Film in Hospital at the Culture & Health Forum 2026 in Vienna: from evidence to sustainable healthcare integration
On 8–9 September, Film in Hospital European Coordinator Kids Meet Art / Djeca susreću umjetnost participated in the Culture & Health Forum 2026 in Vienna, bringing together European and international policy makers, researchers, healthcare and cultural organisations, and practitioners working across culture and health.
The two-day Forum moved from research evidence to a question increasingly central to the European Culture & Health field: how can cultural participation move beyond individual interventions and become sustainably embedded in healthcare systems?
Contributions from Monica Urian, European Commission; Nils Fietje, WHO Europe; Kornelia Kiss, Culture Action Europe; Carmen Valero, RED NOSES International, and representatives of national Culture & Health developments across Europe highlighted the growing importance of healthcare partnerships, professional training, safeguarding and procedures, evaluation, governance, financing and health economics.
National experiences also offered very practical lessons. Building sustainable Culture & Health structures requires mapping healthcare systems, finding allies within them, identifying shared objectives between culture and health, developing a common language and building long-term relationships rather than relying on isolated projects.
These discussions are particularly relevant for Film in Hospital.
Operating across 12 European countries, Film in Hospital combines continuous access to curated European film with shared viewing, facilitation, film education and creative participation, alongside hospital partnerships, training, implementation procedures and research and evaluation.
The Vienna discussions therefore reinforced an important direction for our future development:
Film in Hospital is a structured, evidence-informed cultural participation model embedded in healthcare settings.
Culture in hospitals should also not be understood only through its potential therapeutic effects. Hospitalised children remain cultural citizens and have a right to access and participate in cultural life.
Kids Meet Art has recently become a member of Culture Action Europe and continues to closely follow the work led by Kornelia Kiss, from CultureForHealth to the current CultureAndHealth Platform. The new Culture and Health Hub, including its planned work on practical protocols for healthcare contexts, is one of the European developments Film in Hospital will follow particularly closely.
The Forum also opened new opportunities for dialogue with WHO Europe, RED NOSES International and Culture & Health actors from across Europe as Film in Hospital continues to develop its model at the intersection of culture, children’s rights and healthcare.
Photos were taken at the CultureAndHealth Platform’s Culture and Health Forum Vienna 2026 at Kulturhaus Brotfabrik. Photographer (c) Barbara Mair – ARTS for HEALTH AUSTRIA.
