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Healing Properties: Art + Health

American Artscape | 2014 No. 3
Cover of NEA Arts No 3 2014
A prosthetic knee designed by the nonprofit product developement company D-Rev. Photo courtesy of D-Rev
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In this issue, we’ll look at some of the innovative ways that organizations are using art as an instrument of healing. At the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, art therapy is helping service members grapple with the complex issues behind post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. At the nonprofit D-Rev, creative product design is forging solutions for medical issues plaguing third-world countries. AIDS Quilt workshops provide an outlet for grief and mourning, while working toward HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness. COSACOSA, based in Philadelphia, uses public art to heal communities fractured by poverty and illness, and in California, EngAGE is challenging the concept of what retirement communities should look like.

At some point in our lives, all of us have felt the healing properties of art, even if in subtle ways. Maybe it’s a certain song or album we listen to when in need of a pick-me-up, or a particular movie we watch that somehow always manages to comfort. Or maybe it’s a book we’ve read that has helped us make sense of the world, and realize that we are not alone.

But these properties, when writ large, are capable of doing far more than cheer us up after a down-and-out day. When used to its maximum potential, art has the power to ease the symptoms of trauma, to change the dynamics of the aging process, and alleviate emotional and physical symptoms of chronic illness.

In this issue, we’ll look at some of the innovative ways that organizations are using art as an instrument of healing. At the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, art therapy is helping service members grapple with the complex issues behind post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. At the nonprofit D-Rev, creative product design is forging solutions for medical issues plaguing third-world countries. AIDS Quilt workshops provide an outlet for grief and mourning, while working toward HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness. COSACOSA, based in Philadelphia, uses public art to heal communities fractured by poverty and illness, and in California, EngAGE is challenging the concept of what retirement communities should look like.

As you read through this issue, we hope you’ll see the potential art has to heal, in equal measure, the mind, the body, and the spirit.

Included in this Issue

Air Force troop drawing on paper.

Beneath the Surface

Creative Art Therapy at Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Woman and man looking at phototherapy machinery.

Focusing on the Impact

D-Rev Brings Functionality and Aesthetics to Low-Income Markets
Woman sewing a quilt.

Grief Knows No Color

Adding Diversity to the AIDS Quilt
Two photos of a section of the hospital before and after redesign.

A Community Built on Healing

Philadelphia's COSACOSA Brings Art to Hospitals
An elderly man playing violin to a couple of children.

A Place of Possibilities

EngAGE Provides Arts Programming in Senior Housing
Orchestra playing at Houston Methodist Hospital.

Taking Care of the Artistic Soul

Houston Methodist Center for Performing Arts Medicine
Two disabled dancers dancing with wheelchairs

Dancing with Disability

A Look at the Infinity Dance Theater
Gallery entrance with artwork

Healing through Creativity

Using Art to Ease the Effects of Trauma
Man reciting poetry with eldery men.

Sparking Memories with Poetry

The Alzheimer's Poetry Project
Audio Available
A music therapist  works with a patient recovering from a stroke

Cleveland: At the Crossroads of Healing and the Arts

Audio Available

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