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Arts and Health

Health and Well-Being

The arts’ benefits for health and well-being are experienced at all stages of life and on multiple levels—physical, cognitive, social, and emotional. As part of the NEA’s goal to integrate the arts with strategies that promote the well-being and resilience of people and communities, the NEA utilizes grantmaking, national initiatives, and research.

  • From early childhood through adolescence and youth, arts education can support the social and emotional needs of students, helping them better to cope with their feelings, to bounce back from adversity, and to show tolerance and compassion for others.
  • For older adults, greater frequency of arts participation has been linked to positive health outcomes.
  • Creative arts therapies and arts-in-health programs can help to address specific physical and mental health conditions, and can improve the quality of life for patients and their caregivers.
  • Arts-based strategies can improve our physical health, and can contribute to greater social connection, social cohesion, and community well-being.

Grantmaking

NEA Research Awards
Through the Research Grants in the Arts program and the NEA Research Labs, the agency has supported numerous studies about the arts’ physiological and psychological impacts on health and social and emotional well-being.

Research Grants in the Arts Study Findings: Health

Recent Grant Examples:

Emory University (Atlanta, GA)— To support a series of community-based participatory evaluation studies on an Adaptango dance program for adults with Parkinson's Disease.

University of Texas at El Paso (El Paso, TX)— To support a mixed-methods study examining the impact of a dance and movement cross-training intervention on healthcare providers.

NEA Research Labs: The Arts, Health, and Social/Emotional Well-Being 
These transdisciplinary research teams are grounded in the social and behavioral sciences, yielding empirical insights about the arts. Sustained methods of inquiry into these topic areas will have distinctive benefits for the arts community, but also for sectors such as healthcare.

Recent Grant Examples: 

  • The University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine program has partnered with UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine program to develop an “EpiArts” Lab, which is undertaking an initial three-year study to explore the impacts of arts and cultural engagement on population health outcomes in the U.S., as well as the mechanisms involved.
  • CORAL (Colorado Resiliency Lab), at University of Colorado Denver, is exploring whether and how arts programs and therapies can relieve stress and burnout among healthcare professionals.

Our Town 
The NEA’s creative placemaking grants program, Our Town provides supports activities that integrate arts, culture, and design into local efforts that strengthen communities over the long term. Our Town projects engage a wide range of local stakeholders in efforts to advance local economic, physical, and/or social outcomes in communities. (Our Town: A Framework for Understanding and Measuring the National Endowment for the Arts’ Creative Placemaking Grants Program) Many of these projects fuse arts and design with public health strategies.

Recent Grant Examples:

Chilkoot Indian Association (Haines, AK)—To support community gatherings and co-created public art to heal generational trauma in the Tlingit community around Haines, Alaska. The Chilkoot Indian Association and Alaska Indian Arts, with support from a wide range of local partners, will host monthly multi-generational gatherings that combine conversation, storytelling, and traditional Alaska Native arts training. Through these meetings, participants also will plan for at least one co-created art piece that will reflect local culture and Alaska Native values. The project will offer a forum for cross-generational healing as well as Native arts skill-building among younger community members, making traditional arts and arts businesses more visible in Haines.

Anne Bluethenthal and Dancers (San Francisco, CA)—To support multidisciplinary arts activities that address health equity in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. The project will bring together Tenderloin residents and health providers to share stories of trauma through dialogue, storytelling, music, and movement during workshops, community forums, and collaborative site-specific performances, and collected within an audio and video story archive. This project will encourage communication among healthcare providers and low-income Tenderloin residents, as well as between city agencies. It will align with multiple city agency efforts to address health and wellness for housing insecure residents. The project is a partnership of ABD Productions and San Francisco Arts Commission, the city's Planning Commission, Department of Public Health, and University of California San Francisco's Center for Community Engagement.

Initiatives

Arts, Health, and Well-being Pilot Initiative

At the January 2024 Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Summit on Arts and Culture in our Communities—an event co-hosted by the White House Domestic Policy Council and National Endowment for the Arts—NEA Chair Jackson announced the Arts, Health, and Well-being Pilot Initiative to support the work of artists and arts organizations in contributing to the health and well-being of individuals and communities. This initiative includes support for nine demonstration projects with promising local arts and cultural approaches for addressing social connection, belonging, and mental health through the arts. Examples include:

  • In Indiana, the Arts Council of Indianapolis will expand their program Arts For Awareness, which supports local arts organizations in developing and implementing arts-based substance use disorder (SUD) prevention, education, and recovery programs in Marion County, Indiana.
  • In Louisiana, the Ashé Cultural Arts Center will continue its I Deserve It! program, which hires and trains local artists and culture bearers to serve as community health workers.
  • In Minnesota, Springboard for the Arts will hold artist-led projects focused on improving social connectedness and mental health in rural Otter Tail County and the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

In addition, the state and jurisdictional arts agencies (SAAs) also had the opportunity to apply for funding as part of their FY25 Partnership Agreements to advance, deepen, and/or expand work at the state level in driving belonging and social connection, or to initiate new exploratory work or a demonstration project. 
Under both grant programs, the NEA plans to document various grantee approaches to the work, and identify promising practices, and make this information accessible to the broader field.

Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network
An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, Creative Forces 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. 

Creative Forces has three areas of work—clinical, community, and capacity. At military medical and Veterans Health Administration facilities, Creative Forces is placing creative arts therapies—art, music, and dance/movement therapies—at the core of patient-centered care, including telehealth delivery of care for patients in rural and remote areas. Creative Forces Community Engagement Grants support community-based arts programming to address the distinct experiences, challenges, and strengths of military-connected populations through the arts. In addition, Creative Forces is investing in research on the impacts and benefits—physical, social, and emotional—of these innovative treatment methods as well as the development of toolkits, training materials, and other resources to support best practices in serving the target populations.

Visit the Creative Forces National Resource Center to learn more and to read all research associated with Creative Forces.

Sound Health Network
The Sound Health Network (SHN) was established to promote research and public awareness about the impact of music on health and wellness. The network engages with a broad range of multidisciplinary stakeholders—including scientists, music therapists, clinicians, patients, music and arts organizations, funders, and the general public. Through its coordinating role, the SHN facilitates individual and collaborative efforts that promote the quality, quantity, and relevance of research at the intersections of music, neuroscience, health, and wellness across the lifespan, advancing the potential of music to improve all our lives.

SHN is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts with the University of California, San Francisco in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Renée Fleming, the center’s artistic advisor.

Interagency Working Group on Arts, Health, and Civic Infrastructure 
Starting in 2024, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) convened a new Interagency Working Group on Arts, Health, and Civic Infrastructure (IWG-AHCI). Chaired by Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the NEA, and Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), this group will foster exchanges of insights and information about arts and cultural resources and strategies across federal agencies, with the goal of helping to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities.

Related Arts and Health News

Stories

Grant Spotlight: Harmony Project Productions (Columbus, Ohio)
We spoke with Harmony Project's Creative Director David Brown about the development of the Being Human project and the power of music in strengthening communities.

Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Reflection from the Arts and Health Caucus 
Drs. Nisha Sajnani, Jill Sonke, and Lisa Wong ponder the potential that the arts have in clinical and public health in the United States.

"Arts and Health: The Role of the Arts Sector in Promoting Resilience and Well-Being" (American Artscape Issue No. 2 2023)

Podcast with Dr. David Fakunle 
Fakunle uses the art of storytelling to promote public health by listening, understanding, and addressing the personal, social, and structural factors that contribute to health disparities.

A Soldier’s Artful Life: A Conversation with SPC Ryan P. DeWolfe 
Here's the story of how music therapy helped SPC Ryan P. DeWolfe heal from a Traumatic Brain Injury and continue his career in the army.

At the Intersection of Arts and Public Health: Ask the Question Engages the Arts in Suicide Prevention
Ask the Question is an Oregon-based public health and art initiative that explores the topic of suicide—and how creative expression can play a role in stopping such tragedies before they start.

Sarah Whalen-Lunn on the Healing Power of Indigenous Tattooing
Traditional tattoo artist Sarah Whalen-Lunn talks about her journey to learning indigenous tattooing and its importance to the cultural health of her community.

Podcast with Dr. Nina Kraus
Music on the brain: Dr Nina Kraus explores the science of sound

Additional Resources

NEA staff have also served in an advisory capacity on the following resources and opportunities:

“The NeuroArts Blueprint: Advancing the Science of Arts, Health, and Wellbeing,” an initiative of Johns Hopkins University’s International Arts + Mind Lab and the Aspen Institute

The Fundamental Role of Arts and Humanities in Medical Education (FRAHME), an initiative of the Association of American Medical Colleges

Press release: CDC Foundation Supports Arts and Cultural Organizations to Build Confidence in COVID-19 and Seasonal Influenza Vaccines

Engaging the Arts to Build Vaccine Confidence—This report outlines the impact of a collaboration among the NEA, CDC, and CDC Foundation to support organizations using the arts and culture to educate local communities about vaccine safety and efficacy. 

Music on Our Minds: The Rich Potential of Music to Promote Brain Health and Mental Well-Being, a report from the Global Council on Brain Health, a collaborative from AARP.

The NEA is a federal partner on the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Federal Plan for Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience