Arts and Health: Driving us towards stronger communities

Session 9 of the 2020 Webinar Series.

A recording of this presentation is available here.

On September 18, 2020, Artnet News published an article on how the WHO is using art to fight the Coronavirus pandemic. The article included a report which compiled over 3000 studies on the positive impact of arts on health and well-being. From our national lens, we continue to see the leadership role that arts and culture grantmakers are taking to improve physical and mental health in communities. With this in mind, and as health giving continues to increase at a steady pace (pre-pandemic and now), the questions we seek to answer are, “Where should arts and culture funders target their grantmaking, and what can cross-sector collaboration look like if the shared goal is to build stronger communities in the long term? What information do we have that will point to the mental and physical health needs of our communities and where the arts fits in?”

A great example of the strength of this type of collaboration is the initiative, Creating Healthy Communities: Arts + Public Health in America. Launched in 2018, the initiative is a collaboration between University of Florida and ArtPlace America and seeks to build intersections and establish resources for practitioners. Over 250 individuals and partners participated in the research and field scan, and a 13-person working group of the initiative produced a white paper on the findings.

We are glad to three members of the working group and authors of the white paper joining us on for a webinar on Tuesday, October 27! David Fakunle, Ph.D., artist, CEO, DiscoverME/RecoverME, and adjunct faculty of University of Florida; Tasha Golden, PhD., artist, senior Arts in Health Research Scientist, International Arts + Mind Lab, Johns Hopkins Medicine; and Jamie Hand, director of Research Strategies, ArtPlace America will share the findings of the field scan, the strength of their cross-sector collaboration, and suggestions for what arts and culture funders should consider when funding at the intersection of arts and health in 2020.

Articles or Resources

• The Arts and Health Equity: Four Opportunities for Impact
• All Stories Will Matter
• Creating Healthy Communities Through Cross-Sector Collaboration
  
  Sonke, J., Golden, T., Francois, S., Hand, J., Chandra, A., Clemmons, L., Fakunle, D., Jackson, M.R., Magsamen, S., Rubin, V., Sams, K., Springs, S. (2019). Creating Healthy Communities through Cross-Sector Collaboration [White paper]. University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine / ArtPlace America.
• Evidence-Based Framework for Arts in Public Health
  
  Sonke, J. & Golden, T. (2020). Arts and Culture in Public Health: An Evidence-Based Framework. University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine.
• COVID-19 Arts Response - Call for Collaboration
  
  Sonke, J., Golden, T., Hand, J., Lee, J., Mason, K. (2020). Mobilizing the Arts for COVID-19 Communication and Coping. University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine.
• COVID-19 Arts Response - Local Governmental Advisory Brief
• COVID-19 Arts Response - State Governmental Advisory Brief

For the deaf or hard of hearing, live captioning is available by request. Please contact Sherylynn Sealy, GIA program manager, at least three (3) business days prior to the webinar to request live captioning.

David Olawuyi Fakunle, Ph.D. is a self-described “mercenary for change,” willing to employ any talent and occupy any space to elevate anyone who feels divested from their truest self, particularly People of Color. Fakunle earned a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he is currently associate faculty in the Mental Health department and serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine. Fakunle’s research interests include stressors within the built environment, manifestations of institutional racism in society, and the utilization of arts and culture to strengthen health, equity, and ultimately liberation. As an artist, Fakunle has utilized African storytelling, African drumming, vocal and theater performance and has performed with companies including Sankofa Dance Theater, the Washington Revels and WombWork Productions, where he is currently executive director. His affiliations include The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, the Griots’ Circle of Maryland and the National Association of Black Storytellers. Fakunle is co-founder and CEO of DiscoverME/RecoverME. Fakunle also serves as Chair of the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the first state body in the United States dedicated to chronicling and bringing justice to racial terror lynchings.

Tasha Golden is senior Arts in Health research scientist at the International Arts + Mind Lab in the Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins Medicine. As a public health researcher and innovator, she studies impacts of arts, culture, environments, and discourses on health, equity, research, and clinical practice. Golden has recently presented and consulted for the national “Creating Healthy Communities” Initiative (UF, ArtPlace America), Grantmakers in Health, the Trust for Public Land, and POLITICO’s 2019 Annual Health Care Summit in Amsterdam. Golden is founder/CEO of Idiom Insights, she consults for organizations to help develop innovative strategies that further their goals. Golden’s visionary work is bolstered by her career as an artist and entrepreneur. As singer-songwriter for the critically acclaimed band Ellery, she toured full-time in the US and abroad, and her songs have been in feature films and TV dramas. She is also the founder of Project Uncaged: an arts-based health intervention for incarcerated teen women that amplifies their voices in community, equity, and justice discourses. Now holding a PhD in Public Health Sciences, Golden draws on her diverse background to develop innovative partnerships, products, and practices that optimize health, health access, inclusivity, and communications.

Jamie Hand brings a background in landscape architecture, program design, and grantmaking to her role as director of Research Strategies at ArtPlace America, where she designs and leads cross-sector knowledge and network building. Prior to ArtPlace, Hand worked at the National Endowment for the Arts, where she managed the Our Town grant program, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, and the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design. She also advised the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force on the development of Rebuild by Design, after leading multiple regional-scale design competitions as program director at the Van Alen Institute in New York City. Hand co-edited Gateway: Visions for an Urban National Park and began her career in the Bay Area as project manager for artist Topher Delaney. Hand is chair of the board of ioby.org (“in our back yards”) and holds degrees from Princeton University’s School of Architecture and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.