What does it mean to practice care together in the arts, health, and social spaces? How do we sustain solidarity collectively?
Organized by Cluj Cultural Centre, the Culture and Well-being Forum takes place on October 29-30, 2025, and brings forward the need for care – where care is seen not as an instrument to do “better”, but as an integrative part of how we envision our world. A world in which we care for the communities around us. A world in which we care for the ones who take care. A world in which care is a collective act. To bridge the gap towards this vision, we need to make room for different languages of care to emerge from our daily practices and move towards a more solidary and sustainable collective dynamic.
The event takes shape at the intersection of two projects that we have been developing in the past couple of years: Re:form, an experimental initiative that questions and explores different approaches to work in the cultural sector, and CARE: Culture for mental health, a project that continues our research on the impact of culture on the health and well-being of people and communities.
Throughout this edition, we look to explore the concepts of care, solidarity and sustainability from two angles:
- One that looks at cultural work and considers the needs and struggles of artists and culture professionals in their practices and experiences;
- One that tackles structures of support for professionals working at the intersection of arts, health and social well-being.
These spaces of conversation, encounter, and collective reflection might help us come closer in imagining a desirable future, where softness and nourishment become gestures of resistance against an otherwise rushed and restless world.
We invite practitioners from the cultural sector, as well as artists and professionals working at the intersection of art, health, and well-being to join us on October 29-30, 2025, in Cluj-Napoca, at the Youth Pavilion. Participation is free of charge, but it requires registration; please find the registration form here.
Re:form is a programme developed by the Cluj Cultural Centre to explore, design, and test new ways of working in the cultural sector. It focuses on individual and collective care, the health and well-being of cultural workers, and equity as a guiding principle. The programme responds to the fragility of cultural work and the vulnerabilities faced by many professionals in the sector. Re:form is co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund and the Cluj-Napoca City Hall.
The CARE – Culture for Mental Health project is funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and brings together experts from across Europe to explore the intersection between arts, culture and mental health for a healthier future. CARE explores structural solutions for mental health and well-being through cultural engagement, with a special focus on youth mental health, work-related well-being, culture on prescription models, as well as developing principles and acts of care towards artists and cultural workers. The project is carried out by Cluj Cultural Centre (RO), European Festivals Association, Društvo Asociacija (SI), Culture Action Europe, Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture, Arts for Health Austria (AT), Bozar Center for Fine Arts (BE).
