Institute for Arts and Health (IAH) at Lesley

The Institute for Arts and Health promotes the use of the arts for the health and well-being of all individuals in educational, community, and institutional settings.

Applying the Arts in Clinical and Non-clinical Settings

Clinical expressive arts therapy and non-clinical applications of the arts are used in educational, medical, and a wide variety of community programs. In addition to many advances made in mental health services, the arts are used to treat and educate communities about risk, prevention and care for wide ranging public health, environmental and medical issues including obesity, asthma, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, cancer, heart disease, dementia, palliative care, hospice services, and violence as a health epidemic. The arts are increasingly being used to help active duty military service members, veterans, their families and caregivers address health disabilities stemming from their service.

The Value of Arts Initiatives

Personal expression through creativity and the arts has been proven to access the body, mind, spirit and heart continuum in the process of healing and recovery. Increasingly attention is being given to the value of the arts in enhancing job satisfaction and the well being of professional and family caregivers. Across the nation more medical schools are offering arts initiatives in the training and continuing professional development of medical practitioners toward a goal of increasingly compassionate and empathic treatment, which is proving to result in cost effectiveness and increased patient satisfaction.

Positive Change through Arts Applications:

• Enhancing the patient experience
• Reducing stress and pain
• Increasing caregiver job satisfaction
• Improving long term and elder care
• Identifying the cost-benefit analysis of the arts and other forms of evidence based practice that address the concerns that are in the forefront of institutional health providers
• Using arts based interventions to advance social justice and build  equal access programs for all peoples across all cultures
• Developing arts based wellness and prevention programs
• Increasing visibility in areas of trauma, neurology and health psychology
• Advance the role of art and artists in comprehensive healthcare

Institute Mission and Objectives

• Provide continuing professional education to practitioners in the expressive arts therapies and the arts in healthcare, medical care, community health and their allied professions.
• Foster research that examines the ability of the arts to further health, well being, and quality of care for individuals, families, and care-givers.
• Strengthen the awareness, capacity, and willingness of healthcare institutions to incorporate the arts as part of integrated care deliveries that will further quality, cost effectiveness, and patient/family satisfaction.
• Influence policy in a manner that integrates funding, access and incorporation of the arts across educational, community and institutional settings.
• Realize the potential of arts to further social change and public health.

Advisory Board

The IAH Advisory Board consists of artists, therapists, doctors and administrators who have been pioneers and activists in the field of arts and health. 

Conferences

SAVE THE DATES:

• Arts in Healthcare Conference --October 26-27, 2012 in Cambridge, MA
• The Arch of the Arts in Health -- March 17-19, 2013 in Israel
  • Sponsored by Lesley University Extention in Israel and the Society for the Arts and Healthcare
  • DOWNLOAD FLIER [pdf]
  • Best practices and research on creativity within arts in health care and community settings that support emotional, mental and physical health for all sectors of society. Special pre-conferences on arts and the aging, arts and youth, and using the arts to address the stress and trauma of healthcare professionals and those working in security, police and the military.

PAST CONFERENCES:

• Public Space, Forbidden Place: Artist and Activist Conference -- January 27, 2012
  The second annual Artist and Activist conference focused on how the arts are used as social action and as acts of courage and vision. Through the theme of Dismembering Public Space and Remembering Cultural Community questions of defining public space, who it "belongs" to, its relationship to public health and community, and its application as a healing tool were explored.

• Liberating Creativity Conference (featuring Shaun McNiff and Paolo Knill) -- August 26, 2011
• Trauma and Neuroscience: Applications and Practice Conference(featuring Daniel Siegel) -- July 8, 2011
• North American Playback Theater Festival -- June 16-19, 2011
• Arts and Healthcare Conference: Violence Prevention in Schools and Communities -- June 2-4, 2011
• Artist and Activist Conference (featuring Hugh Masekela) -- October 14-15, 2011 
• Creativity and Expression: The Healing Power of the Arts in Healthcare -- June 4, 2010

Advanced Professional Certificate in Arts in Health

If you are interested in more information, please contact Beth Chambers at 617.349.8833 or echambe5@lesley.edu.

The Advanced Professional Certificate in Arts in Health is a 15-credit Post-Master’s Professional Certificate designed for mental health and health care professionals, human service professionals, social workers, psychologists, guidance and adjustment counselors and others who are looking for innovative approaches to enhance their professional lives. The program offers specific training in the uses of different expressive therapy modalities and application to arts in health.

The clinical applications of dance, drama, visual art, poetry, writing, music and expressive arts therapy is used in the care of patients at hospitals, community health centers, community programs, nursing homes, and numerous other health settings. The arts are also used to educate wider communities about the risk, prevention, and care for wide ranging public health, environmental, and medical issues including: obesity, asthma, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, cancer, heart disease, and violence as a health epidemic as well as in wellness and preventative medicine programs. 

Personal expression through creativity and the arts has the potential to access a body, mind, spirit continuum and has proven to be helpful in the process of healing and recovery. In addition, current research has suggested that the arts are a safe, cost effective intervention that complement traditional medicine and enhances treatment compliance.