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 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 will try to explore the concept 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.
Tune in to the Solidarities of Care podcast
Agenda
Day 1 | October 29, 2025
@Youth Pavilion, Cluj-Napoca (The Railway Workers’ Park)
09:00 – 09:30 | Coffe and welcome
09:30 – 11:30 | Panel discussion: State of the art. Working conditions and systemic factors impacting cultural work
A reflection on the structural realities shaping cultural work and the ways in which policy, governance, and collective action can address them.
Introduction: A survey on the socio-economic and health conditions of cultural workers in Romania. Research Findings
- Cristian Pop, Scientific researcher and Lecturer at the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca
- Rarița Zbranca, Programme Director of Cluj Cultural Centre
Dialogue with:
- Monica Urian, Policy Officer at the European Commission
- Lars Ebert, Secretary General of Culture Action Europe
- Irina Cios, Director AFCN/ Romanian National Cultural Fund (TBC)
- Iulia Popovici, Critic, Curator, Policy expert
- Miki Braniște, Associate Professor at Faculty of Theater and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj
- Ramona Laczko, Director, Centrul de Proiecte Timișoara
09:00 – 09:30 |
Coffee and welcome
09:30 – 11:30 |
Panel discussion: State/Status of the art. Working conditions and systemic factors impacting cultural work
A reflection on the structural realities shaping cultural work and the ways in which policy, governance, and collective action can address them.
Introduction: A survey on the socio-economic and health conditions of cultural workers in Romania. Research Findings
- Cristian Pop, Scientific researcher and Lecturer at the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca
- Rarița Zbranca, Programme Director of Cluj Cultural Centre
Dialogue with:
- Monica Urian, Policy Officer at the European Commission
- Lars Ebert, Secretary General of Culture Action Europe
- Irina Cios, Director AFCN/ Romanian National Cultural Fund
- Iulia Popovici, Critic, Curator, Policy expert
- Miki Braniște, Associate Professor at Faculty of Theater and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj
- Ramona Laczko, Director, Centrul de Proiecte Timișoara
11:30 – 12:00 | Break
11:30 – 12:00 |
Break
12:00 – 13:00 | Group discussions: Sustainability of care in the cultural sector
A participatory session inviting cultural workers to reflect on their daily work, sharing experiences of well-being, working conditions, power dynamics, governance, and questions of meaning, security, and collective responsibility, while exploring patterns and gaps that influence the sustainability of care in the sector.
12:00 – 13:00 |
Group discussions: Sustainability of care in the cultural sector
A participatory session inviting cultural workers to reflect on their daily work, sharing experiences of well-being, working conditions, power dynamics, governance, and questions of meaning, security, and collective responsibility, while exploring patterns and gaps that influence the sustainability of care in the sector.
13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch
13:00 – 14:00 |
Lunch
14:00 – 15:40 | Alternative approaches to cultural work [Re:form]
14:00 – 15:40 |
Alternative approaches to cultural work [Re:form]
17:00 – 18:30 | Artistic programme @OM Centru Coregrafic
17:00 | Reform residencies | Collective exhibition
Introducing the artistic processes developed within the programme
With: Selma Dragoș, Oana Hodade, Alice Iliescu, Mirela Ivanciu, Mihai Păcurar, Veda Popovici
—
18:00 | lucrez-visez / dream-work
a lecture-performance developed by Oana Hodade
When we talk about work, we increasingly think about the emotional layers that accumulate from our interactions and activities. Positive or negative feelings are added as indicators for evaluating our relationship with work and, together with terms such as adequacy, success, productivity, and failure, lead to (self) positioning on a spectrum ranging from efficient to impostor.
Nightlife is not separate from daytime life, just as dreams do not manifest themselves in a vacuum, but are, without exception, linked to situations experienced during the day. But in what way, and what kind of feelings continue to vibrate in sleep? What are the things that still require attention, that need to be resolved during the night? Why does work (and the concerns, worries, and stress of the day) extend into sleep?
Register here for the lecture performance.
17:00 – 18:30 |
Artistic programme @OM Centru Coregrafic
17:00 | Reform residencies | Collective exhibition
Introducing the artistic processes developed within the programme
With: Selma Dragoș, Oana Hodade, Alice Iliescu, Mirela Ivanciu, Mihai Păcurar, Veda Popovici
—
18:00 | lucrez-visez / dream-work
a lecture-performance developed by Oana Hodade
When we talk about work, we increasingly think about the emotional layers that accumulate from our interactions and activities. Positive or negative feelings are added as indicators for evaluating our relationship with work and, together with terms such as adequacy, success, productivity, and failure, lead to (self) positioning on a spectrum ranging from efficient to impostor.
Nightlife is not separate from daytime life, just as dreams do not manifest themselves in a vacuum, but are, without exception, linked to situations experienced during the day. But in what way, and what kind of feelings continue to vibrate in sleep? What are the things that still require attention, that need to be resolved during the night? Why does work (and the concerns, worries, and stress of the day) extend into sleep?
Register here for the lecture performance.
Day 2 | October 30, 2025
@Youth Pavilion, Cluj-Napoca (The Railway Workers’ Park)
09:00 – 09:30 | Coffee and welcome
09:30 – 11:30 | Policy dialogue: Time to act: What are the policy priorities for culture and health?
- Monica Urian, Policy Officer at the European Commission
- Edith Wolf-Perez, Co-founder of Arts for Health Austria
- Sebastian Mihai Armean, MD PhD, Chief Physician of Outpatient Clinic at the Clinical Hospital of Infectious Diseases Cluj-Napoca / Senior Lecturer at Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Panel discussion: How do we take care of others and ourselves when working with arts in health and social environments?
- Ioana Hirișcău, Assistant Professor and Trainer, Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy
- Julia Puebla Fortier, independent consultant on arts and health, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Bristol Medical School
- Dace Resele, Acting Head of the Secretariat of the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture
- Valentina De Piante, Choreographer, Artist, University Lecturer, UNATC Bucharest
09:00 – 09:30 |
Coffee and welcome
09:30 – 11:30 |
Policy dialogue: Time to act: What are the policy priorities for culture and health?
- Monica Urian, Policy Officer at the European Commission
- Edith Wolf-Perez, Co-founder of Arts for Health Austria
- Sebastian Mihai Armean, MD PhD, Chief Physician of Outpatient Clinic at the Clinical Hospital of Infectious Diseases Cluj-Napoca / Senior Lecturer at Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Panel discussion: How do we take care of others and ourselves when working with arts in health and social environments?
- Ioana Hirișcău, Assistant Professor and Trainer, Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy
- Julia Puebla Fortier, independent consultant on arts and health, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Bristol Medical School
- Dace Resele, Acting Head of the Secretariat of the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture
- Valentina De Piante, Choreographer, Artist, University Lecturer, UNATC Bucharest
11:30 – 11:45 | Break
11:30 – 11:45 |
Break
11:45 – 12:15 | Not in Your Dreams/ Cum numa-n vis (LUCREZ/VISEZ)
Developed by Selma Dragoș within the Re:form residency programme
During sleep, our brain generates electrical impulses, digests reality, sorts images, combines or separates them, thus deciding what to keep as a memory and what to bury in the unconscious.
Let’s imagine that we, as cultural workers, are the network of dreaming neurons of the community in which we live. If we were to dream a dream about ourselves together, what would it look like? Upon waking, how would we interpret it?
11:45 – 12:15 |
Not in Your Dreams/ Cum numa-n vis (LUCREZ/VISEZ)
Developed by Selma Dragoș within the Re:form residency programme
During sleep, our brain generates electrical impulses, digests reality, sorts images, combines or separates them, thus deciding what to keep as a memory and what to bury in the unconscious.
Let’s imagine that we, as cultural workers, are the network of dreaming neurons of the community in which we live. If we were to dream a dream about ourselves together, what would it look like? Upon waking, how would we interpret it?
12:15 – 13:00 | Wrap-up and takeaways
12:15 – 13:00 |
Wrap-up and takeaways
13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch
13:00 – 14:00 |
Lunch
14:00 – 15:30 | Exploration circles: Steps towards collective action (location TBC)
#1 Self-care and safeguarding when working with vulnerable audiences in arts and health
Facilitated by: Katy Geertsen, Artist and Co-founder of Arts for Health Austria
#2 Building a community of practice in the cultural sector: the need for solidarity and continuity
Facilitated by: Lorena Copil, Project coordinator & Rarița Zbranca, Programme Director of Cluj Cultural Centre
14:00 – 15:30 |
Exploration circles: Steps towards collective action
#1 Self-care and safeguarding when working with vulnerable audiences in arts and health
@Youth Pavilion, Railway Workers’ Park
Facilitated by: Katy Geertsen, Artist and Co-founder of Arts for Health Austria
#2 Building a community of practice in the cultural sector: the need for solidarity and continuity
@Om Centru Coregrafic
Facilitated by: Lorena Copil, Project coordinator & Rarița Zbranca, Programme Director of Cluj Cultural Centre
Don't miss out!
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 Romanian National Cultural Fund, the Cluj-Napoca City Hall and the European Union.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Romanian National Cultural Fund (AFCN). AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.
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).