University of Utah College of Fine Art Invests in Arts in Health Innovation
Jun 20, 2025
The University of Utah’s College of Fine Arts continues to deepen its commitment to interdisciplinary research in arts in health.
The Arts and Health Innovation Lab., which was established nearly a decade ago, is designed to “generate arts in health research that transfers and transforms our society and public health,” shares CFA Associate Dean of Research Becky Zarate. The Lab brings together many scholars working in collaboration from schools and colleges across the Utah campus to produce a research to pedagogy and practice pipeline. As the website states, “Our members study how the arts support and produce well-being, and put that knowledge to work in hospitals, clinics, community centers, schools, workplaces, and senior care facilities.” For example, dance instructors use tenets of the Alexander technique to inform wheelchair use and design in collaboration with a spinal clinic for veterans, and the Center for Vocology studies how best to care for the human voice.
The Arts and Health Innovation Lab’s website provides many more examples and inspiration.
The impact on the curriculum and student experience is profound: “With our arts and health initiatives coming out of fine arts, we are going to be able to offer a whole array of clinical and educational trainings that integrate arts and health methodologies,” says Zarate. Another outcome, says Professor of Dance Luc Vanier, is that students see the relevance of their research and connect it to the community while they are still pursing their degrees.
Learn more in the introductory video below:
Last month, CFA announced a new program supporting this work: an Arts & Health Faculty Fellowship. This 3-year fellowship, supported by the Office of Research in the College of Fine Arts, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and the Arts & Health Innovation Lab, promotes ” faculty research that will strengthen community partnerships and opportunities for public health and social innovation through interdisciplinary team science,” according to the college.
The program scaffolds the skills and experiences necessary to produce innovative arts in health research: “Recipients will learn how to develop and design rigorous studies in quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods and arts-based approaches in the first year; Learn how to develop and work within interdisciplinary/cross-college and campus/community projects [and] implement a pilot project in the second year, and disseminate, and apply for extramural grant opportunities in the final year.” Fellows will also receive funds for research administrative support. The fellowship specifically provides opportunities for recipients to engage with the a2ru community through its Arts in Public Health working group, and provides funding for fellows to present their evolving research at the a2ru conference.
The inaugural recipient of the Fellowship is Sam Briggs, an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre; her proposed research project will explore how collaborative artistic creation fosters youth well-being while engaging communities in civic dialogue and collective problem-solving around youth mental health. Briggs says, “With rising concerns about adolescent mental health, creative engagement offers a promising avenue for expression, resilience-building, and community connection.”
Learn more about the Arts & Health Faculty Fellowship and Briggs’s work here.