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 May 7 at theDr. Antoni Pujadas Auditorium of the Sant Joan de Déu Health Park, 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 that emphasizes the challenge of evaluating Arts in Health projects.

The day, organized by Torrents of Art, the Park's Arts in Health program, will open with a dialogue between two creators with complementary perspectives on these concepts. On the one hand, Clara Peya, pianist and composer, who has turned her music into an essential speaker in the face of social injustices, mental health or discourses rejecting migration. His artistic work uses his voice – and also silence – to question this 'noise', denounce and generate reflection. On the other hand, Edgar Murillo, deaf artist and sign language activist, who will share what it's like to create in a world that often doesn't 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 table that claims silence in the face of current noise

The first round table will delve into the relationship between noise and health through three key perspectives: how excess noise can cause discomfort and illness, how silence is an indispensable part of the processes of care and artistic creation and how artistic practices contribute to breaking social silences and to make realities and groups that are often invisible visible.

In this debate we will have Lali Alvarez, creator and artistic director, Enric Puig, director of the Santa Monica Arts Center and Antoni Serrano, director of Mental Health at the Sant Joan de Déu Health Park

 

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

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

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

 

Testimonies that break silences

Speakers is the space of the day dedicated to giving voice to groups, experiences and problems that often remain out of the media spotlight. Through four artistic projects and their first-person testimonies will show realities that the Arts in Health programs have contributed to making visible and accompanying.

 

Registrations open for the day

The VIII Arts in Health Conference is aimed at all professionals in the field of health, culture and social action and at citizens in general.

• You can register for free here LINK

 

Peripheries 2026: more than a day of Arts in Health

The Arts in Health day is the central event of Peripheries, the activity program of the Sant Joan de Déu Health Park that, 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 intervention in 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 citizens, the Five days to dance, a process of collective creation of a dance-theater piece, guided by the De Loopers company and the installation Mortals + from the Suñol Foundation, in the lobby of the SJD Sant Boi Hospital.