HEALTHY COMMUNITIES: 
A Focus on Public Health Through Placemaking, Wellbeing, and Creative Environments 

Looking back: June 14 - 15, 2018, Hosted by the University of Cincinnati at The Health Collaborative in Cincinnati, OH

At the intersection of public health, arts and culture lies the potential for building stronger and healthier communities in America.

Over the past several decades, evidence has mounted to demonstrate that the arts and culture have measurable impacts on individual and community health. Today, innovation is taking root at the intersections of the arts, community development, creative placemaking and public health throughout the nation. 

Creating Healthy Communities: Arts + Public Health in America is a national initiative designed to accelerate this innovation to build healthy communities in alignment with our national public health goals. The initiative will expand the intersections of arts, community development and public health through strategic cross-sector collaboration, discovery, translation, and dissemination.

The first Creating Healthy Communities workshop took place this summer in Cincinnati where Jamie Bennett, Executive Director of ArtPlace America, announced our new Arts + Public Health two-year national initiative. We were so delighted to partner with our hosts, Laurie Baefsky from a2ru and Jennifer Krivickas from the University of Cincinnati, on the first convening for this project!

You can read the event proceedings by clicking here.

Brought to you by the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities
In partnership with the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine

Sponsored by ArtPlace America and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Expanding the Intersections of Arts + Public Health in America

As our national health system struggles to meet the needs of larger and older populations, a heightened emphasis on disease prevention and wellness has emerged. Healthy People 2020 emphasizes that conditions in the places people live, learn, work, and play impact a wide range of health risks and outcomes. 

At the same time, evidence continues to mount demonstrating the positive and measurable impacts the arts have on individual and community health - yet their applications are under-investigated and inconsistently recognized in the public health sector. 

Utilizing the role of higher education, this research synthesis workshop will bridge the arts and public health sectors, through strategic discovery, collaboration, translation, and action to create stronger and healthier communities through the arts.

It's time to join together to shape the future.

Are you an action-seeking thinker, artist, educator, researcher, or funder working in the domains of...

• arts
• community development
• creative placemaking
• design
• environment
• higher education​
• healthcare
• community development
• creative placemaking