Art, shadow and community: day three of the Happiness International Workshop in Valencia

On 25 March 2026, the final day of the Happiness in Practice International Workshop took place across the Consultorio Auxiliar Convento de Jerusalén, the Valencia Museum of Fine Arts and its courtyard. An intense day, full of beauty and emotion, which brought three days of shared work to a close with a finale that no one will forget.

Art born from care

The day began with a visit to the Consultorio Auxiliar Convento de Jerusalén, where an exhibition made by patients of the centre awaited us, created for International Women's Day. Paintings, collages, handmade works — artistic expressions born not from professional artists, but from people who through art have found a way to tell their stories, to process, to exist beyond illness and fragility. The 32 participants voted for the works that moved them most: a simple but meaningful gesture, returning a gaze to those who too often feel unseen.

The visit gave concrete form to everything discussed in the previous days. The connection with the testimonies of the Spanish participants of RECETA CULTURA — who had spoken of taking fewer medications, sleeping better and feeling less lonely since joining the project's cultural activities — was visible and tangible.

Light and shadow at the Museum of Fine Arts

Estrella Rodríguez Roncero guided us through the Museum of Fine Arts along a journey that was not a traditional museum visit, but an experience designed to put art in dialogue with the workshop's themes. Through works where the tension between light and shadow becomes a metaphor for the human condition, we rediscovered the same dualities explored over these three days through Magda Szabó's The Door, the Empathy Circle and laughter yoga. Art offered a different language from words: more immediate, more visceral, capable of reaching parts of experience that verbal dialogue does not always manage to touch.

The launch of the international Community of Practice

SOLIS Srls coordinated the official launch of the international Community of Practice between Italy and Spain — the concrete result of these three days and months of preparation. Not a formal structure, but a real commitment to continue working together, exchanging experiences, developing cultural activities for the wellbeing of adults. A community that had already been born informally during the workshop and that now has a name and a form.

A reflection with Teatres de la Llum

In the Patio of the Ambassador Vich, Domingo Ferrandis guided a reflection and conversation together with Teatres de la Llum, a company from Puerto de Sagunto specialising in shadow theatre and founded by Mariola Ponce and Vicent Ortolá. An encounter, not a performance: a moment of shared dialogue and thought on the themes of these three days — care, fragility, dignity, the connection between people who come from different worlds. Participants and external guests were never spectators: they were always the living heart of the experience.

The certificates and Mediterráneo

SOLIS Srls and Estrella Rodríguez Roncero of the Museum of Fine Arts distributed the evaluation questionnaires; then certificates were handed to all 32 participants. Not a simple piece of paper, but tangible proof of a community that has been formed.

And in the museum courtyard, with the project catering, came the most emotional moment: songs, laughter, hugs, tears of joy and emotion. Domingo invited everyone to recite and sing Joan Manuel Serrat's Mediterráneo — a song about the sea, about encounter, about what unites peoples. A finale of beauty and emotion that no one will forget.

An extraordinary balance

Thirty-two people from Italy and Spain journeyed together through a path that touched literature, healthcare, art, history and conviviality — always with the same thread: the wellbeing of adults and the role of culture as a tool for health.

The international Community of Practice is born. This is not the end of the project: it is its true beginning.

#Happinessinpratice #TeatresdelaLlum #Erasmus+ #SOLISSRLS #EuropeanSocialArt #PFE #domingoferrandis #anamariasolis 

#Museu de Belles Arts de València