We are artists, healthcare staff, educators, researchers, administrators, and funders, united behind a national agenda, helping the field realise its vision.

Our work supports the Dutch healthcare system’s transformation toward a more positive, person-focused system of care. We believe that the arts can play an active role in healthcare, by enhancing the wellbeing of patients and healthcare staff, and supporting disease prevention and access to care in communities.

The mission of Arts in Health Netherlands is to give creative art-making a permanent place in the care systems of the Netherlands. We work with care institutions, communities, and local governments to develop sustainable arts in health programmes. We also develop and implement pilot programmes for arts in health practice; create training for university students and mid-career professionals; facilitate arts in health research; collaborate and network with partner organizations and governments to promote national policy and help establish Groningen as a hub for the arts in health field in the Netherlands.

Mission

We are artists, healthcare staff, educators, researchers, administrators, and funders, united behind a national agenda, helping the field realise its vision.

Vision

We are artists, healthcare staff, educators, researchers, administrators, and funders, united behind a national agenda, helping the field realise its vision.

Arts in Health Netherlands is

Kirsten Krans

Program Director

Kirsten holds a master’s degree in Marine Biology from the University of Groningen and has extensive experience in public engagement and arts & science programming. She is the founder and director of the Dutch contemporary dance platform Random Collision, and is a co-founder of the national touring dance festival Moving Futures.

Ferdinand Lewis

Director of Science and Education

Ferdinand serves on the Humanities faculty of the University College Groningen. He was a Director of the Center for Building Better Communities at the University of Florida, and an artist in residence at the University of Florida Shands Hospital.

Liza van Eijck

Program Assistant

Liza has supported projects on Open Science-public engagement and education in public health. She set up a studio for paper maché for people with mental disabilities in Utrecht. She has a degree in Architecture from the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht and Interior/Concept Styling at Artemis in Amsterdam.

Anne Roncoli

Project Assistant

Anne is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Health Business Administration at the University of Groningen, where she also received her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences. Anne is also a Project Assistant at the Aletta Jacob School of Public Health.

Twan Tromp

Research Assistant

Twan graduated from the University College Groningen majoring in Humanities. Currently he is pursuing master’s degrees in Arts and Culture and in Philosophy at the University of Groningen.

Nina van den Berg

Project Leader

Nina holds a master’s degree in Philosophical Ethics from the University of Utrecht. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD at the UMCG on the impact of live music on the emphatic and compassionate abilities of nurses.

National Arts in Health Steering Committee

Astrid Weij

Kunsten '92

Barbara Groot-Sluijsmans

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Science

Barbara van Leeuwen

University Medical Center Groningen

Ferdinand Lewis

Arts in Health Netherlands; Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health; University College Groningen

Hanneke van der Wal-Huisman

University Medical Center Groningen

Kirsten Krans

Arts in Health Netherlands; Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health

Marlies Tal

Landelijk Kennisinstituut Cultuureducatie en Amateurkunst

Organizations we work with include

Main partners

Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health

Codarts

Cordaan

Creating Cultures of Care

Dijklander Ziekenhuis

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Gemeente Eemsdelta

Gemeente Tilburg

Hanze University of Applied Sciences

Kunsten'92

Landelijk Kennisinstituut Cultuureducatie en Amateurkunst

Leeuwarden Oost

Leiden Academy on Vitality and Ageing

Museum van de Geest

Muziekschool Boedijn

NHL Stenden Hogeschool

Nationaal Programma Groningen

Noordwoord

Peergroup

ROC Amsterdam

Raad van Twaalf

Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau

Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen

University of Groningen

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

ZonMw

Listen

Episode | Your Brain on Art

published on

September 29, 2025

Do arts interventions and creative engagement really make a difference in our lives and our brains? Recently, Susan Magsamen, the author of Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, and Director of The International Arts and Mind Lab at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, was interviewed to discuss this exact question.

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