Day 1

Florida Practice Models

Moderator: Sandy Shaughnessy, Florida Division of Cultural Affairs

The State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs has been a leader in driving practice at the intersections of the arts and health for more than three decades. The Division supports the development of healthy, vibrant and thriving communities through the integration of arts and culture into every facet of life for Florida citizens through its grants and partnerships. This session will feature five practice models, highlighting different ways that the arts are addressing the health and wellbeing of communities in Florida.

Jeff Moore, University of Central Florida
Better together: A collaborative model for addressing big issues

By pulling together expert researchers in arts, humanities, and medicine to collaborate with organizations that directly serve communities in need, UCF is creating a data-driven, sustainable model for addressing pressing issues in the area of arts and wellness. UCF College of Arts and Humanities Dean Jeff Moore will discuss how the university is moving forward in this area, inspired by his own personal story and that of a community philanthropist who is helping lead the charge.

Nancy Lowden Norman, Atlantic Center for the Arts
Arts for Life: A Community Wellness Model

Atlantic Center for the Arts has been a cultural cornerstone in our community since its founding in 1977. It serves artists from across the globe through its renowned interdisciplinary artist-in-residence program, and 70,000 people yearly through its free community programs. In 2012, ACA established its cutting-edge Arts & Wellness initiative, and now works with a dedicated team of community artists, music and art therapists to provide dynamic programs increasing the wellness of elders, caregivers, veterans, active adults, and youth.

Nikisha Williams and Darius V. Daughtry, Art Prevails Project

What are the possibilities when you combine care coordination and creative writing for high school students?  That’s what the Opa-locka Community Development Corporation and Art Prevails Project set out to discover. Together, the two organizations are engaging students in Miami-Dade County through poetry and creative writing as a channel for self-expression, as well as their families through the wrap-around/care coordination model.

Ariana Hernandez-Reguant, Tulane University/Hialeah Contemporary Culture Project
Ethnographic Filmmaking and Other Methodologies for Social Engagement

Hiccup (Hialeah Contemporary Culture Project) is a participative ethnographic project that brings together anthropologists, artists, designers, writers, musicians, librarians and other community actors around issues of civic concern. Through the arts, projects tap into vernacular creative practices to generate conversations, visibility and action about differential experiences, from climate change to mental wellness to residential displacement to historical memory. Ethnographic filmmaking has proven to be a fruitful technology for engaging a dispersed community in the solidification of its shared knowledge. 

Alana Jackson, 352Creates: Community-Focused, Citizen-Engaged

UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine has been dedicated to transforming healthcare environments through the arts for nearly 30 years. In 2016, along with a network of partners, the program launched 352Creates, a year-round creative movement to cultivate healthy communities through everyday acts of creative engagement. With participation spanning the broader 352 area code, 352Creates exemplifies how a health facility can expand its reach to influence the citizens it serves by empowering them to engage in self-curated creativity. 

Dr. Tralonda Triplett, Step Into Your Best Life – CVD Prevention with Flair

Various community-based organizations in Orange County are knowledgeable of cardiovascular disease disparities in African American populations.  While current community activities have shown great promise in heightening awareness of CVD disease risks for brief periods, establishing sustained physical activity in priority populations has remained elusive. The Step into Your Best Life program successfully educated participants on individual- and community-level CVD risks, improved health literacies, reduced social isolation, and reframed Chicago Steppin’ as health-promoting, sustainable, physical activity.

Panel: Arts & the Military

Moderator: Sara Kass, National Endowment for the Arts

Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and the state and local arts agencies that serves the special needs of military patients and veterans with traumatic brain injury and psychological health conditions, as well as their families and caregivers. Florida is home to two Creative Forces program sites. Representatives from the James A. Haley VA in Tampa Florida and the Malcom Randall VA in Gainesville will be joined by military leaders to discuss how the Arts are being leveraged to improve health and wellness for Florida’s service members, Veterans and their families.

Practice Models – Addressing Social Determinants of Health through the Arts

Moderator: Tasha Golden

When discussing intersections of the arts with public health, it is important to note how the arts impact not only individual-level health and behaviors, but also the contexts that shape individual choices and circumstances: the “social determinants of health.” This session features five leaders in this work, whose projects make vital, concrete links between art and the social determinants of health.

After describing these projects—which offer immediate models for attendees—the panelists will together discuss how partnerships for similar efforts can be generated; the potential for innovative funding strategies; and what they have recognized as the particular, unique contributions of the arts to population-level health goals.​

Hannah Drake, One Poem at a Time
Changing a Community, One Poem at a Time

We have the power to create the spaces that we want to see and experience in the world. One Poem at a Time replaced 19 billboards in Smoketown (the oldest continuous African-American community in Louisville, Kentucky) with positive historical and contemporary images, paired with one-line poems with one question in mind, “How can we use the power of art and messaging to impact the health and wellbeing of a community?

Jeffrey Pufahl & Brittany Caldwell, UF Center for Arts in Medicine

From Colored to Black sits at the intersection of public health education, oral history, and community arts activism, and functions as a multi-modal platform to explore health and inequalities and the social determinants of health in the Black community. A collaboration between emerging African American playwright Ms. Brittney M. Caldwell, and publicly engaging scholar Jeffrey Pufahl, this groundbreaking play incorporates dramatized Civil Rights Era Oral Histories into an entertaining framework designed to educate audiences and provoke critical dialogue.

Joshua Vickery, Central Florida Community Arts

Central Florida Community Arts is a local nonprofit performing arts organization with a mission to build and serve community through the arts by making the arts affordable and accessible to people of all ages and abilities. While CFCArts is very well known for its 300-voice Community Choir, 170-member Symphony Orchestra, Theatre & Dance programs, and our robust Children & Youth Arts programs, one of the most beautiful pieces of this nonprofit is the School of Arts. Our school spans the tri-county area delivering 70 site-specific arts programs to populations who would otherwise not have access to these opportunities. We conduct outreach programs serving impoverished populations, senior programs serving both healthy aging and frail geriatric populations, and Arts & Wellness programs for children and adults with physical and cognitive disabilities. We aim to use music and the arts to help individuals take better self-care, increase meaningful connection with others, and ultimately improve the health, happiness, and culture of our community 

Josh Miller, IDEAS xLab 

Our Emotional Wellbeing (OEW) is a 2-year initiative organized by IDEAS xLab – an artist-led nonprofit based in Louisville, KY that leverages the power of community creativity and culture to transform lives through art. OEW was designed to measurably impact hope and belonging of young people 12 – 20 years old from the Louisville Youth Group (LGBTQ+ youth) and Meyzeek Middle School through an arts-based co-creation process. The initiative builds on years of experience and learning by IDEAS xLab, having seen how participating in artist-led initiatives can positively impact young people, like the Justice League at Meyzeek Middle School, where students showed a change from 6.3 to 9 on a 10-point scale in their ability to advocate for themselves and for others after the first year.

Day 2

Keynote Introduction

Daisy Fancourt, University College London

This keynote will present cutting-edge findings from research using national longitudinal cohort studies in the UK into how arts and cultural engagement can affect health outcomes at a population level. It will explore data from laboratory and intervention studies to consider what the psychological, physiological, social and behavioral mechanisms underpinning this are, and draw on new behavioral data from 50,000 adults in the UK captured in 2019 to show what the barriers and motivators are to engaging in the arts among different populations.

Breakout Workshops & Strategy Sessions

Arts & the Military
Led by Heather Spooner, Malcom Randall VA Center & Dr Charles Levy, Malcom Randall VA Center

An Exploration of the Creative Arts Therapies/Community Arts Connection Through Warrior Case Studies
This interactive workshop will explore how clinical sites and community artists can work collaboratively to support military service members, veterans, and their families. Participants will learn how creative arts therapies programs at VA medical centers approach patients and will discuss the potential roles for community artists and organizations using case examples. Participants will identify ways to engage with this population with creativity, authenticity, professionalism, safety and respect.

Arts & Wellbeing Indicators
Led by Jill Sonke, University of Florida, Jasmine Mack, University of Michigan, Max Helgemo, University of Florida & Curtis Young, Florida Division of Cultural Affairs 

The State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs partnered with the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine on a three-phase project to develop a set of indicators for associating the arts with wellbeing at the community level. The project supports the Division's strategic goal of promoting healthy, vibrant, and thriving communities in Florida, and provides a tool for all communities to measure associations between arts engagement and wellbeing. This session will provide an overview of the project, and prepare participants to use the Arts and Wellbeing Indicators in their communities. Toolkits for data collection and analysis will be shared. 

Arts & Accessibility
Led by Jennifer Sabo, Arts4All Florida 

Arts4All Florida, a statewide nonprofit based in Tampa whose mission is to “provide, support and champion arts education and cultural experiences for and by people with disabilities," will present a comprehensive 2-hour workshop. This workshop will teach on the policies, methods, and tools to make cultural venues accessible and inclusive to individuals with varying abilities. This training presents information on various disabilities and appropriate practices to help organizations develop disability friendly policies, programs, and venues. 

Arts in Public Health Research Strategies
Led by Daisy Fancourt, University College London & Stacey Springs, Harvard University

Facilitated by public health researchers working at the intersections of arts in health, this session invites attendees to identify and prioritize public health issues where arts can have a significant health impact. Through interactive activities, participants will work through these issues with a focus on how to identify and aggregate evidence, specifying the interventions, considering which outcomes/metrics can be used make your evidence case and how can this evidence be used to support uptake of arts interventions. 

Central Florida Community Arts & Wellness Practice Models
By Margery Pabst Steinmetz, Pabst Steinmetz Foundation & Joshua Vickery, Central Florida Community Arts, with: Jeff Moore, UCF; Nancy Lowden Norman, ACA; Mary Ellen Philbin, Share the Care; Suzanne Caporina, Easter Seals Florida; Dr Grace Rose, Bethune-Cookman University, Dr Diane Robinson, Orlando Regional Medical Center; Kathy Ramsberger, Dr Phillips Center for Performing Arts; Pamela Jennelle, Advent Health Research Institute 

Central Florida has developed a rich variety of arts applications to address community needs, ranging from caregiver stress and individual isolation, to lack of purpose or the debilitating effects of autism. This session will provide a variety of arts and wellness models which demonstrate how an initiative develops to meet individual and community needs, evolves over time to reach sustainability, and is measured for impact. In every instance, these models demonstrate that integrating arts and health becomes a “way of life" essential for community wellness and wellbeing. Often a collaborative partner is required as the initiative evolves and organizations discover new applications of the original model. Attendees will have an opportunity to engage, ask questions and identify their own applications and collaborations for arts and wellness. 

Integrating the Arts into Public Health Practice
Led by Dr. Amy Blue, University of Florida, Cindy Prins, University of Florida & Sheena Pryce-Fegumps, University of Florida.

This workshop will provide participants the opportunity to strategize how to integrate arts into public health to optimize the health of communities in an equitable manner. Healthy People 2020 topics and objectives will serve as the backdrop for creative group brainstorming. Through interactive activities, participants will share and generate ideas for promoting public health through the arts and strategize how to move ideas into action and results. 

State Arts Agencies Strategy Session 
Led by Sandy Shaughnessy DCA & Paul Pietsch NASAA. 

This invitational workshop is an opportunity for state art agencies interested in fostering public health to convene with SAA colleagues from around the country to brainstorm about possible programs, partnerships, and other strategies to undertake this important work. The two-hour session will include presentations about existing SAA public health efforts, as well as facilitated discussions about pressing public health issues such as the opioid crisis, how the arts can address them, and what your agency can do to enable community wellbeing. 

National Communications Strategy Session
Led by Ann Christiano, University of Florida & Jamie Bennett, ArtPlace America.

This invitation-only meeting will focus on strategic communications that can help advance the national arts + public health agenda. The group will chart an action plan for enhancing public understanding of the relationship between the arts and health, and for facilitating cross-sector collaboration through a targeted national communications strategy. 

Practice Models: Health Communication

Moderator: Jill Sonke, University of Florida

The purpose of health communication is to promote healthy behaviors, address stigma and improve health knowledge. The arts can increase the reach of health communication to a broad variety of audiences, and can raise awareness, reduce stigma, and facilitate dialogue around health issues. This session will highlight three highly impactful arts-based health communication models.

Curtis Robbins, Kaiser Permanente

What happens when a health care organization invests in using art to explore health issues upstream? For 35 years, Kaiser Permanente has committed to using live theater as a vehicle to raise awareness, provide practical skills, and motivate people of all ages to make life-affirming choices. With a vision for total health (body, mind and spirit), Kaiser Permanente’s recent focus is on social emotional wellness and resiliency with specific support to school communities.

Kathy Le Backes, WISE Entertainment

The key to creating socially impactful yet entertaining content that reaches wide audiences lies in the power of strategic partnerships and thoughtful and inclusive storytelling. Using our six-time Emmy-nominated Hulu drama East Los High as a case example, I will share how Wise Entertainment’s unique development process bridging the non-profit and philanthropy spaces with Hollywood has been an effective model for utilizing TV and film for social impact and civic imagination.

Kelly Cornett & Janet Fulton, CDC

This presentation will explore how art can be utilized for cross-sector community design efforts to increase physical activity. Increasing physical activity in communities is key to public health strategy for chronic disease prevention and health promotion, but too few Americans get the minimum amount of physical activity necessary to realize substantial health benefits. The decision to become more physically active can be made simpler by designing activity-friendly communities. CDC’s Active People, Health NationSM    aims to get 27 million Americans more active by 2027. The initiative provides a comprehensive approach to improving physical activity-friendly communities. It encourages multisector implementation of recommendations from the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition and effective strategies recommended by the Community Preventative Services Task Force in partnership with other Federal agencies and national organizations. Art leaders recognize the unique potential of the arts to celebrate community assets, energize community-wide initiatives, cultivate trust, and articulate new possibilities; thus, integrating arts-based approaches into community design strategies for physical activity could capitalize on the strengths of both art and public health sectors.

Panel Discussion: The Role of Funders in Cross-sector Collaboration and Paradigm Shifting

Moderator: Sunil Iyengar, National Endowment for the Arts

This session will involve a dynamic exchange among some of the nation’s most prominent funders of Arts + Public Health. The National Endowment for the Arts’ research director will interview leaders of two foundations supporting national-level work, a third focused on a city-wide initiative, and a state arts agency making public policy innovations. Topics to be explored in this conversation are: the types of incentives and compromises needed for deep cross-sector collaboration; the role of evidence and communications in fostering arts/health partnerships; and the range of other resources necessary for arts practitioners, public health officials, and the general public to stay fully engaged with programs that seek systemic change.