Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network
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 that seeks to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers.
Approximately 515,000 men and women of our armed forces have been diagnosed with TBI between 2000 and 2024, and more than 20% veterans serving in the Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF) or Gulf War (Desert Storm) have PTSD at some point in their life . Both diagnoses may contribute to depression and to the estimated 17 suicides committed by veterans each day.
The program places creative arts therapies at the core of patient-centered care at clinical sites throughout the country, including telehealth services, and increases access to community arts activities to promote health, well-being and quality of life for military service members, veterans, and their families and caregivers. Creative Forces is managed in partnership with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine and Mid-America Arts Alliance.
Creative Forces Programs
Creative Forces operates in both clinical and community settings, providing various avenues for military-connected people and their families and caregivers to advance their health and well-being through the arts.
The Creative Forces Clinical Program brings creative arts therapies to military patients and veterans who are receiving care at Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs facilities across the nation.
The Creative Forces Community Engagement Program expands the reach of Creative Forces by supporting community-based arts programs and activities that enable military-connected people to experience and create art.
History of Creative Forces
Since 2012, the National Endowment for the Arts has partnered with the Department of Defense and subsequently Veterans Affairs to support creative arts therapies for service members and veterans in military medical facilities. In 2017, the network began supporting community arts programming, expanding the reach of Creative Forces to more military-connected people nationwide.
Operation Homecoming
The National Endowment for the Arts’ partnership with the Department of Defense dates back to 2004 when Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience was created by the Arts Endowment to help U.S. service members and their families write about their wartime experiences in Afghanistan, Iraq, and stateside. From 2004 to 2006, Operation Homecoming provided more than 60 writing workshops to service members and their families at more than 30 military installations in the U.S. and overseas. A later phase brought writing workshops to veterans and active-duty service members at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers, military hospitals, and affiliated centers in communities around the country. More than 6,000 people participated in Operation Homecoming workshops and related activities.
Clinical program pilot
In 2011, the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) Walter Reed Bethesda invited the Arts Endowment to help build out its creative arts therapy program. In 2012, the Operation Homecoming writing workshops became part of the clinical program at NICoE. After successfully piloting the NEA Military Healing Arts Partnership there, the NICoE Intrepid Spirit-1 at Fort Belvoir in Virginia invited the National Endowment for the Arts to replicate the program in their new integrative care facility.
The NICoE’s groundbreaking, interdisciplinary approach to working with patients and their families—which ranges from physical and neurological exams, to family evaluation, nutrition, alternative medicine, and creative arts therapies—became the model for the Clinical Program. The partnership involved support for therapeutic writing as well as multiple creative arts therapies (art therapy, music therapy, and dance/movement therapy) at Walter Reed and Fort Belvoir.
Expanding our reach
Congress has encouraged the National Endowment for the Arts’ continued efforts with the Military Healing Arts Network and funding increases have allowed the Arts Endowment to expand the reach and impact of this national initiative, under the title of Creative Forces, to include more than a dozen Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs clinical sites, telehealth services, research, program analytics, and a community engagement grant program.
