An increasing number of healthcare providers – whether hospitals, community health centers, health education organizations, nursing homes, hospices, or other healthcare settings – see the importance of the healing environment and the potential impact of the arts on the experience of their clients and patients. This guide is intended to provide insight and information for the growing field of arts in healthcare – for individual artists trying to access healthcare institutions, community-based arts organizations hoping to reach new audiences, or healthcare institutions working to integrate the arts into a continuum of care.

This Handbook reflects the complex and changing needs of our growing field. It serves as a guide through the Society for the Arts in Healthcare’s full-day workshop, Basic Tool Kit: Arts in Healthcare Program Essentials and was compiled through submissions from the workshop’s leaders. The workshop’s presenters are leaders in the field of arts in healthcare and serve as consultants in the Society’s Consulting Service, a technical assistance program designed to assist organizations in starting, growing, and sustaining arts in healthcare programs. The guide reflects their own work with organizations around the country and that of their peers – a pool of over 20 consultants specializing in a range of arts in healthcare areas. [Introduction, p. 5]

This Handbook reflects the complex and changing needs of our growing field. It serves as a guide through the Society for the Arts in Healthcare’s full-day workshop, Basic Tool Kit: Arts in Healthcare Program Essentials and was compiled through submissions from the workshop’s leaders. The workshop’s presenters are leaders in the field of arts in healthcare and serve as consultants in the Society’s Consulting Service, a technical assistance program designed to assist organizations in starting, growing, and sustaining arts in healthcare programs. The guide reflects their own work with organizations around the country and that of their peers – a pool of over 20 consultants specializing in a range of arts in healthcare areas.