imageThe Issue: Arts and Health

Creative arts therapists and community artists work in diverse settings across a wide spectrum of populations, assisting people through all life stages. The use of arts practices in healthcare has been proven to not only benefit patients, but also help contain healthcare costs—a win-win for everyone.

Economic analyses and cost studies confirm that the arts enhance coping and improve response to treatment, reducing the costs associated with extended hospital care and pain medication. Access to arts interventions reduces patients’ level of depression and anxiety, contributes to patient satisfaction, and improves providers’ recruitment and retention rates.

Arts practitioners work with a wide spectrum of patients in almost every setting, including but not limited to, nonprofit and for-profit healthcare facilities, hospice programs, long-term care facilities, mental health programs, schools, rehabilitation treatment centers, special needs camps, disaster response teams, psychiatric forensic units, veterans’ facilities, prisons, community centers, wellness programs, and military bases.

Despite strong historical beginnings in veterans’ hospitals during World War II, having previous research funded through grant awards from the Department of Health and Human Services, and having inclusion in federal programs such as the Older Americans Act, arts in health is still under-funded and under-researched.

Focus Foward Towards Solutions

An investment in the arts in health is an investment in America’s health.

  1. Find more details in the Arts in Health Issue Brief (pdf) in the Congressional Arts Handbook.
  2. Check out the National Endowment for the Arts’ Interagency Task Force on the Arts and Human Development.
  3. Learn more about the National Initiative for Arts and Health in the Military led by Americans for the Arts.
  4. Read the Arts and the Military Issue Brief (pdf) in the Congressional Arts Handbook.
Improving Our Nation’s Health Through the Arts

Ms. Alecia T. Kintner

CEO Reflections: Fifth Third Demonstrates How the Arts Heal

Posted by Ms. Alecia T. Kintner, Nov 05, 2018


Ms. Alecia T. Kintner

The Business Committee on the Arts, an organization started by David Rockefeller in 1966, celebrated the many ways that the arts bring people together on Tuesday, Oct. 2 in New York City. We at ArtsWave were proud that Cincinnati once again “made the list” with our own Top 10 Business Supporting the Arts in America: Fifth Third Bank. In the midst of stories of arts engagement and creative partnerships that characterized the remarks of each honoree, Fifth Third’s SVP and Chief Administrative Officer Teresa Tanner shared something particularly poignant and timely with the guests. Teresa described how art is being used to foster healing after the horrific mass shooting in the bank’s lobby in September. In the days that followed, bank leaders decided to cover the lobby’s broken windows with huge canvas boards. To show solidarity with one another and build strength in numbers to move forward, employees were invited to dip their hands in paint and leave their handprints on the canvases. Hundreds of colorful handprints now adorn the space and remind Fifth Third employees that they are “Fifth Third Strong” and “Cincinnati Strong.” This simple activity became a profound and hopeful action, something that brought the company together after unspeakable loss.

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Randy Cohen

10 Reasons to Support the Arts in 2019

Posted by Randy Cohen, Feb 25, 2019


Randy Cohen

The arts advocacy season is upon us once again. It’s time to meet with your legislators to help them understand the value of investing in the arts. How to prepare? Start with this list of “10 Reasons to Support the Arts.” It can feel intimidating walking into a legislator’s office—even to experienced advocates. To always feel prepared, I break the advocacy process down into three simple questions: Who gets the message? What is the message? Who delivers the message? Remember the Golden Rule: No numbers without a story, and no stories without a number. The arts are all about stories—often small, always meaningful. Share yours. It’s engaging and draws your listener in—and then pair it with the research-based findings in “10 Reasons to Support the Arts.” Yours will be an advocacy visit that is not soon forgotten.

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