Registrations are now open for the VIII Health Arts Conference

“Silences that Speak, Art that Heals” is the title of the VIII Arts in Health Conference, which will be held next 7 May at the Dr. Antoni Pujadas Auditorium of the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, in Sant Boi de Llobregat. An edition that reflects on the role of noise and silence, both in artistic creation and in emotional and social well-being, and which places special emphasis on the challenge of evaluating Arts in Health projects.

The day, organized by Torrents d'Art, the SJD's Arts in Health program, will open with a dialogue between two creators with complementary perspectives on these concepts. On one hand, Clara Peya, pianist and composer, who has turned her music into an essential platform in the face of social injustices, mental health issues or anti-migration discourses. Her artistic work uses her voice – and also silence – to question this ‘noise’, denounce it and generate reflection. On the other hand, Edgar Murillo, deaf artist and sign language activist, who will share what it is like to create in a world that often does not take deaf people into account and how creativity is expressed when silence is, literally, the space from which art is perceived and constructed.

A first round table that claims silence in the face of the current noise.

The first round table will explore the relationship between noise and health from three key perspectives: how excess noise can be a cause of discomfort and illness, how silence forms an indispensable part of healing and artistic creation processes, and how artistic practices help break social silences and make visible realities and collectives that are often rendered invisible.

In this debate we will feature Lali Álvarez, creator and artistic director, Enric Puig, director of the Centre d’Arts Santa Mònica, and Antoni Serrano, director of Mental Health at the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu.

 

A second round table to ask ourselves: How do we evaluate Arts in Health?

The second table will focus on evaluation models in Arts in Health and how to measure the real impact of projects without limiting them to exclusively economic or quantitative criteria. They will address which elements are essential to design evaluations that capture less obvious benefits – such as the emotional, social, relational or community ones – and how to report them in a way that allows these arts in health programs to be recognized and consolidated within service portfolios.

We will have: Soraya Hidalgo, senior advisor in Research and Innovation at UPC, Rosa Maria Vivanco, head of the Strategic Transformation Office at Parc Sanitari SJD, and Sergi Blancafort, professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Community Health at UVIC.

 

Testimonies that break silences

Speakers is the space of the day dedicated to giving voice to collectives, experiences and issues that often remain outside the media spotlight. Through four artistic projects and their first-person testimonies, realities that Arts in Health programs have helped make visible and support will be shown.

 

Open registration for the day

The 8th Arts in Health Conference is aimed at all professionals in the fields of health, culture and social action, as well as the general public.

• You can register for free at this LINK

 

Perifèries 2026: more than an Arts in Health Conference

The Arts in Health Day is the central event of Perifèries, the program of activities at the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu which, over the course of fifteen days, is dedicated to exploring and sharing the transformative potential of the arts in the field of health, with special attention to mental health and working with groups in situations of vulnerability.

This program will include the Art Tastings, eleven experiential and demonstrative spaces that bring Arts in Health practices closer to professionals and the general public, the Five days to dance, a collective creation process of a dance-theater piece guided by the De Loopers company, and the Mortals + installation by the Suñol Foundation, in the lobby of the SJD Sant Boi Hospital.