Culture and Arts facilitators

A culture and arts facilitator can be professionals working within cultural institutions or self-employed artists.

It is important culture, and arts facilitators have expertise and passion in at least one form of culture and art genre, such as the visual arts, performing arts, literature, music, dance theatre etc.

A culture and arts facilitator should be a person who has the ability to engage and motivate participants, also participants who are new to culture and arts activities.

A culture and arts facilitators working in AoP programmes need to be flexible, therefore it is important not to pack too much into every activity, so there is room to spontaneous adjustment. It is also impportant the culture and arts facilitator is aware the activities content should not invole therapy such as art or music therapy. 

A culture and arts facilitator may also be a person who wishes to broaden their professional skills by providing culture and the arts in a health or social promotion environment. 

The roles and task of the culture and arts facilitator is to create culture and art activities that appeal to the target audience. Culture and arts facilitator’s role is to facilitate, embrace and engage persons who may have little knowledge or prior experience of culture and arts and who have mental health issues.

Facilitating such groups will involve awareness of the target audience needs, such as breaks, quiet environment, extra need for guidance as they may have cognitive problems and/or may never have tried the technique/arts genre before. The culture and arts facilitators together with the link worker create a safe and encouraging environment for the participants by guiding them in the activity, and at the same time allowing the participants to unfold their creativity.

Some culture and arts facilitators may have activities which may require only small modifications to be incorporated in the AoP programme, while others may need to develop a specific activity for the programme. Either way, the culture and arts facilitator will need to set aside time to prepare their activities in conjunction with facilitating the activities.

The link worker and the culture and arts facilitators should define their roles regarding the participants and the activities in order for no misunderstanding to occur and to ensure participants feel at ease in participating and unfolding their creativity.

The link worker’s tasks are to:

• support the facilitators throughout the AoP programme via ongoing communication, meetings, knowledge sharing workshops and convey the needs of the target audience i.e. breaks, passive active participation, non-therapy approach etc.
• collaborate with the facilitators in the planning, and piloting of the AoP programmes; 
• align and agree on expectations regarding the activities and their role as facilitator.
• coordinate with all facilitators the schedule for the activities and provide them with the final schedule weeks before a new AoP programme begins.
• acknowledge the contribution of the culture and arts facilitators to the AoP programmes.