NEW! Check out the latest issue of NEA Arts magazine on the arts and healing!


By NEA staff
Cover of NEA Arts magazine with a mask on it with the word strong and other embellishment
One of the masks created in the mask-making program in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which helped those traumatized by recent hurricanes. The program was based on a similar project developed by the NEA’s Creative Forces initiative. Photo by William Stelzer, St. John’s Art and Cultural Long-Term Recovery Group
At the National Endowment for the Arts, we believe the arts have a unique ability to heal, and our investments reflect this belief. In the new issue of NEA Arts magazine, we look at projects that the National Endowment for the Arts has supported at the intersection of arts and healing. Stories include a look at the Arts Endowment's Creative Forces initiative--which promotes health and wellness among service members and veterans with PTSD, TBI, and other psychological conditions--through the lens of one military family; a conversation with Shakespeare Festival St. Louis Executive Producer Tom Ridgely about its NEA-supported Shakespeare in the Streets project, which works to heal the wounds of social disconnection and alienation caused by racial, economic, geographical, and other barrriers; and an examination of the role the National Endowment for the Arts plays in federal disaster relief. Read these stories and more in our new issue: Working on the Spirit and the Mind: the Healing Power of the Arts.