What role do culture and the arts play in supporting mental health in times of conflict and crisis? 🌍🎭🕊️

In contexts of conflict, displacement, and uncertainty, cultural practices and grassroots initiatives remain vital spaces for care, connection, and resilience among communities — and can become powerful acts of resistance. Beyond immediate response, they invite us to rethink how humanitarian and mental health approaches can become more community-centred and culturally informed. 🤝🎶

Our podcast collaboration with the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) explores the evolving discourse around cultural practices and intangible heritage in conflict and crisis zones, how the next generation of practitioners is engaging with these realities, and their visions for integrating culture into humanitarian mental health responses globally. 🌏🧠

In this second episode, podcast host Xhesjana Haxhiu takes the conversation a step further by asking our three guests to share their vision for the future, and to reflect on the best practices and approaches emerging from UK and EU international cultural relations in support of civil societies and their cultural practices in fragile contexts. ✨🏛️

With:

🎙️ Xhesjana Haxhiu — Research Collaborator at culture Solutions

🎻 Maw Hpray Myar — Myanmar activist and musician

🏛️ Ian Thomas — Head of Arts, Research and Insights at the British Council

🌏 Lora Ksieniewicz — Entrepreneur and humanitarian aid worker

When conflict erupts and healthcare systems collapse, culture and artistic practices often remain among the few accessible forms of collective care. 😷 In the absence of formal mental health infrastructure, music, visual art, and living heritage can become responses to trauma, grief, and social fragmentation. They also help communities preserve dignity, continuity, and resilience amid displacement and violence.How can European cultural cooperation better recognise and integrate this knowledge and community engagement? And how might the EU give culture a more central place in the relationships it is building with Asian partners 🌏 , allowing to connect deeper with civil societies and grassroot movements?In this podcast in collaboration with ASEF Culture360, you’ll hear:🎻 Maw Hpray Myar - bringing music to resistance communities🏛️ Ian Thomas - British Council expert on cultural protection🌏 Lora Ksieniewicz - humanitarian creating innovative funding models

This episode of the Composing Green podcast series, recorded in 2023 by Damien Helly, explores how agroforestry connects science, culture, and artistic practice within broader debates on climate, biodiversity, and rural transformation. Bringing together Maya Marshak, Patrick Worms, Francesca Camilli, and Zayaan Khan, it presents agroforestry as both an environmental approach and a form of cultural heritage that has largely disappeared from European landscapes.

Through discussions on colonisation, rural marginalisation, and the loss of ecological knowledge, the podcast highlights how artistic methods such as sound, visual archives, and historical representations can deepen scientific inquiry and public engagement. The episode argues that stronger interdisciplinary collaboration, supported by EU institutions, could help link environmental action with cultural dialogue, fostering more resilient landscapes and more inclusive forms of cooperation.

Speakers bios, quotes, sources of inspiration, and transcript > https://www.culturesolutions.eu/podcast/agroforestry-science-truth-and-the-arts/