Get Involved

For the arts in health movement to make progress in the Netherlands, advocacy is needed at every level of public life. Advocates across the country are joining forces to make a permanent place for the arts in our healthcare system. Current examples include: 

• The center for Kunst en Zorg which was founded by Museum van de Geest, Cordaan, and Erasmus University Rotterdam.
• ZonMW’s Kunst Langdurige Zorg program has funded research and practice in arts in health for over a decade, helping to establish the field in the Netherlands.
• The Federation of Occupational Therapeutic Professions, a network of professional arts therapy associations ensuring quality and innovation in creative arts therapies. It represents the interests of practitioners and organizations using the arts in therapeutic practices.
• Because municipalities are responsible for both informal healthcare and culture, they are interested in intersectoral health + arts collaborations to support community wellbeing. Public officials in Gemeente Tilburg, for one example, are actively supporting collaborations between artists and healthcare organizations. 
• Through the affiliation Kunst is Gezond, provincial arts organizations are investigating how arts in health ––as a cross-sectoral strategy–– can provide support for community health and illness prevention.

To make arts in health into a cohesive field in the Netherlands, planning, strategising, and innovation are needed: 

• Encourage cross-sectoral collaborations between the health and culture sectors at the local, provincial and national levels. 
• Initiate an arts in health learning community to share resources, discuss practice, and gather valuable experience from the field.
• Develop pilot programs with sustainability in mind. Work with partners in healthcare, make a plan, gather resources, and strategise for the long-term. Sustainable pilots should be informed by up-to-date empirical research and rigorously evaluated.  
• Develop policy education for arts in health. Cross-sectoral policy analysis skills are needed to bridge culture and health, to develop (for example) shared standards of practice.   
• Join national networking to develop a common identity for the field, as well as a shared vocabulary of concepts, and frameworks for practice. Participation in arts in health conferences, colloquia, public lectures and presentations.  

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Dutch researchers in the life sciences, social sciences, and humanities have been investigating arts in health since the 2010’s. ‍

• Life sciences research has tended to investigate the health outcomes of arts interventions, for example the health effects of live music on hospital patients, or the effects of creative movement on people with dementia. These studies are mostly done in a medical context, using empirical data in controlled or semi-controlled situations. 
• Social science studies of arts in health have also tended to use empirical data, in studies of, for example, the attitudes of chronic pain sufferers toward their own pain before and after museum visits. Other studies have investigated the health implications of social cohesion among community members, or the causes of burnout among informal caregivers, and other issues.   
• Dutch humanities scholars have studied phenomena with social and policy implications such as audience participation, as well as theoretical inquiries into the role of the artist in healthcare, and health humanities topics such as care ethics; art historical perspectives on medical history; the aesthetics of care; and many others.  

Arts in health is a relatively new field of research in the Netherlands, but interest is quickly growing. In 2024 a special professorship of Art and Care was created at Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, funded by Cordaan and Museum van de Geest, to promote arts in health research. Some current research funders include the Kunst en Cultuur in de langdurige Zorg en Ondersteuning of ZonMw; the SPRONG Creating Cultures of Care project; and the Welzijn op Recept initiative. 

Dutch researchers are discussing the development of a national 10-year research agenda for arts in health to prioritise topics that are insufficiently researched. For example, more research is needed on strategies for sustainable arts in health programming; effective program evaluation of arts in health; the experience of arts and compassionate care for healthcare staff; curriculum research for higher education; finance models; standards of practice; innovating cross-sectoral public policy, and more. 

Researchers who are new to the field may find the following publications helpful: 

• Arts in Health: Designing and researching interventions
• Arts, health and wellbeing: A theoretical inquiry for practice
• Academic Journals

For arts in health to play its role in the Dutch healthcare transition, high quality interdisciplinary education must be available. Education for arts in health is off to a good start in the Netherlands: 

• The consortium Creating Cultures of Care is now conducting a scoping review that will map the Dutch educational landscape of 'art in care' and 'care in art'.
• The Arts in Health Summer School offered annually at the University of Groningen,  provides a hands-on introduction to the theory and practice of participatory arts in health, as well as an introduction to creative arts therapies. 
• The Prins Claus Conservatoire offers opportunities to research and learn about the practice of music in health 
• The Art of Caring summer school at the University of Utrecht brings together students from healthcare and the arts to explore intersections in research and practice 
• For those interested in creative arts therapies, certified courses and degrees are offered around the country. 

Individual courses on arts in health are being prepared for HBO and WO in the Netherlands, and the practice of arts in health can also be found in related fields such as fine arts, care aesthetics, nursing, chaplaincy, and medical humanities. 

Internationally, education on arts in health is more prevalent. You can, for example, join online courses from several english programs, including University College London, Kings College London, and the Royal Society for Public Health. 

If you are an educator or education researcher, or if you are a student think about studying arts in health, keep these things in mind: 

• Arts in health is an interdisciplinary field that operates in a wide variety of situations. Training should be available to people at various stages of their career, and at diverse levels of education. People who practice arts in health may also work in other professions, such as the arts, healthcare, social work, or others. 
• Arts in health calls for expertise in both the arts and some aspects of healthcare. Any practice situation will likely have its own additional requirements.  
• Because arts in health is relatively new in the Netherlands, educators are still developing a unified set of concepts and theories to link the arts, healthcare, and related fields. 
• Do no harm. Because arts in health professionals work in healthcare situations, the highest levels of ethical and professional standards are required. We should support the work of healthcare, but not disrupt it. 
• As in any caring profession, our practitioners require self-care. Reflection, self-care practice, and debriefing are important for arts in health professionals.

There are exciting possibilities for the arts in health movement in hospitals and care facilities in the Netherlands. Professionals are learning about arts in health, and many want to start a new pilot at their workplace. Also, facilities that already have an arts in health program want to find ways to make it sustainable. We can be encouraged that foundations and health insurance companies are investigating arts in health, and the ministries both of health and of culture have expressed interest in cross-sectoral collaborations. 

To make full use of the potential of arts in health in the Netherlands, healthcare leaders will need new program models and case studies of arts in health practice, to inform their plans and proposals. Current or recent projects in Dutch healthcare facilities include:   

• The ‘Art Routes’ project at Amsterdam UMC, which encourages visitors to use visual art works from the hospital collection to make meaning from their experience of illness. 
• The UMCG Arts in Health Pilot at the University Medical Center Groningen actively engages staff with a variety of art forms (visual art, music, dance, creative writing, etc.) to support wellbeing and prevent compassion fatigue. 

Many Dutch arts in health programs are funded by time-limited research projects, or else they depend on non-structural ‘soft money’. Developing structural support for arts in health will require a critical mass of successful practices, including documentation and program evaluations in Dutch hospitals and health facilities. 

If you are interested in proposing an arts in health pilot or program at your facility: 

• Build a strong logic model to propose your program strategy, and also to inform a thoughtful and rigorous program evaluation strategy. For an insightful take on this, see here the abstract to a paper by Savaya and Waysman. Include such a logic model in your proposal and final report, to inform other innovators. 
• Study existing and past arts in health projects and programs, especially if their facilities are similar to yours.  You can find international and Dutch examples in the publication Arts in Health in the Netherlands: a national agenda, and watch for more in the Explore section of this website. 
• If you are developing a research-focused project on arts in health, consider including in your report some reflections on how the practice of arts in health could be sustainably continued at your facility.  
• If you are developing a practice-focused project, consider foundation funding, or innovation grants from professional organisations and national funders. 
• If your hospital or facility has a ‘Vrienden van’ or arts committee, consider approaching them for an innovation grant. Professional health organisations could also be interested in funding a pilot. Study the mission of any group or organisation to which you apply, and make sure that your project fulfills their mission as well as your own. 
• Cite peer-reviewed, up-to-date scientific research to support your practice proposal. Decades of research are found in the WHO’s 2019 scoping review of arts in health research, and much more has been published in the years since. Along with the research on health outcomes, consider also citing institutional and social research on arts in health in healthcare facilities.   

Other actions you can take: 

• Talk about arts in health with your colleagues. Give examples of practices. 
• Assemble a work group or learning community at your facility to explore and strategise developing an arts in health pilot program.

Although researchers are building scientific support for the arts in health field, and educators are developing courses and training, funders and policy makers still need to see a ‘national portfolio’ of well-executed, rigorously evaluated examples of arts in health practice. For arts in health to become a permanent and sustainable part of Dutch healthcare, a portfolio of quality practices are needed. This will demonstrate the contribution that arts in health makes to care.  

Arts in health practice is a continuum of many activities, but two broad categories are particularly important: 

• Participatory practice, the aims of which include reducing stress, boosting mental health, and fostering resilience, for example. Participatory practitioners do not attempt to deliver predictable therapeutic results, but aim to support wellbeing. Participatory artists, for instance, work with patients or staff in hospitals, and also in neighborhoods and communities. 
• Creative arts therapies aim to deliver specific health outcomes, and require specialised healthcare training and formal licensing. Creative arts therapy programs are found in hospitals and also in communities. Creative arts therapists are trained to do either therapeutic or participatory artmaking activities, as the situation requires. 

If you are developing a proposal for a project or program, these recommendations may be helpful:

• If you will be submitting your proposal to a care facility or community care provider, study the mission of that organisation and design your project to fulfill their mission as well as your own. 
• Use peer-reviewed, up-to-date scientific research to support your practice proposal. However, beware of using your practice to ‘prove’ that arts in health delivers health outcomes. Rather, use existing research to create the circumstances in which the known effects of the arts occur. You can find some of the scientific literature here.
• Build a thoughtful and rigorous program evaluation strategy into your proposal. Use a program model to describe your program. Consider including a reflection on how the program could be made sustainable into the future. 

Other actions you can take to promote arts in health practice: 

• Assemble a work group or learning community to strategise sustainability-focused pilot programs, for care facilities and in the social domain. 
• Encourage local health administrators, university researchers, funders, and your government to support arts in health practice. 

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