Powerhouse Arts Leaders Lear deBessonet, Nataki Garrett and Clyde Valentin Announce National Campaign Demonstrating How the Arts Can Lead to Healthier People and Communities
One Nation/One Project’s Arts for EveryBody will unveil audacious, participatory public art in collaboration with 18 small towns and big cities on July 27, 2024, putting a spotlight on the proven health benefits of arts participation.
September 12, 2023 – Arts leaders Lear deBessonet, Nataki Garrett and Clyde Valentin announce audacious national initiative One Nation/One Project (ONOP) Arts for EveryBody, designed to show how the arts can lead to healthier people and communities. Inspired by the 1936 Federal Theatre Project where 18 cities and towns presented their own interpretations of the anti-fascist play “It Can’t Happen Here,” Arts for EveryBody will bring together people and communities in 18 cities and towns across the U.S. to simultaneously premiere an array of large-scale, site-specific participatory art projects. With local artists leading community-based projects, these public art works will provide a chance to dance, sing, draw and create together – spurring joy and social bonding at a time of extreme social polarization.
“The Federal Theatre Project was, according to its leader, “a blueprint, a memorandum for the future”— a tradition that ONOP’s Arts for EveryBody is proud to uphold,” said Clyde Valentin, a multidisciplinary artist, educator, cultural producer and founder and co-artistic director of the initiative. “We hope the legacy of our project will be an arts-infused civic infrastructure, a new system of programs based on the realization that imagination and creative collaboration can help to solve health and civic challenges.”
The 18 Arts for EveryBody sites are:
Responding to the prompt “No Place Like Home,” each art project seeks to reflect the unique voice of its community, and through participation, impact the overall health of the community. For example:
Phillips County, Arkansas is facing its worst water infrastructure crisis in the county’s history. Its Water Stories Project will put a spotlight on stories of resident and municipal struggles with water through a variety of art expressions.
In Harlan County, Kentucky, artists, municipal and public health leaders will seek to integrate the arts into rural healthcare delivery through a partnership between Cloverfork Clinic and community arts organization, Higher Ground.
In Kansas City, Missouri, three nonprofits will come together to host “Celebrate AMERI’KANA,” a music and arts festival bringing together youth performers in a celebration of Black, Indigenous, Immigrant and Latino musicians and the diverse Kansas City arts community.
Urban Health Plan, in The Bronx, one of the state’s largest federally qualified health centers will offer one of the first arts-led social prescribing prototypes, where patients will be able to take part in provider-prescribed art experiences.
Local artists, city leaders in Providence, Rhode Island aim to enhance mental and behavioral health for public housing residents and staff through Artist Residencies at public housing sites.
Arts education organization, Word, Beats & Life, will collaborate with a consortium of local artists in Washington, DC to host an event on the National Mall featuring Hip-Hop, Punk, Go-Go, performance poetry to celebrate the place they call home.
Edutainment 4 Equity, in Oakland, California will bring together over 100 artists, activists and organizers to create a multi-modal, black-led arts and culture festival that reflects the struggles residents face around the cost of living in the area.
In Rhinelander, Wisconsin, ArtStart Rhinelander will create an arts skatepark, designed by local youth, providing an oasis of creativity and gathering to support mental health for teenagers.
“Arts for Everybody aims to create an electric new awareness around the value arts can bring to the physical and mental health of people and their community”
“Arts for Everybody aims to create an electric new awareness around the value arts can bring to the physical and mental health of people and their community,” said founder and co-artistic director Lear deBessonet, a Tony-nominated director, artistic director of Encores! at New York City Center and the Founder of Public Works. “Many sites are piloting cross-sector partnerships among local artists, health care providers and municipal leaders to bring Arts for EveryBody to the larger community. My hope is that this trifecta of support is the start of more collaborations, increased investment in local artists and a flourishing of creativity and better health across the U.S.”
deBessonet, Garrett and Valentin see Arts for EveryBody as a breakthrough moment in the relationship between the arts and health in the U.S. To support this goal, Arts for EveryBody commissioned a large-scale research study led by Dr. Jill Sonke, Ph.D. a leading advocate for the integration of arts and health and founding director of the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University Florida. Dr. Sonke will study the impact of arts participation on the overall social cohesion, connectivity and health of a community.
“Research has helped us to understand that, just like exercise and good nutrition, regular arts participation and creative activity can support and enhance our health and wellbeing in measurable ways – having a real impact on conditions like hypertension, depression, dementia and more. Taking part in the arts is as important to your health as exercise. Arts and culture resources should be available in every community,” said Sonke.
“We now understand that art is integral to our society because it plays a critical role in community health and wellbeing. When we invest in making the arts accessible to all, we invest in the fabric of our society. Arts for EveryBody is not just a name, it is a necessity.”
Nataki Garrett, a highly accomplished theater director and arts leader, has a respected history of amplifying underrepresented voices. "No matter the type, the Arts are a powerful unifier, a guiding force for humanity and a reflection of who we are as a society. When the pandemic closed the doors of performing arts venues, museums, and community arts centers across the country, we experienced an enormous void and isolation. We now understand that art is integral to our society because it plays a critical role in community health and wellbeing. When we invest in making the arts accessible to all, we invest in the fabric of our society. Arts for EveryBody is not just a name, it is a necessity."
Arts for EveryBody will premiere July 27, 2024, but the journey begins today. Follow along on Facebook and Instagram for behind-the-scenes updates on local art projects, interviews with the co-creators and more. Facebook.com/Artsforeverybodyus Instagram: @Artsforeverybody.
One Nation/One Project is a sponsored partner of the Tides Center and is currently funded by Anne Clarke Wolff and Ted Wolff, Barbara and Amos Hostetter, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Doris Duke Foundation, Katie McGrath & J.J. Abrams Family Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, The Tow Foundation, Sozosei Foundation, and The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation. The advisory board includes prominent supporters Sara Fenske Bahat, David Berlin, Andi Bernstein, Megan Beyer, Anurima Bhargava, Renee Chatelain, Jason Cooper, Deborah Cullinan, Diana DiMenna, Kamilah Forbes, Katie McGrath and J.J. Abrams, Stacey Mindich, Liza Montesano, Eva Price, Fiona Howe Rudin, Mara Burros Sandler, Jeffrey Seller, Jean Tom, and Anne Clarke Wolff.
