Community projects based on Art & Health: A collaboration between the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid and Madrid city council's Madrid Salud Service

Abstract

In 2011 the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid, and Madrid City Council's Health Promotion and Prevention Service (Madrid Salud Service) signed a collaboration agreement for developing joint projects and activities. This mutual collaboration agreement has generated an extremely active working network, in which university students supported by health service professionals plus Faculty academics and researchers have designed, and developed, community projects based on art and health with a number of groups (children, adolescents, women at risk, people with diversity, etc.). Across all these projects, both artistic creativity and art education have worked as mediators to offer significant experiences in promoting health. These arts programs (painting, drawing, photography, textiles, dialogues, and art appreciation) have been designed and developed by students for these communities and groups. These community projects based on art and health emphasise the capacity for commitment and collaboration of the groups and communities involved. Students and participants create together and in an atmosphere of trust, with awareness of their abilities and of the importance of art as a tool for changing their realities, in other words, as a tool for social transformation.