Voices of Culture – the structured dialogue between the European Commission and the cultural sector is delighted to announce the publication of the Brainstorming Report on the topic ‘Youth, Mental Health and Culture’. Participants from 23 countries, representing 53 selected organisations from an Open Call in the fields of culture, health, education, and social services looked at the evidence and practices of the cultural and creative sectors on the mental health of young people from different angles and formulated concrete recommendations and tools for policymakers and cultural practitioners in the EU and on national levels.
AEC was selected to take part in the structured dialogue and appointed as representative Camilla Overgaard, songwriter, guitarist, teacher in artistic entrepreneurship at the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, and former member of the AEC Student Working Group.
The brainstorming took place on 4th & 5th October 2022 – in Brussels and the outcomes were presented to the European Commission in a Dialogue Meeting on 8th December 2022.
The findings are represented in the five chapters of the report. They lay out an extensive overview of successful projects that have been carried out by the group members or associated organisations for, with, and through young people and which proved to contribute to stabilising their mental health.
Camilla Overgaard’s Testimony
With the rise of mental health issues affecting the well-being of young people, I find it both important and necessary that we collaborate across the AEC member institutions to come up with ways to counteract this development. Taking part in the Voices of Culture brainstorming meeting on Youth, Mental Health and Culture as a representative for AEC, has been an enlightening and inspiring experience.
I hope that the report will inspire future projects involving youth and mental health within higher music education as well as raise awareness of the topic. In addition to the recommendations given in the report, it also contains a large number of examples of initiatives involving youth, mental health and culture for inspiration. The five chapters in the report are written by five groups of participants who met for the brainstorming meeting in Brussels on the 4th and 5th of October 2022, and who have afterwards worked digitally to write the chapters. I have personally contributed to chapter 3 ‘Inter-sectoral collaboration to support Youth Mental Health: synergies and innovations’.
The report was presented in a meeting with representatives of the European Commission on the 8th of December in Brussels. Here, Agnes Fogh Schmidt, who represented the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Denmark, led an artistic intervention where everyone sang a song which was complementary to the report together. This was a powerful way to communicate the message that culture can play an important role in improving youth mental health.
