Opportunities for public health engagement with citizens in neighbourhood art spaces: the modern agora

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the relationship between cultural provision and population-health benefits, and advocates for intersectoral approaches combining the arts, social care, and public-health policy [1]. After reviewing initiatives from diverse government areas, Dow et al. argue that policy development is most promising when health and arts ministries collaborate [2]. Redistributing the responsibility for public health across different sectors and supporting citizens’ emotional and social wellbeing through cultural provision may be an important way for governments to leverage the opportunities that arts can offer to public health. Yet, as Dow et al. also highlight, policy documents may not reflect innovative arts and health initiatives, particularly grassroots projects that may have little involvement from policy makers [2].

Meeting citizens in neighbourhood art spaces

We believe that nongovernmental, citizen-centred initiatives that bring the arts and societal reflections into neighbourhood spaces can play a central role in democratising the knowledge of and responsibility for population health. Recently, we developed a community-based, hybrid space where people could congregate, engage with and create arts-and-craft projects, and reflect on various societal and public-health issues. This ‘pop-up’ was conducted in two editions (July 2022 and February 2023) in Nørrebro, a culturally diverse neighbourhood of Copenhagen, Denmark. Both editions involved numerous participants: from architects, artists, and chefs to students, tourists, and random visitors. While the first edition was explorative and entropic in terms of content, the second edition was curated with the title ‘we are stories’. Here, local artists exhibited their work and discussed the imprints that nature, society, and emotions leave on humans and humanity, and a local bookshop organised a library corner that featured Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour writers. We also held weekly sustainable community dinners and workshops facilitated by researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Public Health and the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. These reflective sessions provided a safe space to explore common, interconnected (and sometimes sensitive) themes: food and sociality; life histories and identity; language and health experiences; digital-platform apps and occupational health (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Open societal reflection workshop on digital-platform workers and health in the pop-up curated art exhibition ‘we are stories’. Image credits: Tri-Long Nguyen.

These topics were starting points for participants to connect with each other; no strict agenda was set, and the content of the sessions evolved according to participants’ experiences and insights. To facilitate both individual and collective reflections, different formats were used. For instance, the workshop on life histories started with a silent meditation focusing on certain word-prompts, which inspired participants to create personal collages using materials donated by a local recycling station and shops. The workshop ended with interactive group discussions about how identity and personal stories (e.g. family history of disease, traumas, changing environments, etc.) can be expressed via non-verbal communication, which could be used to facilitate and enhance dialogue in medical encounters.

Community and redistribution of knowledge

From the pop-up, we learned that engaging community members through a bottom-up approach helps connect people from different sociodemographic backgrounds, humanize public-health research and policy, facilitate dialogue and knowledge-exchange across fields, integrate societal reflections into the local culture, and generate an atmosphere of participation and celebration. As Dow et al. suggest, ‘ … arts and culture infrastructures are highly place-based and tackling complex public-health issues such as health inequality often requires a localised approach’ [2]. While the first edition of the pop-up was located near an area the Danish government labelled a ‘parallel society’ (formally, ‘ghetto’) [3], the second edition was hosted above a sustainable clothing shop in a gentrified neighbourhood. Drawing from both experiences, we advocate for the support of hybrid community spaces where residents can immerse themselves in the arts, culture, and societal reflections – i.e. a modern form of the ancient Greek agora (central public space). By offering different arts and research-based activities, such spaces enable citizens to engage in societal reflections on their own terms in their own neighbourhood, thus empowering them with a sense of ownership. In our pop-up agora, important questions were tackled via different media and sensible forms of knowledge (e.g. art, books, and workshops). This contributed to reshaping how public-health reflections were presented, and thereby how participants perceived them. As philosopher Rancière argues, such a distribution of ‘the sensible’ has important implications for democracy; this is a fundamental condition for establishing commonality and collectivity in a society [4].

Conclusions

Intergovernmental organizations such as the European Union promote initiatives for imagining and building an enriching, sustainable, and inclusive future [5]; similarly, we believe that investing in modern forms of agora could be an effective way to harness the benefits of arts in public health. Our experience indicates that enhancing local cultural provision and social engagement can promote inclusion, empowerment, and redistribution of collectivity, leading to a shared responsibility for population health.

Author contributions

TLN conceptualized and wrote the first draft of the manuscript; AC, CJdM, BK, NMS, and JN (alphabetical order) contributed equally in critically reviewing the manuscript and developing intellectual content.

Acknowledgements

The authors are deeply thankful to all the contributors of the two editions of the pop-up agora; further information can be found on social media (Instagram: @no.hoi.bro).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors are deeply thankful to the University of Copenhagen General Foundation and the Section of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, for their support to the first edition of the pop-up agora.

Notes on contributors

Tri-Long Nguyen

Tri-Long Nguyen is an epidemiologist, pharmacist, statistician, and an art – and Zen-practitioner; he founded and managed the public and community engagement project described in this letter.

Amy Clotworthy

Amy Clotworthy is an ethnologist and cultural analyst who facilitated a workshop on life histories and healthcare.

Christopher Jamil de Montgomery

Christopher Jamil de Montgomery facilitated a workshop on language and health experiences at the pop-up agora.

Bertina Kreshpaj

Bertina Kreshpaj and Nuria Matilla Santander facilitated together a workshop on digital-platform apps and occupational health using photobooks.

Jannie Nielsen

Jannie Nielsen facilitated a workshop on food and sociality.