Engaging the Arts for Wellbeing in the United States of America: A Scoping Review

Pesata, Virginia; Colverson, Aaron; Sonke, Jill; Morgan-Daniel, Jane; Schaefer, Nancy; Sams, Kelley; Carrion, Flor Maria-Enid; Hanson, Sarah

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.791773

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…A recent study identified and examined the ways in which the arts have been used to improve the well-being of communities in the United States. [ 38 ] The review examined 44 publications with combined study populations, representing a total of 5,080 studies and participants, including marginalized populations. It highlights positive associations found across a wide range of psychological, physical, and social outcomes, including improved self-esteem and formation of identity, cognitive function, physical balance, and fitness.…”

Section: Creative Pursuitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creative pursuits for mental health and well-being

Kumar,

Pavitra,

Bhattacharya

2024

Indian Journal of Psychiatry

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This clinical practice guide traces the role of art and creativity in mental health and well-being. This is a difficult task since the evidence from research spans a wide variety of fine art forms and different aspects of creativity. Hence, we have tried to combine both evidence-based research as well as our clinical experience and practice in the field of arts in utilizing creative pursuits as a life skill and a well-being initiative. The focus of the guidelines is preventive and promotional with relevance to mental health. We also hope that this should be a beginning in encouraging psychiatrists in India to use art-based therapies in their clinical practice. This will further our knowledge of how arts can be a therapeutic intervention as well as a well-being tool. It will also build on the evidence base on how art impacts our mental health. Creativity is undeniably one of humanity's most valued traits; the capacity to produce new ideas, innovations, and art is perhaps the most striking characteristic of the human brain. “Art” has evolved, and what is art, has been redefined over human history. The domain of “art” refers to the diverse range of activities that often use imagination to express ideas and feelings. Whilst the boundaries of what constitutes art or creativity may sometimes appear esoteric, we still can identify a range of creative pursuits: visual, musical, verbal, literary, dance, or creative pursuits related to our body movements and a range of forms of newer integrated forms and those that use technology are recognized as art forms. As in most ancient traditions, in India, we have a plethora of fine art traditions many of which have a highly systematic practice around their learning. We believe this is an asset that we need to nurture and celebrate. We begin by tracing the footsteps of Indian fine arts being a mental health promotional tool in ancient India. We then proceed to describe the scope of creative pursuits for different populations and its relevance in school and child mental health. We offer suggestions as to how creative art forms can be utilized in a practical way in daily life, schools, and care of the elderly. It is to be noted that the entire focus here is the process of creativity and not the completed product or the achievement related to the same. Hence, it is relevant to each one of us and to anyone who wishes to be healthy.

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Section: Creative Pursuitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creative pursuits for mental health and well-being

Kumar,

Pavitra,

Bhattacharya

2024

Indian Journal of Psychiatry

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“…This evaluation also illuminated provider responses to the integration of arts/culture into healthcare. A common assumption related to social prescribing (and to arts integration more generally) is that providers will not refer to arts/culture experiences until more evidence is available regarding the benefits of such experiences (37)(38)(39). However, more evidence already exists than many providers realize, indicating a need for awareness and education.…”

Section: Immediate Findings From Culturerxmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social prescription in the US: A pilot evaluation of Mass Cultural Council's “CultureRx”

Golden

Lokuta

Mohanty

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

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IntroductionAs the field of public health strives to address the impacts of social determinants of health, it has seen increasing interest in community-referral practices that expand health care beyond clinical spaces. However, community arts and culture organizations are rarely included in these practices, despite accumulating evidence of associated health benefits. In addition, such inclusion has not been formally studied. In response, this article offers an evaluation of “CultureRx” in Massachusetts (MA): the first US model of arts on prescription. The program is a partnership between 20 healthcare providers and 12 cultural organizations, in which providers can offer “prescriptions” to cultural experiences to support patients' health.MethodsEvaluation was undertaken to illuminate participant experiences, program successes and barriers, and recommendations for further development. The cultural organizations collected participant data (n = 84) and completed surveys about their own experiences (n = 12). Authors conducted semi-structured focus groups and interviews with healthcare providers (n = 33). Data analysis was customized for each dataset.ResultsFindings indicate that participants enjoyed and hoped to repeat their prescribed experiences, which they saw as beneficial to wellbeing. Providers identified the program as a new and critical addition to their toolkits; they also indicated it had a positive effect on their own wellbeing. Cultural organizations reported varied challenges, learnings, and recommendations.ConclusionThe CultureRx pilot suggests that integrating arts/culture assets into health and social care approaches can enrich and improve traditional US models of community referral. By including arts/culture resources when addressing social determinants of health, communities will be better positioned to equitably and holistically advance health.

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“…Arts engagement across a variety of domains is a frequent leisure activity for a wide range of people (Fancourt & Finn, 2019;Weziak-Bialowolska et al, 2019). Given people's widespread engagement with the arts, it's unsurprising that a number of researchers have sought to examine the flourishing impacts of the arts (see Fancourt & Finn, 2019;Pesata et al, 2022 for review), with that enables them to be carried away and disconnected from the worries of everyday life, with specific qualities of not feeling the passage of time and finding the engagement as effortless with the loss of self-consciousness (Thapa et al, 2023). For example, experiences of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) would be considered as one way in which someone may become immersed during artistic engagement (Tay et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The well-being benefits of virtual art galleries: Examining the roles of emotion, immersion, and individual differences

Cotter,

Alpys,

Rosenberg

et al. 2024

Intnl. J. Wellbeing

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A wealth of research suggests that engaging with visual art and visiting art museums is beneficial to flourishing; however, less is known about the potential benefits of digital forms of engagement. An emerging literature provides preliminary evidence of the benefits of digital art engagement, but additional research on mechanisms and potential moderators of the benefits is necessary. The present study examines the impacts of repeated visitation to a virtual art gallery to address three questions: 1) Do well-being, emotion, and immersion differ between those in a digital art gallery versus those reading about art?; 2) Do personality and interest in art influence virtual art gallery visit qualities (i.e., emotion and immersion)?; and 3) Do visit qualities and individual differences predict well-being? A sample of 890 U.S. adults was recruited from Prolific. The findings suggest that: 1) People in a virtual gallery show greater well-being, immersion, and aesthetic emotion than those reading about art; 2) Openness to experience is most strongly linked with visit qualities; and 3) Immersion, positive and aesthetic emotion, extraversion, and neuroticism are associated with well-being. This work suggests that repeated engagement with art in a digital format has benefits and that future research should continue to examine the underlying mechanisms and ways digital art experiences can be best designed to be effective well-being interventions.

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Engaging the Arts for Wellbeing in the United States of America: A Scoping Review

Cited by 13 publications

References 80 publications

Creative pursuits for mental health and well-being

Creative pursuits for mental health and well-being

Social prescription in the US: A pilot evaluation of Mass Cultural Council's “CultureRx”

The well-being benefits of virtual art galleries: Examining the roles of emotion, immersion, and individual differences

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