FROM THE MARGINS TO THE CENTER

Culture, Well-being, and Health: New Paradigms for Community Cultural Welfare

The Fondazione Luigi Rovati, together with the ICOM Italy Cultural Welfare Working Group, Fondazione Palazzo Magnani, and Farmacie Comunali Riunite, is organizing a roundtable discussion to explore cultural welfare as a model of care capable of restoring centrality to the individual in their wholeness throughout all stages of life. The event has received the patronage of ICOM Italy and the CCW – Cultural Welfare Center.

At the heart of the discussion is the salutogenic approach: not merely the absence of disease, but the capacity to find meaning, connection, and beauty even in situations of greatest vulnerability. This paradigm shift calls for cultural and socio-educational practices to rethink and integrate their frameworks and methods.

Within this perspective lies the “L’arte mi appartiene” (“Art Belongs to Me”) method, developed in Reggio Emilia: a structured approach that brings artistic experiences to places where vulnerability is most acute—among adolescents facing difficulties, people with physical and mental vulnerabilities, and older adults at risk of social isolation.

The roundtable will also address other pressing areas, including mental health, where artistic practice complements clinical interventions in rebuilding identity and relationships, and active ageing, where art helps preserve personal narratives and continued engagement with the world.

The aim is to foster a shared vision in which culture and health are understood as intertwined dimensions of a common care for human well-being, avoiding both the misguided medicalization of culture and the reduction of art to a therapeutic tool.

PROGRAM

Under the patronage of:

In collaboration with:

Photo courtesy of Fondazione Palazzo Magnani

The event is free of charge and in Italian, booking is recommended. The ticket for the conference does not include admission to the Art Museum. A video of the event will be published on Fondazione's YouTube channel.