Birgit Bundesen lecture: Arts in Psychiatry: past, present and future

Birgit Bundesen is a consultant psychiatrist at Psychiatric Center Amager and the founder and director of the Danish Center for Arts and Mental Health. She serves as scientific lead of the Arts and Mental Health research programme. Trained as a specialist in psychiatry with a BA in comparative literature and philosophy, she has developed artistic interventions for people in psychiatric care in collaboration with artists and service users. In 2025, the center received permanent funding from the Ministry of Health. As leader of the mission-driven research programme, Bundesen has shaped the research framework for an

interdisciplinary team spanning the humanities and

psychiatry. Alongside her clinical and research roles,

she has published poetry and contributed to academic

books and art catalogues. Her longstanding

interdisciplinary practice integrates clinical, artistic, and

co-creative approaches with service users, forming a

core ethos of the center.