Theartof
stayinghealthy

NJPAC’s Arts & Well-Being initiatives expand access to the creative resources that advance community health

By Johnny Knollwood

Need to lower your blood pressure?

Try visiting a museum.

Want to make your neighborhood safer?

Organize a community arts program.

Every day, through initiatives and research spearheaded by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), we are learning more about how engaging with the arts can strengthen both individual health and community wellness.

In other words, the arts aren’t just inspiring. They’re good for us, too!

We’ve learned that access to arts and culture is a powerful social determinant of health. In the same way that access to housing, healthy food, transportation, and employment impacts your well-being, so does access to creative resources.

Through research conducted by arts-in-healthcare trailblazers like Dr. Jill Sonke, Director of Research Initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida, and Dr. Daisy Fancourt, Professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology and Head of the Social Biobehavioural Research Group at University College London, we’ve learned that engaging in creative activities can benefit many populations including those living in low-income communities, older adults and teens.

“Youth who engage in the arts are less likely to have depression or social isolation, less likely to have behaviors that get criminalized in our school systems, less likely to engage in substance abuse,” says Aly Maier, AVP of Arts & Well-Being at NJPAC, who leads the Arts Center’s work in this field.

After a year of arts engagement, young people have 28% higher odds of reporting high social support.

“And older adults who regularly participate in the arts have less cognitive decline, less frailty, and fewer instances of early mortality. Many of these effects are similar to the well-established benefits of exercise. From a public health perspective, we view all these things as upstream drivers of health,” says Maier.

Research indicates that older adults who engage in creative activities at least once a month are 20% less likely to experience depression than individuals who do not.

Despite overwhelming evidence that the arts are vital to our well-being, not everyone has the same access to cultural resources. Those without reliable transportation, disposable income or plentiful spare time may well struggle to fit concerts or museum visits into their schedules and budgets.

Many of NJPAC’s Arts & Well-Being initiatives focus on eliminating those barriers to participation in the arts and improving community health by making everything from symphony concerts to salsa dancing lessons accessible to everyone in Greater Newark. The Arts Center’s three-year-old Arts & Well-Being department offers several programs that aim to connect residents with the city’s plentiful arts resources, including:

ArtsRx
ArtsRx, NJPAC’s flagship “social prescription” program, was built in partnership with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. Participants receive referrals – a “prescription” – to ArtsRx from partnering healthcare and community organizations, then work with NJPAC’s ArtsRx Coordinator to access six months of free creative activities that include concerts at NJPAC, glass blowing workshops at GlassRoots, Newark’s glass arts center, visits to the Montclair Art Museum and other options. You can learn more about ArtsRx at www.njpac.org/well.

Arts in Healthcare
NJPAC also brings the performing arts directly to healthcare workers, patients and their families, at hospitals including Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston and Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville. In partnership with RWJBarnabas Health, NJPAC began a hospital-based artist-in-residence program in 2023.

As one of the artists-in-residence at Newark Beth, I visit patients’ bedsides in the pediatric unit to sing songs and facilitate meaningful engagement. Visual artist Javelin Mansala also helps patients create art from their beds.

Additionally, NJPAC produces performances by incredible musicians through the Music in the Lobby series.  Twice a month at Newark Beth, and monthly at Cooperman Barnabas and Clara Maass, everyone entering and leaving the hospital is treated to a spirit-lifting musical performance.

Lullaby Project
NJPAC’s Lullaby Project brings a program developed at Carnegie Hall to New Jersey. New and expectant parents and caregivers are paired with NJPAC Teaching Artist and singer/musician Leah Hinton to compose and perform personal lullabies for their newborns. The experience culminates in a recording and performance. The Lullaby Project supports maternal health, aids childhood development and strengthens the bond between parents, caregivers and children.

Wellness Fair, Horizon Sounds of the City, and beyond
NJPAC also connects the community to artistic and health resources through events like its annual Wellness Fair and the Horizon Sounds of the City (SOTC) free outdoor summer concert series. At both the fair and the outdoor concerts, attendees can access free services like mammograms, blood pressure and glucose screenings, and make appointments for other health services.  The lineup for this summer’s SOTC concert series has just been announced, and will include performances by hip hop pioneer Kurtis Blow, soulful R&B singer Vivian Green and everyone’s favorite old-school R&B turntablist, WBGO’s Felix Hernandez.

Hernandez has opened the summer series with his beloved Rhythm Revue Dance Party for more than a dozen years, and he’ll do so again on June 25. Find more information about the series here.

For more information about all of 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.