How can arts participation in communities influence social cohesion and wellbeing?

In partnership with the UF Center for Arts in Medicine, One Nation/One Project seeks to answer that question. Through critical participatory, qualitative, quantitative and arts-based methods, our research team is focused on the relationships between arts participation and health in communities across the U.S.

One Nation/One Project, Arts for EveryBody

How can we build healthier communities, as people, as artists, as friends, as a country?

At a moment when Americans face acute challenges to their individual and collective wellbeing, the audacious new campaign from One Nation/One Project titled Arts for EveryBody is about to prove how the arts can lead to healthier people and healthier communities. Inspired by the 1936 Federal Theatre Project where 18 cities and towns presented their own interpretations of the anti-fascist play “It Can't Happen Here,” Arts For EveryBody will bring together people and communities.

On July 27, 2024, artists, civic leaders, and community health providers in 18 cities and towns across America simultaneously premiered an array of large-scale participatory art projects which that drew on the sounds, styles, and stories of their communities to answer the prompt “No place like home.”

In big cities and rural counties, hundreds of actors, muralists, poets, folk dancers, circus clowns, farmers, flower artists, skaters, cooks, architects, DJs, puppeteers, nurses, mariachi players, bamboo weavers and more will create new works that show the world where they come from. The result will be a celebration of American pluralism–of unity through diversity. From Seattle to Gainesville, from Providence to Honolulu, it will be an outpouring of local joy.

Check out the Arts for EveryBody booklet for an artistically designed overview of the project.

Research Values

Led by the Center's Director of Research Initiatives, Dr. Jill Sonke, the ONOP research team is working in partnership with each municipal team and local community to design a national mixed methods research protocol to measure outcomes and impacts across project sites. All of our research activities are designed to advance equity, multi-cultural validity, participant ownership, and local research capacity, while focusing on priority post-COVID health improvements.

Our research methods are grounded in equity. We value social relationships, lived experiences, histories, narratives, stories, artworks and cultural expressions. Every community is different, and our research should be reflective of the vast and diverse artistic experiences of the U.S.

We’re also committed to advancing equity in research practices, which is why our research is co-created and co-owned by individuals in the communities in which we work. These partnerships allow data and information to be shared back to communities to inform future investments, research and arts and health programming.

How We Research 

Our team has undertaken foundational studies that define “arts participation,” as well as reviewed current research concerning arts participation, social cohesion and wellbeing. To explore the research brief associated with the project, click here! 

Grounded in its value of social relationships, community practices, lived experiences and perspectives, narratives and stories, artworks, and creative and cultural expression, our research will utilize arts-based methods for data collection, analysis, and translation.

Our Theory of Change Study is exploring relationships between the arts, social cohesion, and wellbeing through surveys, focus groups, and participatory art murals.

Lastly, our team is researching social prescribing and arts prescribing through implementation science studies and in-depth case study of three #ArtsForEveryBody communities creating social prescribing programs of their own!

Participate in the Research

To lend your experiences to the research, click here take an award winning, artified survey! It is guaranteed to be the most entertaining and thought-provoking survey you have every participated in!

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