Culture for Health – Example from Serbia

Abstract Using the possibility of social prescribing at the community level integrates several sectors, primarily the health sector and the culture sector. The goal of this project was to strengthen intersectoral cooperation (culture and health) and consider the possibility of providing conditions in the local community for continuous prescribing of the culture ‘on prescription’. Institute for Public Health of Vojvodina invited Matica Srpska Gallery to participate together with the Novi Sad Healthcare Center in a unique project that connects culture and health. The ‘Culture on prescription - culture for health’ consisted of two phases: curatorial guidance and group workshops. Curatorial guidance means the selection of individual works of art whose narration is planned and methodologically adapted to different groups of participants and which evokes different feelings related to quality of life and health. The second part of the program consisted of workshops in the Museum, enriched with works of art and a pleasant atmosphere.The workshops are based on group analytical methods and participants had the opportunity to reflect their observations, experiences and feelings on individual works of art, and they often reflected with personal life experiences that were not only aesthetic, but also pleasant and therapeutic. Participants came in two sessions, with two different curatorial guides, carefully thematically prepared, and which were later the source for substantive reflection. The positive outcomes of these innovative workshops was confirmed through written and oral facts, through which the participants emphasized that the stay in the museum space was therapeutic in itself. The possibility of the so-called ‘depot’ or prolonged effect of the unique prescription was observed, emphasizing that the participation in the workshops left an impression on the participants and that they will stay with a positive feeling and pleasantness after receiving a ‘dose’ of culture for health.