Interdisciplinary artistic practices offer fresh perspectives on addressing mental health challenges. By supporting community-based, site-specific art projects and sustainable cultural well-being initiatives, we can broaden the horizons of mental health awareness and prevention, and explore innovative paths to recovery.

This has been the case with TaideTurvapaikka, a project in Oulu that brings together artists, refugees, and residents of remote communities through art and cultural well-being workshops.

Art and culture can be powerful companions on the journey through mental health challenges. This isn’t just a claim backed by researchers around the world, it’s something many people experience in their everyday lives.

Whether it’s a favorite song on the radio, a photo snapped on your phone, a handmade card from a friend, a tune you hum (even silently), or the simple act of stretching your arms in a dance-like motion – it all supports mental well-being and can make things feel a little lighter. (Fancourt & Finn 2019.)

It was only in 2019 that the World Health Organization (WHO) formally began testing arts-based interventions in mental health and suicide prevention (WHO Regional Office for Europe 2019). This came 72 years after the WHO’s own constitution first defined health not merely as the absence of disease, but as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being (WHO 2025).

In the decades between, artists and cultural workers have continuously demonstrated the profound impact of art on mental health. Through community art-making, creative practices, and various forms of peer-supported communication, they have developed and delivered art-based interventions in mental health contexts, gathering experiences, building knowledge, and inspiring professionals across the mental health field.

Peer-to-peer exchanges among community artists, art therapy professionals, social workers, and people with lived experience of mental health challenges – alongside practice-based training – have deepened the understanding of how art supports mental well-being. These collaborative processes have also sparked widespread experimentation across sectors. Art supports mental health in multiple ways: it helps people express and regulate emotions, build self-compassion and confidence, foster a sense of belonging, and reduce stress and anxiety. There is no one-size-fits-all solution – what matters is an individualised approach.

In 2022, the WHO Regional Office for Europe released a report highlighting the critical role of arts and culture in supporting the mental well-being of forcibly displaced people (WHO 2022). Over the past 12 years, the number of people forced to flee their homes due to war, conflict, and widespread human rights violations has continued to rise, reaching over 122.6 million by mid-2024. To put that into perspective: by mid-2024, one in every 67 people globally was forcibly displaced – twice as many as a decade ago.

Those other 66 people have felt the pulses of pain, grief and hate – each dramatically affecting mental health.

The inaccessibility of mental health support has deep historical and social roots. Positive change comes slowly, as evolution usually does.

Who hasn’t had a friend in recent years who’s quit social media and stopped reading the news because “it’s unbearable to follow the headlines anymore”?

Art and culture have helped us all – both survivors and witnesses of painful events around the world – to cope, heal, and endure, while also staying informed and connected to reality.

Sneak peeks of healing – inspiration, improvisation, space

Although each mental health journey is unique, certain patterns have become visible when working with diverse groups across ages and backgrounds. I have been collecting and analysing cases I’ve encountered as a (co)host in TaideTurvapaikka, Hyvän mielen talo and various cultural well-being activities held in places of isolation.

Creative methods alone don’t boost healing as effectively as a workshop led by an invited artist. The artist brings life and soul into the activity, creating a unique sense of connection and belonging.

Artistic practice is best implemented with at least two facilitators present. This helps create a trusting atmosphere, allows for more individual attention, and supports the lead facilitator in case participants’ traumas begin to surface.

Mindfulness practices, for example – or any activities involving silence – may be counterproductive in PTSD contexts, even though they can be beneficial in other areas of mental health. Leaving room for becoming either louder or quieter helps the group find its own balance.

A pop-up format for events or workshops helps create a safe and relaxed atmosphere, where participants can choose how much they engage. Often, the absence of pressure encourages self-expression more effectively than structured guidance. The pop-up format has proven particularly valuable for people in the early stages of recovery, offering a gateway to more in-depth, scheduled sessions. Time-based workshops or events with a clear beginning, middle and end are best organised for groups already familiar with the host and the activity – that’s when discipline tends to arise naturally.

A workshop or immersive performance has proven to be an effective format in mental health contexts, offering freedom of choice in self-expression and fostering horizontal, deeper communication between participants and artists or hosts.

Experimentation and improvisation are highly effective in the context of cultural well-being – they relieve pressure on participants, who quickly sense that it’s possible to explore and create without formal art education or prior artistic experience.

Especially with limited resources and in the context of isolated places, music and sound art have shown their magic in transforming spaces and recycling meanings into ones that offer more comfort in the context of mental health. A dull room with no emotional memories attached to it is no longer the same after someone has made music and created sound there.

Breathing is a simple tool for managing anxiety and panic attacks. It might seem obvious, but it doesn’t always work. Playing a flute (even an imaginary one), singing, or moving the body can introduce breath more subtly into the scene, often with better results than a literal suggestion to “breathe, breathe.”

Including the word “dance” in the workshop description can unfortunately make people feel shy. But small, simple movements – just with the eyes or fingers – help release tension and often lead organically to dancing, even if it’s just a subtle dance of the eyelashes or a slight movement of the head.

It’s good to improvise and follow the group’s flow, rather than focusing too much on producing a specific outcome. Creating community art and exhibitions can be wonderful, but it’s important to remember: no pressure.

Workshops and events attended by just one person are just as meaningful as those with many participants. It seemed, during the COVID-19 pandemic, that we had learned this – that performing for four people was just as worthwhile as performing for forty. But in reality, that lesson hasn’t fully landed. Through TaideTurvapaikka and my work at Hyvän mielen talo, I’ve witnessed time and again that the number of attendees doesn’t define the value of the session. Fewer participants can mean deeper connection and more intimate exploration of the artistic method. So it’s not a bad thing at all if only a few show up.

TaideTurvapaikka: when general and personal contexts collide

I happen to be a dedicated fan of art and cultural interventions in mental health contexts, both professionally and personally.

In short: I have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and found healing, primarily through art. For many years now, I’ve also worked professionally in the fields of community art and cultural well-being. Every day, I witness how people grow more confident on their mental health journey through a wide range of artistic methods.

My work in community art and cultural well-being has focused especially on so-called vulnerable groups – particularly those stuck in places of isolation, such as mental health institutions, refugee reception centres, rehabilitation facilities for substance abuse, and prisons.

My background is in journalism, with a focus on political and community art and human rights. I am half Ukrainian and half Russian. This background led to my receiving political asylum in Finland in 2019, after spending two years in refugee reception centres. It’s the kind of background that means living with complex trauma and continuously searching for recovery strategies. For that experience, I’m deeply thankful. In cultural well-being work, personal emotional experiences can powerfully enrich professional insight. During my own journey of healing from PTSD, I never imagined I would return to that place of shared sorrow – the refugee reception centre – and yet I did. This time, as a recovered professional in community art and cultural well-being.

I have been working in the art and cultural well-being sector since 2020, which led to launching my project TaideTurvapaikka in 2023. It connects artists and refugees through art and cultural well-being workshops across a wide range of disciplines: dance, yoga, sound art and music, visual arts in various techniques, handicrafts, design, installation, intuitive and expressive art, and everything in between. After each session, I interviewed the artist about how the chosen artistic method worked. This helped collect valuable insights and build a growing database of reflections. Since its beginning, TaideTurvapaikka has welcomed hundreds of people to dozens of art and cultural well-being workshops. In 2023 alone, it connected up to 200 refugees and asylum seekers with ten artists for fifteen workshops. In 2024, new artists joined the project and new artistic methods were introduced. Nineteen artists and several artistic volunteers created over twenty workshops and events, engaging with more than a hundred refugees of different ages and backgrounds.

As a facilitator, I have been cohosting the workshops alongside wonderful artists, as well as leading sessions focused on music, sound, and movement. It’s remarkable how – without any materials – you can recycle meaning and refill a space simply through movement, sound, and music.

TaideTurvapaikka received cultural project funding from the City of Oulu – €2,000 for the working group in 2024 and €3,000 in 2025. The project was also supported in other ways: through collaborations, donations of art supplies and snacks, shared experiences, and equipment, thanks to like-minded individuals and organisations. Among these was Hyvän mielen talo (The Cheerful House), an Oulu-based mental health charity focused on peer support for people navigating mental health journeys of various diagnoses, traumas, and paths. In 2024–2025, I was in charge of the music and exhibition space there, hosting and cohosting cultural well-being activities with different target groups, especially those involving movement, music, and sound.

I have applied TaideTurvapaikka practices in other spaces of isolation as well – such as mental health asylums, supported housing units, shelters for people struggling with substance abuse, and facilities for the homeless – in collaboration with artists and organisations such as the Red Cross, Pohde, Rinnekodit, Kotia Palvelut, and Dodo ry.

These have been eye-opening experiences that clearly demonstrate how stigma and racism often go hand in hand, and how inclusive, immersive artistic activities can play a powerful role in reducing both.

Throughout both my personal and professional journey, I have witnessed people smile after long periods of pain and depression, shake off stress, overcome social anxiety, and become more present in the moment.

Medicine for the soul

Art helps in countless ways, if we don’t stop exploring them.

Public discussions, shared stories, and experience exchanges – both within professional circles and among those navigating mental health journeys – are essential to this exploration.

Investing in art is investing in mental health. The world may never go completely mad as long as art continues to offer new ways of working through trauma, which is especially vital in times when triggers like war and violence show no signs of ending soon.

 

Author:

Lölä Vlasenko is an Oulu-based culture & well-being expert, community art producer, journalist, and facilitator of the TaideTurvapaikka project.

 

Article photo: Lölä Vlasenko.

 

Sources

Fancourt, D. & Finn, S. (‎2019)‎. What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/329834

WHO (2025). Arts and Health. https://www.who.int/initiatives/arts-and-health

WHO (2022). Arts and health: supporting the mental well-being of forcibly displaced people. https://www.who.int/europe/publications/m/item/arts-and-health–supporting-the-mental-well-being-of-forcibly-displaced-people

WHO Regional Office for Europe (‎2019)‎. Intersectoral action: the arts, health and well-being: sector brief on arts. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/346537