What we do

• We facilitate the use of the Arts and Culture as tools: for promoting health and preventing illness; as supports for treatment trajectories and in relationships.
• We promote and support the spread of Culture and Health for the purpose of: knowledge, research and specialized training; the development of projects and good practices by sharing existing opportunities and generating favorable new conditions.
• We stimulate dialogue and cooperation between: the sectors of culture, of social assistance and health care with a view to enhancing social quality and sustainable development.

Current Activities

 

1. Support Fund – in support of partnership projects involving artists and health care structures in order to develop cultural activities that take place at sites where health care is provided.

Activities Completed

• Culture and Health Course 2023 – from October to December, for seven Mondays, personalities from the worlds of science and culture and professors from the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences and the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society at USI, coordinated by Prof. Enzo Grossi, discussed seven topics that link words to medicine and people’s well-being. This is what was proposed for “Words that Heal,” the third edition of the Culture and Health course, which this year saw the artistic collaboration of LAC Lugano.
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  Video of lectures
• Culture and Health Course 2022 – from Oct. 17 to Dec. 5, 2022, for seven consecutive Mondays, prominent figures from the world of science and professors from USI’s School of Biomedical Sciences, coordinated by Prof. Enzo Grossi, discussed seven topics that link music to medicine and people’s well-being. This is what was proposed by “Healing through music” the second edition of the Culture and Health course promoted by the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences of USI in collaboration with the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana.
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  Video of lectures
• Culture and Health Course 2021 – first academic course in Culture and Health that from October through December 2021, for seven Mondays, saw leading figures from the world of culture converse with professors from USI Faculty of Biomedical Sciences on the many aspects that link culture to health. The seven thematic evenings, open to the public and medical students (with recognition of 1 ECTS), took place in the USI East Campus multipurpose hall from 6 pm to 7:30 pm.
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  Video of lectures
• The First Swiss Forum “Culture and Health, Alliance for a Sustainable Future” – was held on Friday, November 26, 2021 at the Academy of Architecture of USI in Mendrisio and on Saturday, November 27, 2021 at the LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura. During the Forum, scientific evidence and best practices at the international level were presented, which stimulated debate and discussion on the topic.
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• Call for Case Studies – operators and experts on the topic were invited to submit experiences and projects that are currently being developed and implemented in Switzerland using innovative methodologies and on the basis of defined scientific results. The projects deemed most innovative by the scientific committee were presented by the authors during the “Culture and Health Forum, Alliance for a sustainable future” in November 2021.
  Call for Case Studies
  Selected projects
• “Culture and Health. Connected to shorten distances” – an event about Culture in the time of Covid-19 whose aim was to discuss and consider the lessons learned from the emergency during the Swiss Digital Days. The focus was on the increase in digital cultural productions and how these were used during the lockdown, as well as on the changes underway in cultural policy, on cultural supply and demand and on recent developments in artistic exploration.
  Swiss Digital Days
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• “Culture and Health. Connected to shorten distances” – an “aggregator” of digital cultural activities providing a selection of local and international offerings that emerged as a reply to the closing down of cultural institutions by the pandemic. The aim was to shorten the distances between the public, cultural centres and artists, while keeping dialogue alive and highlighting how meaningful the social and emotional aspect of cultural experience is even when it is digital, while waiting for the institutions to open again.
  landing.culturaesalute.ch
• “Words that Heal” – an open air exhibition on display in the streets of Lugano to help people project their gaze onto nature and the streets that are coming back to life. Forty-five writers – poets and narrators from Italian Switzerland including personalities from the Swiss theatre world –offered unpublished excerpts or passages taken from their recent works which appeared on posters put up in various neighborhoods in order to help the “resurgence of life” after weeks of quarantine.
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Future Activities