Why Stories, Culture, and the Arts Matter for Health and Well-being

2.12.2024 0 Like 0 kommenttia

Stories are not just entertainment—they shape our values, beliefs, and identities. They influence moral choices and actions in both our personal lives and professional spheres, writes university researcher Kai Lehikoinen.

Stories are not neutral; as philosophers like Michel Foucault (1972), Judith Butler (1990), and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1988) have noted, they are shaped by power structures that privilege some perspectives while marginalizing others. Recognizing these dynamics helps foster a more inclusive and equitable society.

Culture: carvings, bodies, and beliefs

Culture has deep, complex roots. From ancient rock carvings in Portugal’s Côa Valley to modern human lifestyles, it is evident that culture shapes and is shaped by human interaction with nature. Even our bodies are profoundly shaped by cultural forces.

A ballerina body, for example, demonstrates how the aesthetics of ballet carve body culturally specific and historically particular ideals through disciplined training and strict dietary habits.

Of course, you don’t need to be a ballerina to have a culturally carved body—we all live in bodies influenced by cultural conventions, habits, and norms from aesthetic ideals to lifestyle diseases such as diabetes. What role has culture played in shaping your own well-being?

Culture’s evolution ties closely to the development of language, social structures, and shared values, which form the backbone of human identity. Sociologists like Pierre Bourdieu (1986) and Erving Goffman (1956) describe this process as cultural embeddedness, where social norms become ingrained in our behaviours and attitudes.

Thus, culture is a defining aspect of human identity. Without culture, an essential element of what makes us truly human is absent.

Cultural well-being

When we talk about culture’s impact on health and well-being, we talk about cultural well-being—the perceived experience of how culture and the arts enhance one’s sense of fulfilment, belonging, and health.

This has turned into a rapidly growing field of research and arts-based social innovation development during the past two decades.

A Lancet article, Culture and Health (Napier et al., 2014) highlights culture’s capacity to create needs and shape human behaviour, well-being, and health, making the healthcare systems respond to the consequences of these needs and behaviours. Thus, health is deeply intertwined with culture.

However, health systems, approaching health-related phenomena and illnesses generally from the perspective of medical sciences, tend to neglect these cultural dimensions of health. This neglect is due to binary thinking in Western thought, where science is seen as objective and culture as subjective, resulting in limited cultural understanding within the Medical Sciences that dominate much of the health discourse (Napier et al., 2014)

The role of the arts in cultural well-being

The arts are a vital and evolving part of human culture, encompassing forms like music, literature, visual arts, performing arts, architecture, and design. At their core, the arts ignite imagination and creativity, providing spaces for critical reflection, meaning-making, and connection.

Belfiore and Bennett (2008) note that the debate on the connections between art, health, and well-being has been around for a while. Ancient Egyptians recognized the healing power of words over 3,000 years ago, while Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle explored how art shapes society and impacts emotions. Similarly, shamans across cultures have long combined art with healing practices.

Modern research continues to affirm the arts’ positive effects on mental, physical, and social health. The World Health Organization highlights their role in areas like mental health, pain management, and rehabilitation, thanks to their unique ability to engage the imagination, emotions, and senses (Fancourt & Finn, 2019).

By inspiring wonder, fostering creativity, and challenging conventions, the arts contribute profoundly to cultural well-being, making life more meaningful and connected.

Finding light in the darkness: art becoming a beacon of hope

A few years ago, my life fell apart, leaving me in a state of emotional turmoil. During this dark period, I visited an art exhibition and was captivated by a large, sombre painting by Henri Tuominen. It portrayed a night sky glimpsed through the bare branches of a forest tree—dark and haunting, yet strangely magnetic.

I felt an instant connection and returned to the gallery that same evening to buy the painting. Some friends were puzzled by my choice. “Why would you buy such a black painting? Isn’t your life dark enough?” they asked.

I invited them to look closer. “Do you see the narrow cracks and patches of moonlight breaking through the branches?” I explained. “It’s comforting to know that even in the darkest moments, light finds its way through, despite the obstacles.”

For me, the painting symbolized hope—a reminder of brighter days ahead and the patience required to endure until they arrived.

Challenges and critiques of art’s role in well-being

Despite the positive impacts, some critics argue that framing the arts in terms of health outcomes risks reducing their intrinsic value (McQuilten et al., 2020; Røyseng, 2006). The debate centres on balancing the arts’ independent cultural worth with their measurable social benefits (Belfiore & Bennett, 2008; Hadley & Gray, 2017). Quality of research and methodological challenges, such as the difficulty of isolating causal effects, also complicate interpreting research results (Clift, 2020; von Otter, 2008).

Furthermore, access to the arts often reflects systemic inequities, with marginalized communities facing significant barriers to participation (Clift, Camic & Daykin 2010; Ilmola-Shppard et al., 2021). Addressing these disparities is essential to ensure that the benefits of cultural engagement are available to all.

Moreover, some critics have asked whether the arts can effectively address large-scale social health challenges (Clift, Camic, & Daykin, 2010). These include basic needs like clean water and sanitation. Seriously! Hardly anyone expects art alone to solve such complex challenges.

However, collaboration with artistic minds can help think outside the box and imagine unforeseen possibilities. Just think about Captain Nemo on the view bay of Nautilus in 20000 Lieues Sous les Mers, which Jules Verne wrote in 1870—more than eighty years before the actual development of Trieste, the first deep-sea bathyscape, which was launched in 1953.

Given these critiques, it is important to advocate for more rigorous methodologies to better understand how the arts impact health, assess effective approaches for diverse populations, and examine any potential risks to health equity and well-being associated with arts initiatives.

Capabilities approach to cultural well-being

François Matarasso (2011), a leading expert on socially engaged art, critiques the oversimplification of art’s impact, where art is often seen as an active force and people as passive recipients. To counter this, my research team in ArtsEqual integrated a human rights perspective with the capabilities approach.

This approach, as articulated by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, emphasizes enabling individuals to lead meaningful lives they “value and have reason to value” (Sen, 1999, p. 291). Rooted in human dignity and freedom of choice, it positions arts engagement as central to cultural well-being—fostering both the achievements (functionings) and the opportunities (capabilities) that meaningful participation in the arts requires.

Achieving cultural well-being involves ensuring access to arts education, addressing systemic inequities, and upholding cultural rights. For example, enabling children from disadvantaged backgrounds to participate in the arts not only enhances their cultural capital but also supports lifelong well-being and personal growth, benefiting society as a whole.

At its core, the capabilities approach emphasizes agency, defined by Sen as the ability to “act and bring about change” (1999, p. 19). When individuals use their capabilities to engage with the arts, cultural well-being becomes a lived reality—applicable across various settings, including healthcare.

This framework not only informs our understanding of cultural well-being but also guides actionable strategies, such as increasing access to arts education and incorporating arts professionals into care environments. By fostering opportunities for meaningful arts engagement, we can support human dignity and holistic well-being in diverse contexts.

The arts in healthcare: beyond the medical model

Integrating the arts into healthcare fosters innovative approaches to well-being, enhancing patient experiences and promoting holistic healing by merging artistic creativity with medical expertise.

In ArtsEqual’s Policy Brief(Koivisto et al., 2020), we proposed practical measures for embedding the arts in healthcare. For instance, engaging patients in selecting music and discussing their feelings or using creative writing to help them articulate personal experiences can aid emotional processing and recovery.

Arts communication can also make health promotion engaging. Memorable rhymes or raps about hygiene practices or immersive short films sharing peer experiences offer impactful ways to convey health messages. For example, Nate Milton’s animated short film Eli vividly portrays a manic episode through surreal imagery, fostering understanding and empathy for mental health challenges.

Collaboration with local schools of art, dance, music, and theatre can bring performances, exhibitions, and workshops into healthcare settings, creating long-term partnerships that enrich care environments. Tools like the Tree of Life initiative in Finland’s Pirkanmaa region allow seniors to document their cultural preferences, connecting them with cultural well-being services tailored to their needs. For working-age individuals, cultural prescriptions—akin to the UK’s social prescribing—link them with arts and cultural offerings to support mental and emotional health.

Strengthening art therapies involves forming multidisciplinary teams, including art therapists and healthcare professionals, to evaluate how creative therapies can complement or replace traditional treatments. It can be beneficial for physicians to familiarize themselves with these therapies to integrate them effectively into care plans.

Programmes like artists-in-residence institutionalize the role of the arts in healthcare. By allocating budgets for art activities, healthcare organizations can incorporate music, hospital clowns, or dance ambassadors into patient care, ensuring consistent access to cultural well-being.

The arts also benefit healthcare staff. Workplace choirs provide stress relief and foster team cohesion, while applied drama, such as forum theatre, encourages staff to collaboratively explore and address workplace and patient care challenges.

By integrating the arts into healthcare, we can promote holistic well-being, support cultural engagement, and reimagine care environments for patients and staff alike.

Cultural well-being as a shared responsibility

Many different things motivate people to create art, and often these interests in artistic inquiry stem from questions that are deeply rooted in the particularities of each art form. Therefore, the debate on the value of art should not be reduced to a mere discussion of its effects on health and well-being. However, this does not mean that there is no meaningful connection between art, well-being, and health.

Culture and the arts are fundamental to human identity, connection, and well-being. Harnessing their transformative power requires a systemic and collaborative approach, bridging health, social care, education, and the arts to create environments that support cultural engagement for all.

Healthcare providers are uniquely positioned to champion cultural well-being. By drawing from their personal experiences with art and culture, physicians, nurses, and care staff can bring a humanizing dimension to their daily interactions—not only with patients but also with colleagues. These personal connections, when shared and nurtured, become a vital yet often overlooked resource that enriches care and fosters deeper empathy.

However, achieving meaningful change goes beyond individual efforts. Advocating for structural reforms, such as integrating specialized artists into healthcare settings, empowers medical professionals to embed cultural well-being into the fabric of care. These changes not only enhance patient outcomes but also improve workplace culture, promoting resilience, collaboration, and a positive atmosphere within health institutions.

By placing cultural well-being at the heart of person-centred care, we can build more compassionate, inclusive, and innovative healthcare systems—ones that recognize the arts as a cornerstone of holistic healing and human dignity. Let’s take shared responsibility for weaving culture and care together to improve lives at every level.

This blog posting is loosely based on the paper I presented at the Arts for Health – Nordic-Baltic Seminar on Art in Hospitals, at Hanaholmen – Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre, Espoo, November 19, 2024.

Writer

Kai Lehikoinen is a University Researcher at Uniarts Helsinki’s Research Institute and its Researcher Network Educational Research in the Arts (cERAda).

References

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