More than a feeling

Well-City Salisbury is a 3-year social prescribing project which supports people with low to medium mental health needs by delivering free, 8-week creative courses and volunteering opportunities. Courses are facilitated by the project’s four partner organisations; ArtCare at Salisbury District Hospital, The Salisbury Museum, Wessex Archaeology and Wiltshire Creative – alongside local artists experienced in supporting people with mental health needs.
Researchers from the University of Birmingham are the project’s independent evaluators, acting as a critical friend to help shape the project’s evaluation methods and understand the impact of the project on both its participants, staff, and the community. As the project enters its third year, in this session we will critically and collaboratively reflect on our experiences of delivering a social prescribing project and consider how evaluation methods develop, specifically to measure the impact of creative cultural heritage projects and how these methods have supported partners and participants to understand the impact this project has on their wellbeing.

This paper explores the ways in which archaeology and cultural heritage can help promote wellbeing in corporate communities and/or professional units in the form of non- medical therapeutic interventions. Archaeology for Well-being – Gaia Caecilia was created in 2021 to attempt to tease out how archaeology could be utilised in organisations to improve the mental wellbeing of their employees and work culture. To do so, a series of workshops were shaped using Cultural Heritage Therapy as a theorical backdrop in association with tangible exercises and activities. The workshops are aimed to suit corporate environments and to serve amongst expatriated communities using the past as a grounding experience, helping individuals to connect with the land, and the environing communities. This recent experience has revealed more than a few challenges, including the terminology used to engage stakeholders and participants, the format of activities proposed and the language used to compete against the vast and fast-growing wellness industry. This contribution is an attempt to discuss the ways to reach a wider audience, without compromising content and remaining relevant, that is to say helpful, to the people the workshops are meant to serve.

At Arcadis we are dedicated to “Improving quality of life”. The Dutch Heritage Team consists of 15 employees, who are eager to incorporate heritage – integrally, including archeology – in any type of (commercial) development: large- and small-scale projects, infrastructural projects, developments of the natural landscape, and advisory services for local, regional, and national governments.
Now, we are expanding our horizon by developing a ‘health and wellbeing’ domain. Easier said than done, since we are so often bound to strict formatting and limited budgets and timeframes. Nonetheless, it is the Dutch government’s intent to enact the Environment and Planning Act in 2024. It combines and modernizes laws for spatial planning, housing, infrastructure, the environment (including heritage), nature and water. All these fields contribute to our quality of life, health, and wellbeing. And it forces governments to initiate participation processes. In addition, it is the Dutch government’s intention to ratify the Faro Treaty. As it seems, this would be an excellent moment to implement the – for our team – new domain of ‘health and wellbeing’.
Some of the subjects to incorporate in this new domain are quite straightforward, like the preservation of natural and green assets and creating recreative routes along heritage sites to encourage physical exercise. Other subjects – even though they are equally important – seem to be more difficult to implement, like object-handling and socializing. Since we are still in a pioneering phase, we would like to explore the restrictions and possibilities of integrating health and wellbeing in commercial heritage research, to discuss how heritage can be used to achieve goals of health and wellbeing in future developments, to give some examples on how we could have integrated health and wellbeing in past projects and to gain valuable insights to further develop this domain.

The concept of wellbeing, embedded into some governments’ policies, continues to grow in importance as a way of articulating social benefit. Whilst art and nature are commonly linked in the public’s imagination to increased wellbeing outcomes, especially as a result of responses to covid lockdowns across Europe, archaeology is not (yet) given the same status in general literature or in policy, although this is changing.
Historic England published its first Wellbeing and Heritage strategy in 2022, this sets out our approach to considering wellbeing but what does it look like in practice? This paper will briefly introduce a strategic approach to wellbeing and then look at recent research into the specific wellbeing benefits of volunteering with archaeology and heritage carried out for us by the University of Lincoln.
It will then highlight three case studies in England (1) piloting wellbeing through archaeological monument management in Oxfordshire; (2) creative archaeological practice as therapy for vulnerable young people with archaeological partners; (3) working with community health and social prescribing.
Through these studies I will address the following ‘what works’ questions – how can wellbeing objectives help diversify participation with archaeology? How can wellbeing inequality be addressed working with people encountering disadvantage? In reality, how can we capture wellbeing benefits? What are the challenges and opportunities for archaeology and heritage working within local healthcare systems? The paper will end with a practical summary of issues and parameters for project design and implementation.

Taking part in heritage projects, including archaeological fieldwork, has become an increasingly popular way to improve mental health and wellbeing. But there can be times when projects might not have the right infrastructure to make sure that both the participants and the historic remains are well looked after.
In 2020 a team of researchers from Solent University, University of Winchester and Bournemouth University, with the support of Historic England, carried out a study that brought together a panel of 44 stakeholders in a Delphi consultation. The research informed a set of best practice guidelines to help make sure that both the historic environment and participants are looked after when they join ‘therapeutic’ heritage- based projects, and that the best possible results can be achieved safely.
This paper will present the background to the AMPHORA guidelines, the process by which they were determined through stakeholder consultation, key aspects of guidance – including the importance of working collaboratively with mental health experts and the involvement of those with lived experience – and the potential application of AMPHORA to a range of settings.

The relationship between the community and the environment is a central theme in the European Green Deal: how could the EU community approach a deep transformation towards a more sustainable society able to confront instances such as climate change, energy crisis and pandemic consequences? Cultural Heritage in this sense represents the common roots that connect people and spaces, generating a community at the micro and macro scales. The same connection, if positively addressed, could have positive effects on individuals’ mental and physical health. On this, the World Health Organisation stated that supportive environments are fundamental for individual and community well- being. Since the introduction of theories about community-assigned heritage values, it emerged the need to establish a methodological approach that could enable a multidisciplinary investigation of the heterogeneous set of factors that links archaeological-heritage landscapes and local communities. This paper approaches the issue by proposing a transdisciplinary methodology based on exploiting the full potential of 3D data combined with Heritage Community analysis. Starting from an analysis of the local communities’ perceptions (questionnaires and interviews), the workflow will include GIS-based visibility analysis to link physical and perceived features. In summary, this research believes that decoding such features and links, bridging research, local community perceptions and tools for planning could foster cultural democracy, place attachment and well-being.

Feeling ‘useful’ to and valued by oneself, family, friends, and society has been shown to have a dramatic impact on mental and physical health of older people. This research focussed on people over the age of 60 as these represent a poorly documented but growing constituency. While younger people, military veterans and those who have sought assistance for their mental well-being have already been the subject of study in archaeological settings, older people have not despite large numbers supporting archaeology and heritage projects. There have been no studies investigating whether taking part in archaeological projects has an impact on older participants’ feelings of ‘usefulness’ and how this could help us better understand the extent and potential benefits for older people’s mental well-being.
A two-stage approach was developed, although its implementation was constrained by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in force during this project. This study sought firstly to examine and quantify the volunteering opportunities available through archaeological organisations in England to provide context for the project, and secondly by conducting a series of focus groups to explore the concept of usefulness from those who have participated in archaeological projects. From the focus groups four broad themes were identified: Fulfilment; Connectivity; Health Impact and Ageing.
Although the study was limited in scale, participants overwhelmingly reported beneficial impacts on mental well-being as a result of taking part in archaeological projects. As a pilot study this work revealed important insights that if multiplied have implications for those 60+ age-group communities across the country, and for the development and support of archaeological and heritage-based projects and their contributions to well- being. Collaboration with the health sector could have a huge impact on health and well- being and could frame how community organisations feed into the discourse and build on the agenda for health and well-being in communities.

Feeling ‘useful’ to and valued by oneself, family, friends, and society has been shown to have a dramatic impact on mental and physical health of older people. This research focussed on people over the age of 60 as these represent a poorly documented but growing constituency. While younger people, military veterans and those who have sought assistance for their mental well-being have already been the subject of study in archaeological settings, older people have not despite large numbers supporting archaeology and heritage projects. There have been no studies investigating whether taking part in archaeological projects has an impact on older participants’ feelings of ‘usefulness’ and how this could help us better understand the extent and potential benefits for older people’s mental well-being.
A two-stage approach was developed, although its implementation was constrained by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in force during this project. This study sought firstly to examine and quantify the volunteering opportunities available through archaeological organisations in England to provide context for the project, and secondly by conducting a series of focus groups to explore the concept of usefulness from those who have participated in archaeological projects. From the focus groups four broad themes were identified: Fulfilment; Connectivity; Health Impact and Ageing.
Although the study was limited in scale, participants overwhelmingly reported beneficial impacts on mental well-being as a result of taking part in archaeological projects. As a pilot study this work revealed important insights that if multiplied have implications for those 60+ age-group communities across the country, and for the development and support of archaeological and heritage-based projects and their contributions to well- being. Collaboration with the health sector could have a huge impact on health and well- being and could frame how community organisations feed into the discourse and build on the agenda for health and well-being in communities.

Conducting archaeology as a volunteer activity or as entertainment is considered to contribute to the positive wellbeing of participants. This is what archaeology and heritage students interested in the societal value of their field of research learn. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the question came up whether university students when conducting archaeological fieldwork as part of their university training, would experience positive wellbeing effects as well. In 2021 this was studied for the first time among students who had been restricted in their fieldwork activities for over a year due to the Covid 19 pandemic. When they could do fieldwork for the first time during their Bachelors, they were asked to indicated emotions during four moments during fieldwork and the associated work in the lab afterwards. The tool used to measure subjective wellbeing is the ‘wellbeing umbrella’ (as developed by University College London). This presentation will show the first results of the survey.

Handling and making objects can make an important contribution to learning, bringing sensory dimensions to understanding technology, style and functions of objects; thus I use handling/making as building blocks in my teaching of university students. In the context of the pandemic, I had dual concerns about the absence of physical engagement with objects and their materiality (during the long period classes pivoted online) and about the individual and collective well being of our students, so I decided to redesign a traditional activity where we handle and talk about votive offerings from healing sanctuaries. In the revamped activity I asked each student to make their own votive offering, to photograph and catalogue it, and then place it in an experiential/experimental space by writing a prayer or other piece of creative writing about it. There were no restrictions as to materials or form – as a way to encourage creativity – though many students took their cue from the types of human, animal and anatomical offerings one typically encounters at healing sanctuaries, past and present. In this paper I describe and reflect on the effectiveness of the activity: did it (as I had intended and made explicit in discussion) create a space or an opportunity to help students to focus on their own well-being and that of their family and friends? And if so, has that impact continued beyond covid or fizzled out? In the discussion, I use three years of collected data from this activity, together with student reflections made at the time of making the votive, plus additional interviews conducted some time later.

Culture – and the ways it is managed – is often a way in which inequalities are maintained and legitimized. Culture can however also be an instrument for positive societal change, and has the potential to improve well-being (Everill and Burnell, 2022). Current heritage practices (conservation, education, participation and representation) insufficiently appeal to and include the most disadvantaged groups of people, while we know that they are disproportionately affected by health inequalities.
In the Netherlands, an estimated 100,000 people are survivors of sexual violence, 90% of the victims are women (CBS, 2020). Half of the victims develop post-traumatic stress disorder (Rutgers, 2017), but not all survivors seek help even though they seek recognition and continued care (Hutschemaekers et al., 2019). Is there a way to harness cultural heritage to facilitate healing?
One in ten Dutch people live with a disability (CBS, 2017). While Dutch museums are striving to improve their accessibility, do these museums also broaden their exhibitions to represent people with different disabilities? And in what ways? Do disabled people find their portrayals and narratives representative?
This paper maps how these two disadvantaged groups experience their representation in Dutch cultural heritage and how it impacts their well-being. Through qualitative interviews, we gain knowledge on the lived experiences of highly underrepresented and stigmatized groups of people.
The paper will contribute to an expanding area of interdisciplinary research that not only benefits vulnerable groups with diminished health, it also seeks to inform inclusive heritage practices by engaging both women survivors and people with disabilities as stakeholders in this study.

Archaeology can be used to critically engage with the present, inform our views of gender identities, and challenge contemporary biases, as well as enhance our understanding of the past and improve contemporary mental health and wellbeing. Today, gender inequality and discrimination impact mental health and wellbeing, with individuals in the queer community showing higher rates of mental illness, often linked to issues faced as a result of their identity.
This research uses archaeological materials to challenge interpretations of gender by eliminating predetermined ideas of identity based on binary sex and gender, with the aim of utilizing archaeology in gender debates today. The binary idea of sex and gender is not representative of identities and limits our understanding of people and identity today, and in the past. To determine the influence archaeology has in contemporary society and on wellbeing, academic and public facing workshops were conducted in May- November 2022 in Bradford. The aim of these workshops was to determine the role archaeology can play in informing, accommodating, and enhancing contemporary discussions surrounding sex and gender identity, with the goal of using these discussions to enhance mental health and wellbeing. The workshops required participants to work in small groups to engage with archaeological and contemporary case studies focused on sex and gender. The materials used challenge the binary concepts of sex and gender. This can provide individuals with a sense of history and community, which is proven to improve mental health and wellbeing.
The workshops showed that participants feel that the sessions and the use of archaeology can improve contemporary mental health and wellbeing by challenging cultural norms and highlighting diversity beyond the binary, both in the past and present.

In our work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Greece and Austria, we have witnessed how cultural heritage-related activities positively impact community wellbeing.
We know first-hand from our partners in the town of Alqosh in Iraq, that they have been disappointed over the years by strangers with helpful ideas but not much lasting impact.
We have learned how new friendships lead to productive professional relationships that often start small but can be maintained easily over years if one shares an interest in the general wellbeing of everyone involved (a young teacher in Alqosh once ran over to the site we restored in his town, to take a much-needed photo for us. This led to his deeper interest in our work, and consulting us on an exhibition, where he proactively flagged common mistakes (f.ex. the font used for his native language Neo-Aramaic) to help us succeed and his town to benefit.)
We have learned that shared heritage being presented at in-person events brings much joy and curiosity, f.ex., when we organized an event for children at an International Festival, where Buddhist children glued together our Bamiyan Buddha puzzle, while their parents learned about the most famous site of Afghanistan.
Lastly, we have learned about the unifying power of culture; this we observed at our Rumi Day in Washington DC, where the Indian ambassador and the Afghan ambassador both quoted their personal favorite Rumi poems. And we have also, over the years, observed this in Neapolis and Elafonisos in Greece, an island and a city where residents formed new “cross-border” connections based on their passion to protect the world’s oldest underwater city Pavlopetri.
I would like to give a presentation about real-life examples of how public participation in cultural heritage leads to community wellbeing with a focus on living people and their stories.

Museums have a unique opportunity to let people engage not only with the past, present, and future, but also with other visitors. As such, museums can be facilitators for so-called low-intensity meetings. We here refer to unexpected interactions between people who would otherwise not have met, transcending social backgrounds, ethnicity, and age. A contributing factor to well-being is people’s ability to connect with others. Museums can, in a fundamental way, ease this by creating spaces of low-intensity meetings. Furthermore, objects and interactive elements can even create a socially meaningful exchange that go in multiple temporal directions: past, present, and future.
This paper presents the results of a pilot project where we traced synergies between how museums and libraries create social spaces. It could be concluded that areas where the architecture were encouraging people to physically engage with each other through objects and interactive design, to share personal stories and perspectives, were spaces where the most spontaneous meetings took place.
If museums gained a deeper understanding of how to facilitate low-intense meeting, by for example tracing synergies to other sectors, such meetings could be better incorporated in future exhibitions, contributing to well-being and social cohesion.