A2RU
A2RU

ArtsRx

An arts-engaged community is a healthy community.

A2ru’s current work in the Arts in Health arena is mapping and addressing the needs at the intersection of arts in health and the arts in public health and to be responsive to the multiple movements growing in these areas. To help us parse this wide field, we offer the following definitions (from NOAH and the Center for Arts in Medicine):

Arts in Health: A broad and growing academic discipline and field of practice dedicated to using the power of the arts to enhance human health and well-being in diverse institutional and community contexts.

Arts in Public Health: The domain of Arts in Health refers to using the arts within public health programs in the interest of community engagement, needs assessment, health communication, and health promotion.

On this resource page you will see resources and research in both areas an along the continuum of this emerging field.

Contribute a Resource

Please feel free to contact us with resources and event information to inform our work and for consideration to be included on this page. Please put “ArtsRx resource” in the subject line.

Arts in Health Communities of Practice

a2ru convenes two communities of practice in the area of Arts & Public Health:

Arts & Public Health Community of Practice meets every other fourth Monday. This group will launch October 2021 to build an action and research agenda together for the burgeoning field of arts and health!
Arts in Health Educators Community of Practice meets every other second Monday. This group is working on curricula development, including establishing certificates, minors, and majors in this area of study and coordinating and exploring the intersections in arts in health, entrepreneurship, arts management (field definition, taxonomies, student employment in this field, pedagogical tenets of this emerging field including social justice and equity). This group was established in February 2021.
To join either of these groups or if you have any questions, please email flanigam@umich.edu.
Banner Image: a performance from our 2016 National Conference, ArtsRx: Creative Venture, Wellbeing, and the New Humanities

Community of Practice Members

Ferol Carytsas
Director, University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine
Ferol Carytsas
Director, University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine

Ferol was a founding board member of the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) and was an editor and contributing author to the Core Curriculum for Arts in Health Professionals. Ferol’s interest in curriculum design led her to co-develop the Undergraduate Certificate in Music in Medicine at UF. Ferol’s research interests include arts in health pedagogy, curriculum design, and assessment.

To learn more about Ferol: https://arts.ufl.edu/directory/profile/37123

Lisa Erdman
artist, educator, researcher
Lisa Erdman
artist, educator, researcher

Lisa Erdman, MFA, DA (Doctor of Arts)  is an artist, educator, and researcher. She has taught art and design at the university level in the United States and in Finland.  More recently,  Dr. Erdman works medical students within health humanities courses at Penn State College of Medicine. Her performances and media art explore the politics of medicine and cultural identity. Dr. Erdman is interested in examining the mechanisms that shape personal identity and one’s relationship to medical authority.

Penny Brill
National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) initiative
Penny Brill
National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) initiative

Retired Pittsburgh Symphony violist Penny Brill is part of the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) initiative to professionalize artists in healthcare who currently have no healthcare credentials. Her nonprofit Musicians as a Community Resource (MUSACOR) currently supports a music therapist providing sessions at a shelter for unaccompanied minors and yoga with live musicians at several locations.

Raquel Chapin Stephenson
Professor of Art Therapy and Faculty Fellow
Raquel Chapin Stephenson
Professor of Art Therapy and Faculty Fellow

Raquel Chapin Stephenson, PhD, ATR-BC, LCAT, is a Professor of Art Therapy and Faculty Fellow in the Institute for the Arts in Health at Lesley University. She recently published Art Therapy and Creative Aging: Reclaiming Elderhood, Health and Wellbeing.

Tamara Underiner
Associate Dean
Tamara Underiner
Associate Dean

Tamara Underiner is associate dean for professional development and engagement in Arizona State University’s Graduate College, and associate professor in the School of Music, Dance and Theatre, where she serves as founding director of the Ph.D. program in Theatre and Performance of the Americas. She also convenes Creative Health Collaborations, a university-wide effort to integrate arts, humanities and design approaches in health research, education, practice and policy. With Dr. David W. Coon, she co-directs a new NEA-sponsored Research Lab studying the health-supporting role of the arts in different types of caregiving contexts and via a range of participatory arts experiences involving both caregivers and their loved ones.

Ariadne (Ari) Albright
Director, Creative Care
Ariadne (Ari) Albright
Director, Creative Care

Ariadne was awarded the 2023 Teaching Artist Guild (T.A.G.) Distinguished Service Award. Director of Creative Care, L.L.C., Ari initiated and teaches the arts in health curriculum within the College of Fine Arts at the University of South Dakota; served as a founding board member and chairperson of NOAH’s Professionalization Committee; works as arts in health consultant for Sanford Health and is an active roster artist with the South Dakota Arts Council’s Artists in the Schools and Communities Program.

 

For current Arts in Health projects see https://creativecarellc.com/

Maryrose Flanigan
Executive Director
Maryrose Flanigan
Executive Director

Maryrose Flanigan is the executive director of the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru), where she oversees a network of universities which are committed to advancing arts-based and interdisciplinary research, practice, and teaching in higher education. She serves on a presidential advisory group for the arts initiative at a2ru’s headquarters at the University of Michigan and is part of the advisory cohort for the Imagining America’s Leading and Learning Initiative: Shifting Institutional Culture to Fortify Public Scholarship, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Prior to joining the staff at a2ru, she served in various roles at the National Endowment for the Arts: as division coordinator for Literature and Arts Education, as a specialist for the creative writing and translation fellowships; and served as program manager for national programs Poetry Out Loud and the NEA Big Read. She has also served as associate editor for Office of Communications and Public Affairs (OCPA) at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U); and associate director for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). Maryrose has an M.F.A. in poetry from American University.

 

Arts in Health Pedagogy Resources

Below are syllabi and other classroom resources shared by members of our Arts in Health Educators Community of Practice. Please note that the resources shared remain the property of the authors/instructors.

Syllabus: Arts in Health, University of South Dakota Department of Art

Instructor: Ariadne Albright

View Syllabus