Arts in Health

While the arts and health have been deeply connected throughout human history, arts in health, “a field dedicated to using the power of the arts to enhance health and well-being in diverse institutional and community contexts” as defined by the National Organization for Arts in Health, has emerged as a formal field of practice and academic discipline over the past three decades. Arts in health is the umbrella term for arts in health care and arts in public health. Within health-care settings, artists and arts programming/practices enrich the environment of care, provide creative opportunities for staff, visitors, and patients, and have been linked to specific health outcomes for the latter including less pain and anxiety, reduced length of hospital stay, and increased satisfaction. Arts in public health is an emerging discipline where public health intersects with arts and culture. It engages arts and cultural practices for health promotion, prevention, communication, and well-being in communities outside of clinical settings. Arts in public health programs may help people cope with chronic health conditions and are often designed to enhance well-being, happiness, social cohesion, and the opportunity to flourish both individually and collectively. This discipline recognizes that artists have long worked in communities to improve the human condition; however, while many artists address health-related concerns in their work, not all such work can be subsumed under the umbrella of arts in public health. Work that fits under this umbrella is that in which collaboration takes place among professionals and practitioners in the public health and arts and culture sectors for health promotion. While aligned with arts in health, creative arts therapies remain a clinical discipline wherein trained creative arts therapists address medical and mental health problems. Medical humanities explore connections between the health sciences and humanities, inclusive of the arts. Arts in health professionals are not clinical care providers, rather they are professionals, including artists, who are trained to facilitate the arts in either a health-care or public health/community setting or partnership. Although this article focuses on arts in health, there will be a significant emphasis on arts in public health. The authors would like to thank members of the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine Interdisciplinary Research Lab: Karen Coker, Aaron Colverson, Alexandra Rodriguez, Prasanna Vankina, and Yanlin Wang, who contributed to this manuscript through assistance with locating citations and formatting.