Ahealthy
doseoffun

NJPAC’s annual Wellness Fair enhances community access to health services — while smoothies, dance classes and kittens help the medicine go down

By Johnny Knollwood

On April 14 — the first warm day of spring — hundreds of Newarkers flocked to NJPAC for the Arts Center’s fourth annual Wellness Fair. 

This free event, produced by NJPAC’s Arts & Well-Being department and sponsored by RWJBarnabas Health and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, provided vital access to healthcare services — and a healthy dose of fun, too.
Health fairs have long been used to address gaps in healthcare access in underserved communities. The concept of the health fair emerged in the early 1970’s in places like Harlem, Chinatown and Appalachia, where immigrant communities and low-income families lacked access to insurance and healthcare providers.

And the arts have always been a part of health fairs, long before current research revealed that engaging with the arts is actually as powerful a tool for maintaining health as twice-weekly gym visits. 

At the first community health fair held in New York City’s Chinatown in 1973, for example, performances by dragon-drum troupes drew attention to the event. 

Many in the Greater Newark community still lack access to a full range of healthcare and mental health services. Many also experience untreated anxiety and depression, according to Ketlen Baptiste-Alsbrook, director of the Department of Health and Community Wellness for the City. 

Through health fairs, local organizations — including arts organizations like NJPAC — can step in to connect the uninsured and other community members with information, on-the-spot screenings and connections to resources.

And, in NJPAC’s case, they can deliver all that wrapped up in a fun day out — complete with smoothies, dance classes and kittens.

Attendees at last month’s fair were greeted by NJPAC volunteers — and Assistant Vice President of Arts & Well-Being Aly Maier Lokuta — who passed out tote bags (to fill with giveaways) and an activity bingo card. Completing the card by engaging with vendors gave attendees a chance to win prizes including round-trip tickets on United Airlines. 

Maier Lokuta and her team at NJPAC have championed wellness through the arts for almost four years. The Arts Center’s Arts & Well-Being department, which she leads, spearheads initiatives like the Wellness Fair; ArtsRX, which allows healthcare workers to “prescribe” six months of free art activities; and concerts and artist-in-residence programs at area hospitals.

Wellness Fair offerings this year ranged from fun to potentially life-saving, with something new every few feet in the Arts Center’s Prudential Hall Lobby and Chambers Plaza. A poetry station run by Ysabel Y. González, NJPAC’s Producer, Poetry and Social Impact, prompted attendees to write a “Haiku for Health.” Nearby, the New Jersey Department of Health handed out Narcan. 

Adoptable kittens visiting from the Associated Humane Societies cleaned their paws steps away from the Rutgers University–Newark Aging & Brain Health Alliance, which offered resources on creative aging for elderly populations.

Grounds for Sculpture, the art park in Hamilton Township, had a table set up near one manned by New York Life, which offered attendees information about financial health. Inside Ability Books offered books tailored for children with disabilities, RaySoul Hoops & Adventures provided hula-hooping fun and Keisha’s Room provided materials and prompts for art-making underneath a sign that read: “You don’t have to be good at art for it to be good for you.”

Horizon team members handed out smoothies to attendees who hopped onto an exercise-bike-powered blender. Other interactive activities included a sound bath, restorative yoga, a meditation session and a traditional West African dance class.

On-site health services included blood pressure and glucose screenings, aphasia testing, counseling and mammography.

As Maier-Lokuta explained, free health screenings at Arts Center events have proven to be literally life-saving.

“A few summers ago, RWJBarnabas Health was signing folks up for mammograms at our Horizon Sounds of the City summer concert series. A woman visited the RWJB table and she was like ‘You know, I don’t have health insurance, I don’t have a car – breast cancer runs in my family, but I’ve been really putting off getting a mammogram,’” she recalled. “An RWJB representative said, ‘Sign up, I’ll make you the appointment, we’ll send a car for you, we’ll pick you up and we’ll drop you off at home.’” The woman scheduled the mammogram — and learned that she had an early stage of breast cancer. She was able to receive treatment and today is cancer-free.

“By providing opportunities for accessing health resources at a fun and free event like an outdoor concert or a fair, NJPAC is providing a valuable pathway to health equity,” Maier Lokuta said. 

For more information about NJPAC’s Arts & Well-Being initiatives, visit njpac.org/arts-well-being or sign up for the department’s email list here. 

Johnny Knollwood is a guitarist and singer-songwriter. He serves as an NJPAC Arts & Well-Being artist-in-residence at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center; you can find him singing and playing at patients’ bedsides in the pediatric unit.