Exploring and Building the Intersections of the Arts + Public Health in America 

Presented by the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine in partnership with ArtPlace America, and hosted by the Georgetown Lombardi Arts and Humanities program and the Johns Hopkins University International Arts + Mind Lab.

This program is a part of the  Creating Healthy Communities Arts + Public Health in America  initiative.

January 17 & 18, 2019
Brookings Institution & Georgetown Alumni House 
by invitation 

At the present moment, the arts are poised to transform public health as they have healthcare in recent years. With the overarching goal of creating stronger and healthier communities through the arts, a national initiative has been launched to bridge the arts and public health sectors through a strategic process of discovery, collaboration, translation, and dissemination. 

Program Brief

Over the past several decades, evidence has mounted to demonstrate that the arts have positive and measurable impacts on individual and community health. Since 2004, arts programs have been documented at approximately half of accredited healthcare institutions in the United States. This prevalence has led to the development of a recognized professional field, as well as to the development of an academic discipline that supports education and research in the field. As a result, healthcare systems widely embrace and utilize the arts as a means for enhancing health outcomes and healthcare systems. 

Today, as our national health system struggles to meet the needs of larger and older populations, a heightened emphasis on disease prevention, wellness, placemaking and community-level health has emerged. Concurrently, creative placemaking initiatives across the United States have demonstrated that the arts are a powerful means for strengthening the social and physical environments in communities; yet the public health sector has not yet fully embraced creative placemaking, or the arts in general, as resources for addressing the national public health agenda. Over the past several decades, evidence has mounted to demonstrate that the arts have positive and measurable impacts on individual and community health, yet their applications are under-investigated and inconsistently recognized in the public health sector. As a result, the arts remain a readily available, yet highly underutilized resource in public health. 

It’s time to join together to shape the future! This working group will focus on policy change and advancement in relation to the use of the arts in community health and community-building initiatives.

Together, we addressed the questions: 

• How can the power of the arts be harnessed in public health and community-building initiatives? 
• How can we drive strategic policy change in the arts, community-building and public health sectors? 
• How can we measure the outcomes and impacts of those policies?  

Who was a part of the gathering: 

This invitation-only convening will include practitioners, educators, researchers, policy-makers, thought leaders and other stakeholders from the arts, public health, creative placemaking and community development sectors.

FAQ:

Please click here to read our frequently asked questions document.