Arts and Health

The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) launched recently its latest publication SaludArte: Building Health Equity on the Bedrock of Traditional Arts and Culture.

The California Arts Council announced its new Innovations + Intersections pilot grant program, which seeks to serve as "a resource for nonprofits statewide to implement creative strategies that take on urgent community needs crossing the technology and health sectors," according to a press release.

The "Creating Healthy Communities through Cross-sector Collaboration" white paper brings more than 250 thought leaders from the public health, arts and culture, and community development sectors to -according to the announcement- "frame the value of the arts and culture for advancing health and well-being in communities."

NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine program announced recently the selection of nine artists that will lead the community-based mural projects at eight hospitals across New York City. Patients, staff, and local community residents will join forces with these artists to create an integrated internal or external mural at these facilities.

Eddie Torres, Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) President & CEO, wrote recently on the role of arts and culture in health, aligning with the 2019 Grantmakers in Health (GIH) annual conference on June 12-14, at which GIA presented the work of the Center for Arts in Medicine at University of Florida, The Kresge Foundation, and artist collective Harriet’s Apothecary.

Drawings by migrant children, released recently by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), depict how the children interpret conditions inside Border Patrol detention facilities, as media outlets like Time and Hyperallergic reported.

A version of this essay will be published in the June/July edition of the Grantmakers in Health (GIH) bulletin, aligning with this year’s GIH annual conference on June 12-14, at which GIA will present the work of the Center for Arts in Medicine at University of Florida, The Kresge Foundation, and artist collective Harriet’s Apothecary.

The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund awarded $1.5 million NYC Health + Hospitals and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City to launch the Arts in Medicine program, which seeks to expand programs serving health care staff, patients, and communities across the city.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock unveiled this month an initiative that may soon enable the country’s doctors to prescribe therapeutic art- or hobby-based treatments for ailments ranging from dementia to psychosis, lung conditions, and mental health issues, reported Smithsonian Magazine.

An article on the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco scans a research commissioned by ArtPlace America that had the goal of better understanding how arts and culture can help provide solutions to public health challenges that communities (especially low-income, immigrant, rural, indigenous, and communities of color) are facing across the United States.