Professional collaborations between the arts and healthcare require particular knowledge and skills. The artist must understand what is happening on a ward or in a neighbourhood. The artist must know how to work safely with vulnerable people. The artist must make the connection between what art does and what care needs. Good education helps with that, at every stage of a career.
What Arts in Health education involves
Arts in health education is growing in the Netherlands. So is the demand.
- The University of Groningen runs an annual Arts in Health Summer School, combining practical and theoretical insights into participatory practice with an introduction to creative arts therapies.
- The Prins Claus Conservatoire offers opportunities to study and research the use of music in healthcare.
- The Art of Caring Summer School at Utrecht University brings together students from healthcare and the arts to explore where the two fields meet.
- Creative Arts Therapy Netherlands offers certified training for those who want to specialise in therapeutic applications.
Online courses are also available from University College London, King's College London, and the Royal Society for Public Health.
What is already happening
The Creating Cultures of Care consortium is mapping the educational landscape in the Netherlands. Their work will describe what programs already exist, and what is needed.
Universities and universities of applied sciences are developing more modules and minors in arts in health. Arts in health projects and courses can be found in the visual arts, care ethics, nursing, spiritual care, and the medical humanities.
For educators and students
Arts in health needs people who are at home in two worlds. You do not need to know everything, but you are curious about all of it.
Thinking about studying arts in health?
Look for programmes that connect to care, art, or welfare. Nursing, arts education, or social studies are good starting points. From there, you can go deeper into areas of arts in health that are of special interest to you.
Do you teach or develop programmes?
Arts in health is interdisciplinary. It needs collaboration between arts and healthcare educators. Help students learn to work safely with vulnerable people, and learn about self-care from the start.
Read more and get involved
- Books about Arts in Health
- Website Vaktherapie Nederland
- Culture for Health and Well-being Compendium
- Arts Council Ireland, Arts in Health Handbook
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