Arts In Health Project

We are Initiating: 

The Arts in Health Project of THE ARTS MAKE AMERICA GREAT Campaign

Healthy Individuals, Healthy Communities Through The Arts

The ARTS are vital to a healthy society, they inspire and empower. They help heal individuals and communities.

We want to reinforce and create an ongoing dialog - the utilization of the arts as a prescription for health, wellness and our future possibilities. Quite simply, art is good for you and should be as important to your individual health as balanced nutrition and regular exercise and as important to society as reading, science and math. The arts are exercises for your mind, body and spirit-they are energizing. When used as a community tool will help to heal the community and society.

We want to share the stories of individuals, families, caregivers, medical professionals, artists and community workers as to how the arts have had an impact on their lives and or those around them. We want to create a humanistic value, put a face on the impact

We want to raise awareness of organizations doing amazing work across America and help raise money.

According to the World Health Organization, good health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being; as defined by Dr. Kenneth Pellitier-“Good health is functioning at your best, whatever it is you do.” Health needs to be recognized as an ongoing process of self-discovery, manifesting a positive influence on the world around us. Thus we embrace a definition of health as including not only personal health and healing but holistic community life and well-being. The project seeks to promote healthy individuals and communities as a creative, active and ongoing process.

We can place the impact of the arts on a continuum, in which they impact health from prevention through treatment and wellness; mental health; enhance service delivery in healthcare institutions, academic institutions and promote healthy communities and lifestyles.

Research specific to the arts from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia indicates that participation and involvement in creative activity can contribute to better health and stronger communities and that there is a strong correlation between the health of individuals and that of their community.

"The arts are an essential nutrient for human culture. Every society has used art to create a social glue, to express its faith and ideas and to interpret the world" Patch Adams, MD

"Because creativity is great medicine for all, both the creator and the one who experiences it, it prevents disease and promotes wellness." Patch Adams, MD From the forward of the book, Illness and the Art of Creative Self-Expression, John Graham-Pole, MD