Arts in Health in the Netherlands: Setting the Agenda

Over the past decade interest has grown in the Netherlands for sustainable arts in health programming in care facilities and communities. Successful projects around the Netherlands have encouraged administrators, funders, governments, researchers, and artists to further explore the role that the arts can play in care and illness prevention. However, at present the Netherlands has no structures in place to systematically support arts in health programming, train practitioners, or to encourage research and policy development. A white paper that surveys the current situation in the Netherlands and sets the agenda for the near future is the first step toward creating a sustainable Dutch arts in health field.  

Arts in health is not treatment or arts therapy, nor is it passive entertainment. Rather, in line with theories of person-centred care and passende zorg, arts in health empowers participants to pursue their own wellbeing.

The goals of the white paper are:

• To provide a unified statement from science, government, and the private sector on the situation in the Netherlands regarding arts in health, and the need for a sustainable field.

• Initiate the active networking, knowledge-sharing, and collaborations required to catalyse the field of arts in health in the Netherlands.

• Set the agenda for establishing stable, sustainable practice, education, and research in the field of arts in health.

Roundtables Arts in Health
The roundtables will generate input and feedback on the white paper. A draft version of the white paper will serve as a starting point to open up a conversation with health and care professionals, artists, researchers, policy makers, managers, educators, practitioners and directors to share their experience and perspective on what is needed to make arts in health a sustainable field in the Netherlands.

Three roundtables will concentrate on different dimensions of care, in: hospitals; formal and informal long-term care; community-based disease prevention.

Each roundtable will cover four aspects of its particular theme: practice, education, research, and policy.

Date | Location | Care dimension

13 June 2023 | Den Bosch | Arts in Health in Long-term Care
Hosted by Leyden Academy at Conference Een nieuwe generatie ouderen langer thuis

30 June 2023 | Tilburg | Arts in Health in Communities
Hosted by Kunstloc at LocHal

7 July 2023 | Groningen | Arts in Health in Hospitals
Hosted by Arts in Health Netherlands and UMCG at Groot Handelshuis

The white paper is an initiative of Arts in Health Netherlands, Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health; Faculty of the Arts, University of Groningen; Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing; University Medical Center Groningen.