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/

This Ukrainian-language episode focuses on how art and culture can help preserve memory, humanity, and solidarity in times of war. Since 2021, the European Union’s Concept on Cultural Heritage in Conflicts and Crises has recognised cultural heritage as a key driver of peace, democracy, and sustainable development. In Ukraine, this principle takes on a concrete meaning every day, as cultural workers, artists, and communities face the ongoing consequences of Russia’s invasion. In this episode, Daryna Zhyvohliadova, a collaborator with culture Solutions and coordinator of the Heritage Ukraine project at KU Leuven, speaks with Cuba and Alaska, two Ukrainian frontline combat medics whose extraordinary courage and friendship have made them emblematic figures of resilience. Both women have served on the front line since the early stages of the war, risking their lives daily to evacuate and treat the wounded under fire. Their story, defined by sacrifice, solidarity, and a disarming sense of humour, inspired the creation of the documentary Cuba and Alaska. Also featured in the episode are Yegor Troyanovsky, the film’s director, and Olha Bregman, its producer. The discussion offers a look at life on the front line, where courage, exhaustion, and dark humour coexist, and explores how documentary film can help preserve truth and collective memory in the face of destruction. It also highlights the role of cultural cooperation, as the film was co-produced by 2Brave Productions (Ukraine), Clin d’Oeil Films (Belgium), and Tag Film (France), and presented at Sheffield DocFest and BRIFF.

This English-language episode focuses on how art and culture can help preserve memory, humanity, and solidarity in times of war. Since 2021, the European Union’s Concept on Cultural Heritage in Conflicts and Crises has recognised cultural heritage as a key driver of peace, democracy, and sustainable development. In Ukraine, this principle takes on a concrete meaning every day, as cultural workers, artists, and communities face the ongoing consequences of Russia’s invasion. In this episode, Daryna Zhyvohliadova, a collaborator with culture Solutions and coordinator of the Heritage Ukraine project at KU Leuven, speaks with Cuba and Alaska, two Ukrainian frontline combat medics whose extraordinary courage and friendship have made them emblematic figures of resilience. Both women have served on the front line since the early stages of the war, risking their lives daily to evacuate and treat the wounded under fire. Their story, defined by sacrifice, solidarity, and a disarming sense of humour, inspired the creation of the documentary Cuba and Alaska. Also featured in the episode are Yegor Troyanovsky, the film’s director, and Olha Bregman, its producer. The discussion offers a look at life on the front line, where courage, exhaustion, and dark humour coexist, and explores how documentary film can help preserve truth and collective memory in the face of destruction. It also highlights the role of cultural cooperation, as the film was co-produced by 2Brave Productions (Ukraine), Clin d’Oeil Films (Belgium), and Tag Film (France), and presented at Sheffield DocFest and BRIFF.

On the 22nd of September, culture Solutions hosted the webinar EU’s International Cultural Relations: Reality Check, welcoming Mafalda Dâmaso, coordinator of the recently published and important handbook The EU as a Global Cultural Power, along with four contributors: Avril Joffe, Matina Magkou, Alessandro Lamonica, and Andrew Murray.

The webinar offered a timely opportunity to assess where the EU currently stands in international cultural relations (ICR), the gaps that persist between ambition and implementation, and how culture can act as a strategic tool in today’s rapidly evolving global landscape. It also provided a necessary reflection on the nine years since the 2016 Joint Communication towards an EU ICR.

The handbook discussed during the event is a must-read for anyone curious about, committed to, or passionate about international cultural relations. Its foreword provides a valuable historical context for European cultural policy — shaped by the rise of global cultural exchanges. It also highlights the EU’s internal and external ambivalences in its cultural approach — shifting from a focus on promoting cultural values to seeking economic justification, from soft power to what some now call “enabling power,” and dealing with the challenge of making its own cultural sector more competitive.

In this podcast, we selected key moments from the webinar where panellists and the audience explored several critical themes:

• EU–Africa cultural relations

• Cultural relations in the Mediterranean region

• The absence of theory in international cultural relations

• The rise of digital cultural movements

• The call for a strong community of practice
  

Enjoy the podcast — and we’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Let’s continue to engage and grow this community of practice together.

This French-language episode is part of a series dedicated to the role of art and culture in the face of crises and conflict: their capacity to support communities, foster dialogue, contribute to conflict resolution, and assist in both material and psychological reconstruction.

In 2021, the European Union adopted a concept on the protection of cultural heritage in times of conflict and crisis, recognising cultural heritage as an important driver of peace, democracy, and sustainable development. What can artists and cultural actors do to rekindle dialogue, preserve memory, and build peace? What role can the European Union, as an international player, take in defending endangered cultural heritage? What concrete initiatives have already been implemented, with what outcomes, and in collaboration with which partners?

In this episode, Lilian Richieri Hanania, a collaborator with culture Solutions, speaks with Fady Jeanbart, a Lebanese opera singer who has conducted significant archival work related to Lebanon’s cultural memory. This interview was conducted during the period of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut and southern Lebanon, followed by incursions by the Israeli army into Lebanese territory, between September and October 2024. These attacks, occurring in the context of the conflict between Israel, Gaza, Hamas, and Hezbollah, caused serious damage to Lebanon’s cultural heritage.Speaker bio, references and transcript: https://www.culturesolutions.eu/podcast/building-lebanese-cultural-memory/

In this third episode of the (Re)generating trust podcast series on the links between youth and culture, Elise Cuny exchanged with four artists from Kenya, Somalia and Italy, who took part in the ArtXChange project, a result of the AU-EU youth cooperation hub.

We explore how they experienced co-creation, how creative directors supported them in residencies and exhibitions, and what they learned from international cultural relations. “This is what it feels like to be alive. I didn’t know, but now I know”, shared a participant, pointing to the life experiences behind strategies.

More about the artists, sources of inspiration, and transcript on our website: https://www.culturesolutions.eu/podcast/au-eu-youth-cooperation-breaks-barriers-through-art/

Musical creation credits: Stéphane Lam Songs: Mana y’i Rwanda, by Kaya Byinshii, and Freedom, by Liboi