Impact Kunsthaus Zürich: Art as a social force

"The research findings demonstrate a clear effect of the arts on mental and physical health."

WHO Health Evidence Network Synthesis Report 67, Fancourt & Finn, 2019

Art as a social force

A museum is more than a place for looking. It is a space where people come together and encounter themselves anew.

The Kunsthaus education programme develops offerings for people in a wide range of life situations: for young people in crisis, for people with visual impairment, dementia or neurological conditions, and for young patients at the children's hospital. The Kunsthaus is currently running a wide range of projects in this area. Each format is specifically developed and tailored to the needs of its participants.

art.in: sparking curiosity

A project at the intersection of art, cultural mediation and adolescent mental health.

art.in supports young people in mental health crises through the transformative power of art, dance and music. Building on the successful Artopie model in Geneva, the workshops offer a safe space in which young people can actively shape the experience, build self-confidence and explore new perspectives.

A cooperation between the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich (PUK) Life, Children Action, the Opernhaus Zürich and the Kunsthaus Zürich, supported by the Max Kohler Foundation.

Go to the art.in project

Hearing pictures, experiencing art

Guided tours for people with visual impairment.

paintings and sculptures become tangible through vivid image descriptions. Words replace colours, language shapes contours. An inner image emerges through dialogue. Art-historical background and personal perceptions combine into a living experience of art. In addition, materials and the careful tactile exploration of selected sculptures make form, surface and material directly tangible.

Developed in cooperation with the Zürcher Sehhilfe. Supported by the Vontobel Foundation.

Current tour

Awakening art stories

For people living with dementia, their relatives and companions.

Under expert guidance, participants jointly develop thoughts, associations and poems on selected artworks. What is said is noted down and condensed into a shared story. The focus is not on forgetting, but on shared experience: looking, narrating, associating, exchanging.

Developed in cooperation with the Centre for Gerontology and the University Research Priority Programme "Dynamics of Healthy Aging" at the University of Zurich. Supported by the Vontobel Foundation.

Upcoming dates

Connect: dancing with neurological challenges

Dance, music and art for people living with MS or Parkinson's.

At the Kunsthaus, paintings and sculptures inspire new movements. Professional dance practitioners with specialised expertise create a space where movement, body and community come together. Selected sessions are accompanied live by the Tonhalle Orchestra.

An initiative of the Opernhaus Zürich, the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich, The Field, the Dance & Creative Wellness Foundation, Clare Guss-West and the Kunsthaus Zürich.

Go to the Connect project

Workshops at the children's hospital

Artists in everyday hospital life: an annual workshop format.

Together with the Kinderspital Zürich, the Kunsthaus is developing an annual workshop format for children and young people in hospital. The series was launched in 2025 by the artist Monster Chetwynd at the Reha-Klinik Affoltern. Together with performers and the clinic and school team, she created an energetic workshop that gave young patients a special encounter with art and, for a moment, a sense of distance from their everyday therapy routine.

A cooperation between the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Kinderspital Zürich.

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Contact for cooperation

Eveline Schüepp, Education and Public Programmes

eveline.schueepp@kunsthaus.ch

Further projects and visions

he Kunsthaus Zürich aims to make art accessible to as many people as possible. In addition to the projects presented here, the education programme includes "Welcome to School" for young people with a migration or refugee background, workshops with special-needs classes and day centres, guided tours and workshops for families, as well as "Kunst erzählen", a format for senior citizens that places encounter, memory and exchange at its core.

This is only the beginning. The education programme is growing, and new formats and partnerships are continuously emerging. EinzigART, a new format for people with cognitive impairment, is currently being developed and will launch in autumn 2026.

Interested in working with us? We look forward to hearing from you.

Exhibitions in dialogue with health, body and psyche

At the Kunsthaus Zürich, exhibitions regularly emerge that engage with questions of health, body and psyche: sometimes as a central theme, sometimes as a quieter undertone. Both in the exhibition concept itself and in the accompanying formats, they create spaces for reflection, exchange and new perspectives.

Current and past exhibitions

Wolfgang Laib (until autumn 2026)

Wolfgang Laib

Wolfgang Laib's exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich combines natural materials such as pollen, rice and milk with quiet, space-filling installations. The experience gently shifts the viewer into an inner perception and emphasises the connection between body, environment and stillness.

To the exhibition

Maria Lassnig and Edward Munch (from October 2026)

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Maria Lassnig and Edward Munch

Maria Lassnig and Edvard Munch are shown together in a double exhibition for the first time. Despite the time that separates them, they share central artistic approaches, in particular their expressive use of colour and a vivid, experimental painting style. Their works depict inner and outer states with immediate emotional impact. A lifelong fear of illness, inner turmoil and formative experiences of loss and grief remain a motive and driving force in their artistic work.

To the exhibition

Lygia Clark (2025/2026)

Lygia Clark

Lygia Clark, a pioneer of the Brazilian avant-garde, opens a space at the Kunsthaus Zürich through her interactive exhibition in which art is no longer merely viewed but experienced. Through touch, movement and dialogue, the viewer becomes an active co-creator. A radical invitation to rediscover body and senses.

Find out more

Marina Abramović (2024/2025)

Marina Abramović

The Abramović exhibition showed, across more than five decades, how closely art is connected with questions of body, mind and healing. It made tangible how Abramović explored physical and mental limits in her work, placing themes such as exhaustion, concentration and self-perception at the centre. Through a conscious engagement with silence and presence, a space emerged that opened up new ways of understanding health and inner balance.

Find out more

Take Care: Art and Medicine (2022)

Take Care: Art and Medicine

The exhibition Take Care: Art and Medicine (2022) made strikingly visible how closely questions of health, illness and healing are linked to art. Drawing on around 300 works, it opened up a multifaceted field of tension between art and medicine that concerns body and psyche alike and continues to be artistically reflected upon today.

Part of the Arts + Health Zurich initiative

The Kunsthaus Zürich takes part in Arts+Health, a Zurich-based initiative at the intersection of medicine, art, culture and architecture. The initiative builds on international developments in the field of art and health and brings different perspectives into dialogue. Arts+Health is still being established: the participating partners are pooling knowledge, experience and professional approaches and exploring which projects and partnerships can emerge from this. The result is new intersections between art, health and society as well as opportunities for effective interdisciplinary cooperation.