THE HEALING POWER OF ART

How can art and culture promote health and well-being? What does a social art residency looks like? How can artists work in prisons, elderly care homes, hospitals or other non-traditional environments?
Welcome to a conference where you can explore and discuss the prerequisites for an art residency from your own professional point of view. The conference is meant for artists as well as anyone working with this topics.

Programme
9.30 Coffee and registration

10.00 – 10.15 Introduction to the conference and the WbRTT project
Hanna Harila, Region Norrbotten and Hanna Isaksson, Art North

10.15 – 11.00 Art in a prison in Umeå
Gerd Aurell, Teacher of free art at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts. Founder of Verkligheten i Umeå
The Public Art Agency Sweden and the Umeå prison commissioned Gerd Aurell to create an artwork to be located at the prison’s common area. Aurell chose to work with the inmates’ own stories. Based on this conversations and interviews, she created large drawings on the walls of a corridor the inmates pass every day. The work includes a separate publication with their stories, intended to be read aloud in the common area. Gerd Aurell will share her experiences of working in a closed environment - a world within a world. http://gerdaurell.se/

11.00 – 11.45 Re:Sound - Artist-in-residence at the rehab clinic in Ängelholm Hospital
Stefan Klaverdal, Musician and Sound Artist
Stefan Klaverdal worked as artist-in-residence at Ängelholms rehabilitation clinic for six months in order to investigate how art and music can influence and improve health care. During his stay he created several new works which he performed around the hospital premises. Among other things, he composed relaxation music for physical therapy and created a sound installation with birdsongs for one of the care units. Stefan will share his experiences from the residency at Ängelholms hospital.
http://www.stefanklaverdal.com/

11.45 – 12.00 A short introduction to Norrbottensteatern

12.00 – 13.00 Lunch at Bistro Norrland (included)

13.00 – 13.45 The artist who got admitted to psych
Marie Bondeson, Artist
In 2015 the headlines told the story of ”an artist who got admitted to psych”. This artist was Marie Bondeson.
While admitted, she investigated the psychosis ward by assuming different roles:  a nurse, a curator and a patient. The idea was to collect material for a design project for spaces under construction in the hospital. Unfortunately, the work was never realized, although a publication was released. Marie will share her experiences while working in such a closed environment, the obstacles faced but also the opportunities for creating change.
http://www.mariebondeson.se/

13.45 – 14.30 Creating an artistic method
Lasse Lundqvist, Artist
Lasse Lundqvist have a long experience working in artistic projects with marginalized groups. In the three-year project “Skaparkraft” (“Creation strength”), funded by The State Inheritance Fund, he created, together with Sound Artist Margit Schiött, a method for artistic work with refugees and young people with disabilities. The method became a success and has been furthered used with a variety of groups including elderly people suffering from dementia. Lasse will introduce the method and other projects he's been involved with.

14.30 – 14.45 Coffee break

14.45 – 15.45 Workshop: How can we develop well-being residencies in Norrbotten?
What are the challenges and the opportunities?

15.45 – 16.00 Round up and next steps

Background
"Well-being Residency Think Tank" is an international project that brings together professionals, experiences and know-how with the aim to investigate the role of an artist in non-traditional settings such as social and health care. The focus is to create new collaboration models that can give birth to new art residencies.

Project partners
Monitaideyhdistys Piste, Finland (project coordinator)
VSIA Rigas Cirks and Sansusi, Latvia
Sortavala Social and Youth Center, Russia
Art North and Swedish Lapland AiR, Sweden
Website. http://www.pistery.org/wbrtt/eng/

Organizers
Art North and Region Norrbotten's Culture and Health Strategist