Arts on Prescription: A Field Guide for US Communities offers a roadmap for communities to develop programs that formally integrate arts, culture, and nature resources into local health and social care systems. Arts on prescription programs allow healthcare providers and social service agencies to “prescribe” arts activities, cultural experiences, and time in nature to support their patients’ or clients’ health, wellbeing and quality of life.
Listen to Tasha Golden and Jill Sonke discuss the field guide in-depth during the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine webinar.
In this issue, we explore the emerging research and practices of social prescribing for the arts (SPA) and discuss the future of SPA efforts as a vital component of arts and health services in the U.S., especially for older adults. This issue starts framing answers to key questions related to the challenges and opportunities this practice surfaces in healthcare and creative aging. Featured in this issue is a recorded conversation between three leading experts on SPA in the U.S.: Tasha Golden, S. Sudha, and Käthe Swaback.
*This email is an abridged version of our our full issue, which contains in-depth analysis and numerous resources on social prescribing. You can read the full issue here.
From the evaluation report:
Creative Aging in Wyoming Public Libraries is a statewide initiative intended to strengthen Wyoming public libraries as community anchors for positive and creative aging, and to expand arts learning opportunities for older Wyoming residents through their local libraries. It is a collaboration between two state agencies, the Wyoming State Library and the Wyoming Arts Council, and Lifetime Arts, a national nonprofit organization that is a resource center for a particular model of instructional arts programming for older adults. Funding was provided by the May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust and the Wyoming Community Foundation.
The initiative started with a planning and training phase that ran from December 2020 into May 2021, followed by an implementation phase from late May 2021 through December 2022 in which participating libraries began conducting creative aging programs. The training phase included an orientation webinar in February 2021 for all interested Wyoming library staff and teaching artists. This was followed by In-depth online training workshops (six hours in length) in March 2021 for librarians and library administrators in Wyoming’s 23 county library systems and for prospective teaching artists.
This project included an evaluation component that assessed impact and sought lessons on multiple levels: on participating older adults, librarians, and library systems. It was designed also to build librarians’ skills at documenting these programs, evaluating their impact and generating lessons for greater effectiveness. The evaluation was coordinated by the Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry, a Minneapolis-based evaluation firm that has partnered with Lifetime Arts on several creative aging initiatives. Evaluation data was gathered by library program coordinators, using three instruments designed by Touchstone; and by Touchstone president David Scheie through interviews, focus groups and observations.
Lifetime Arts has stayed true to our mission and expanded our impact in our field in each of the years since our founding in 2008, and 2021 was no exception. This past year, we added 20 new state arts agency partners, and continued work with national, state, and municipal partners, such as the American Alliance of Museums, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and the National Guild for Community Arts Education. We delivered hundreds of training hours to more than 800 people across the U.S., and coached 42 partner organizations in 26 states and territories to successfully deliver 116 creative aging programs. We did all of this through the continued, generous support of Aroha Philanthropies, New York State Council on the Arts and Office for the Aging, The May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust, The New York Community Trust, and The Wyoming Community Foundation. This video has been edited and produced by Jacqueline DuMont, Digital Media Producer.
