The Arts as care generators
Recently, I spent a morning at the rural health clinic. As I perused the information board, I began to reflect on potential connections between a national conversation in the arts and what I see as our local opportunities. A thought dawned on me, what if this space also hosted a community board? Community boards at coffee shops and cafes are such colorful collages of flyers and posters showcasing arts workshops, events, concerts and gatherings. I am always in awe of how much our rural community has to offer.
Next, I ventured to the lobby of the imaging lab. It was filled with Sierra Mountain portraits from local legend, Vern Clevenger. I stood in front of the sunrise over Mount Russel and got lost in the light. At that moment, I forgot about the three months of chronic pain in my shoulder and felt grateful to live and breathe in the beauty of this place daily. I recommend everyone visit the imaging lobby at Northern Inyo Hospital as you would an art gallery. It is a visual experience, a quiet, indoor space for reflection on the human experience.
What if this was a part of your experience every time you went to see your doctor or therapist? Imagine the waiting room hosting a colorful gallery of local art that rotated regularly? What else might be possible if the arts were a part of your prescription?
This isn’t a new idea – but it’s evolving to embrace the creative and cultural arts community as a partner in improving our collective health and wellbeing. The term social prescribing, or community referrals, was piloted in 2018 in Ontario, Canada with a program called Rx: Community. Through this program, a “link worker” connected patients with assets and social opportunities in the community designed to support their individual recovery. Results from this study saw dramatic improvement in reported feelings of anxiety, depression, isolation - 57% in just three months; 84% in eight months. With less repeat visits to the doctor and increased social activity.
Stanford University recently launched an artsbased social prescribing program, Arts Pharmacy. This program gave receptive and participatory “prescriptions,” for students to attend jam sessions, exhibitions, photography workshops or writing classes. These experiences are prescribed in “doses” by what the program has called “care navigators.” The University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine just released, Arts on Prescription- A Field Guide for US communities to formally integrate arts, culture, and nature into health care systems.
So here’s our local opportunity, let’s increase the visibility and active connections between the health and alternative care system, the residents of Bishop, and the local arts and creative community. In the spirit of being generative as a part of this discussion, here is a list of potential strategies for testing some of these ideas.
1. Arts in Healthcare Spaces. Hire local artists to design murals and exhibitions in local clinics, waiting rooms and offices that uplift community themes of struggle and belonging, but also beauty and awe.
2. Community resource bulletins that can be distributed to care centers, including art centers, community spaces, cafes, stores and career centers. Resources should include arts and cultural events, as well as highlights of local creators, cultural bearers and artists.
3. Artists-in-Demand (AID) I’d love to see Art as a type of health aid in clinics. Hire an artist to do demos once a week or come play a calming instrument on certain days of the week in the lobby.
4. Artists on call. Organizations need creative support. Consider hiring an artist as a creative co-conspirator or collaborator. They could help improve your social media content, graphic design or social engagement strategies, etc.…
The connection between the Arts and health/healing are many. The arts are often a visible sign of the evolving expression of local life. Being a part of that experience, whether just observing or listening, or even directly participating in its creation, generates space for people to be more than just their diagnosis. Supporting people to move, even just slightly, beyond chronic pain or self-isolating narratives is a worthy endeavor. This is the creative, third space that lives in-between the work and home and holds so much power to heal.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of C5 Studios C.A.C. or Eastern Sierra Artists. The C.A.T. is a collective platform for diverse perspectives with the intention of increasing community awareness and visibility.
The C.A.T. (Collective Artists’ Thread) is a creative column hosted and curated by C5 Studios Community Arts Center that appears in the Saturday edition of The Inyo Register twice a month offering a stimulating, entertaining, inspiring companion to your morning coffee.
Please send submissions to Erin Dews at erinc5studios@gmail.com.