidence of the arts’ support for wellbeing, inter-sectoral collaboration, and what the Netherlands can learn from international arts in health policy. 

The steering committee was joined onstage by Tjeerd van Dekken, Provincial Executive for the Province of Groningen for Art & Culture, and Health, Wellbeing & Care, for a formal handing-over of the white paper. Van Dekken said that his hope––and the committee’s––was that the paper and its agenda would inform and stimulate local arts in health development, and contribute to the transformation of healthcare in the region.

‍Handover to national policy makers

In the week leading up to the white paper launch, Arts in Health Netherlands and its steering committee were invited to meet at the ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) in Den Haag to discuss cross-sectoral policy development for arts in health. The event was attended by VWS director-general of curative health, Barbara Goezinne, and OCW’s director of heritage & art Christianne Mathijssen, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). The white paper was handed over to the both of whom enthusiastically agreed to help move the national arts in health agenda forward.