In 2019 The WHO Regional Office for Europe published a report “What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and wellbeing?” This report recommends the inclusion of arts and humanities education within the training of health-care professionals to improve their clinical, personal and communicative skills. This report with it’s recommendations confirms the needs for cross-sectoral action. Multiform Pedagogy in Arts, Health and Wellbeing Education (ARTHEWE) project develops HEI education in the interrelated fields of arts, health and wellbeing. This topic widely known as arts and health is a fairly new area of expertise that is attracting growing interest throughout Europe. A holistic approach to health and wellbeing can’t be achieved without developing the related education. The ARTHEWE project develops and renews multiform pedagogy, methods and tools in six international pilot modules. The project partners represent different fields of education and approaches to arts and health in their education. These differences are exploited in pilot modules to find new and innovative ways to arts and health methodology, planning curricula and tutoring students of various fields. Project partners are European HEIs from north, south and west. Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) as the project coordinator wishes to boost its new education in Creative wellbeing. The Royal College of Music (KMH) in Stockholm educates professionals in music, health and wellbeing. Medical School Hamburg (MSH) and its Department of Arts, Society and Health brings to the project its methodology of artistic research. The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) at Trinity College Dublin provides training in brain health, leadership and dementia prevention including medicine, science, business, law, journalism, social science and the arts. King’s College London (KCL) and its Faculty of Dentistry Oral & Craniofacial Sciences utilizes embodied practice sessions for students using contact improvisation as a way to explore mental and social wellbeing and shares this expertise in the ARTHEWE consortium. University of West Attica (UNIWA) is a new player in the field of arts and health and brings strong health-promotion and public health aspects to the project consortium. The project objectives are 1) To increase and share knowledge and skills in arts and health education. 2) To co-develop multiform pedagogical approaches and arts-based methodology of arts and health education in both online and contact learning. 3) To develop new study modules and to enhance the integration of arts and health into the curricula 4) To strengthen the collaboration between social, health care and art educators in the partnering organizations and transnationally. 5) To define the concept of holistic wellbeing and other relevant concepts. 6) To develop and define the needed core expertise of the professionals working in the international field of arts and health. The ARTHEWE project is targeting arts and health students and their educators in partnering organizations and beyond. The ARTHEWE project involves 140-200 students and 22-32 teachers in participating organizations. The main activities of ARTHEWE are development, implementation and evaluation activities of the pilot study modules in all partner HEIs. The results of ARTHEWE project are: 1) Shared understanding of the core expertise of the professionals working within the field of arts and health, brought together in a co-written publication which combines the views of all participating fields. 2) Co-developed multiform learning and teaching materials and implementations which can be applied to multiple fields of education. They combine multiform pedagogy approaches and methods from all participating fields and the best practices from the ARTHEWE pilots. 3) New and improved arts and health study modules in the field of arts and health. The study modules developed in the project assimilate input and inspiration from all the participating fields and experts. 4) Innovative methodology and pedagogical approaches of multiform pedagogy in arts and health education. The educators will create and apply new methods, skills and digital tools in the future education of arts and health professionals. 5) Graduating students in multiple fields equipped with wide-ranging professional skills and versatile professional identity. Pilot study modules provide the students with innovation skills, professional growth and meta-skills that multiform learning methods convey. The project results will be disseminated to European HEIs providing education in the fields of arts and health or interested in using arts-based methods in the education in the field of arts and health as well as the research and development networks of the field(s).
Our objectives were multi-fold: Increase and share expertise in arts and health education. Develop multiform pedagogical approaches and arts-based methodologies. Create new study modules and integrate arts and health and arts-based practices supporting wellbeing and professional growth into existing curricula. Strengthen cross-sectoral collaborations among educators. examine the use of art-based and creative methods and embodied learning approaches in supporting the students’ personal professional growth, wellbeing and sustainable practice Develop core expertise for professionals in the international field of arts and health.
We initiated the ARTHEWE project in response to growing societal challenges such as an ageing population, mental health issues, and youth exclusion in Europe. Backed by a WHO report recommending the integration of arts and humanities in healthcare training, we recognized a mutual interest and need among partner institutions for the development of cross-sectoral education in the field of arts and health. Our aim was to develop the education of professionals, who come from different sectors, such as social, health and culture sector and who work with health and wellbeing promotion. We wanted to introduce arts-enhanced methods and embodied practices for a more holistic approach to health and wellbeing. We also wanted to explore some key competences of the professionals working in the field of arts and health. An important codevelopment task was to find ways how to support the wellbeing., learning experience and personal professional growth of the students in higher education.