The Arts and Health Movement Takes Root
A featured article by The Art of Being Human Founder Suzanne Valois
I’m optimistic, maybe even doing a little jig, as I write this article for the inaugural newsletter of Radical Connections. I can see clearly now that the arts and health movement in Canada is firmly taking root. As an advocate for arts and health in Canada for the past 10 years I’ve seen it go from a grass roots movement to a place where both the arts milieu and the medical profession have taken it seriously: many programs and partnerships to meld these two fields have been implemented building on the growing importance of engaging with the arts for personal, community and global wellbeing.
The research is there to support this and has consequently buoyed the movement forward. In 2010 I brought 80 people together in the Ottawa community involved in the arts as well as those working in the medical field to introduce them to arts and health concepts hosted by Arts Health Network Canada (AHNC). AHNC was one of the organizations that paved the way for the arts and health movement in Canada, including producing the first comprehensive infographic on the far-reaching benefits of arts and health (a precursor to the two infographics below: Arts Participation and Canadian’s Health and Arts Participation and Canadian’s mental health).
The two infographics are from a report titled Canadians’ Arts Participation, Health, and Well-Being from March 2021 based on Statistics Canada 2016 General Social Survey funded by the Ontario Arts Council, the Department of Canadian Heritage and Canada Council of the Arts. As arts and culture have important contributions to make to at least seven of the twelve determinants of health as defined by Health Canada both fields can demonstrate that investment in arts and culture produce important social benefits that have a strong positive impact on both individual and community health.
You know that you are on the right path when arts organizations, community health as well as regional and national health agencies come together to initiate social prescriptive programs that allow physicians to write a prescription for arts-based interaction. That said, arts and health is not solely dependent on validation from science as the whole premise of the movement is to build new models of creative exchanges that benefit all.
Arts and health is gaining in popularity perhaps not by happenstance at a time when the pandemic has deeply affected our individual and collective mental health. Covid 19 has put a strain on the medical system and has had a devastating impact on the arts sector. Arts and health is being recognized as one of the antidotes providing adaptive measures to deal with the fallout from the past year and a half.
Moving forward there is still a great deal to be done and more public demand could play a bigger part in making sure that everyone has access to arts-based health programming. Agencies, media, and individuals can step up to continue to bring arts and health out of the ethers and into the realm of the actual. Radical Connections is a great example of stepping up, bringing a very clear message and informative content on their website that offers an opportunity to learn more and get involved in the movement. To be sure I’m doing a few pirouettes here!!
