Mindful Music Moments, a relaxation program based in Ohio, collaborated with the Cleveland Orchestra to provide students in the Greater Cleveland area classical listening segments to decompress and relax before the school day starts.
Through Community Connections, Creative Forces is building networks of arts organizations in communities surrounding clinical sites, allowing patients to continue participating in the arts after treatment to ensure a successful transition back to civilian life. The networks also will provide options for service members and veterans who have not received clinical therapy, but would benefit from hands-on experiences with the arts.
Veterans living in rural areas face many health disparities and have greater difficulty accessing needed care. Heather Spooner works with the University of Florida's Center for Arts in Medicine telehealth-based art therapy clinical demonstration project at the Malcolm Randall VA Medical Center, which addresses the needs of rural Veterans by providing them with supervised art therapy in their own home.
Ron Whitehead is an artist, veteran of the Gulf War, and presently teaches photography and art at Ossining High School in New York state. As an artist, his complex images, rendered in layered photography, speak to the duality of military service and the return to civilian life. Ron’s black & white photograph “Art of Healing” was a categorical winner at the 2015 National Veterans Creative Arts Festival.
Sam Pressler, a 2015 Echoing Green Global Fellow and the founder of the Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP), has a plan to bridge the military/civilian divide and to release soldiers from the stigma associated with seeking traditional therapies for PTS and TBI.
Being a member of Americans for the Arts is a valuable asset because it is the only advocacy organization in the country that is championing a diverse portfolio of cultural issues and initiatives to ensure that all Americans connect to the arts in a meaningful way. In the areas of arts education, the critical role the arts play in community development, as well as health and wellness with a great focus on well being of our military, and public support for the arts.
Laura Spinelli is quietly and consistently breaking ground for arts and the military as the Director of "Giant Steps," an ongoing recovery-oriented group program for Veterans who are in treatment at the Mental Hygiene Clinic at VA Connecticut.
Dr. True is a medical anthropologist and folklorist with the University of Pennsylvania whose research focuses on the role of narrative and ethnography to reduce barriers to care and improve post-deployment health outcomes for combat veterans.
After getting out of the Army in 2008, Brian "BR" McDonald decided to get back to his roots as an actor/singer and founded the Veteran Artist Program (VAP), an nonprofit organization that helps veterans launch (or re-launch) careers in the arts by connecting them to working artists. From personal experience, McDonald found that many veterans have drive and artistic skills, but their years of service have disconnected them from the professional networks working artists need.
Arthur Bloom founded MusiCorps in 2007 to integrate arts and healing for veterans at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland. The rehabilitative program matches musicians with injured troops who have an interest in music, utilizing traditional instruments along with computer workstations and custom equipment, and projects tailored to individual circumstances, interests, and goals. They practice technique, play, write, and record music.
The National Endowment for the Arts has launched the next phase of Creative Forces® by funding Community Connections Projects at ten of its clinical sites to develop site specific community-based arts programs that will use the creative and healing benefits of the arts to promote health and wellness for the military community.
Classically trained pianist Arthur Bloom created MusiCorps in 2007 after being invited to visit a soldier recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The soldier, a drummer who had lost his leg to a roadside bomb, was concerned about whether he would ever be able to play the drums again.
You asked, and we listened: Our online Arts Services Directory has expanded to include searchable, topic-driven sub-directories. The new and improved directories will allow you to quickly find all types of arts organizations throughout the United States, as well as narrow your search to specific interest areas.
The resolution cites the potential of creative arts therapies and artist directed programs to positively impact the healthcare spending concerns, quality of care issues, and healthcare needs of active military and veteran populations.
The VA's Whole Health for Life plans address the need for programs that can provide a deeper exploration of the wounds of war including visual arts, music, and therapeutic writing programs.
Michael Mitchel, post commander of VFW Post 1 in Denver, Colorado commissioned 100 glass poppies from Hot Shop Heroes at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 2018. The poppies will be available for purchase to support the revival and renovation of Denver’s VFW Post 1, our country’s oldest Veterans of Foreign Wars post and home of the only VFW Post Veterans Arts Council.
