on the occasion of the 2024 LA County Arts and Health Week

The Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture (Arts and Culture) and the Department of Public Heath (Public Health) recognize the profound and positive impact that the arts have on health and wellbeing. Guided by the Board of Supervisors, which has formally acknowledged through motions including the June 4, 2024 Arts and Health Week motion authored by Supervisor Hilda L. Solis that arts and culture strengthen quality of life, health, resilience, and equity, Arts and Culture and Public Health are working together and with other partners to develop programs and recommend policies that bring arts-based health services to Los Angeles County residents and further integrate arts and culture into our health, civic, and community infrastructures. Below is an overview of the Departments’ work taking place at the intersection of arts and health.

An established and growing body of research, along with lived experience, cultural and health practice, has demonstrated the beneficial role the arts can play across one’s lifespan, in healing and recovery, in belonging and social cohesion, and in creating healthy and vibrant communities. As such, the arts can have a positive influence across social determinants of health (SDOH), which are the conditions in the environments where people live, work, and play, to promote health equity for all. The five social determinants of health domains include economic stability, education access and quality, health care access and quality, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context. In meaningful ways—creating jobs, designing nurturing environments, helping students thrive, supporting healing from trauma, creating social connections, allowing self-expression, improving communities, building narrative change, increasing cultural competency, and more—the positive capacity of arts and culture is myriad.

All people and all places have culture, and the United Nations declares culture as a human right1. Yet, there often remains unequal access to arts and cultural resources. Health equity remains a stubborn issue; and racism is a matter of public health. And, despite the many benefits of the arts, the arts often remain underfunded and underutilized. With growing recognition of the intersection of arts and health at the local, national, and global levels, collectively, we have an opportunity to:

• increase awareness of arts, culture, and creative expression as integral to healthy, thriving communities;
• partner on ways to further integrate the arts into our health systems, as well as other systems that affect the social determinants of health; and
• support policies, programs, practices, resources, and partnerships to sustain and advance this work.

All to benefit communities and promote health equity and cultural equity for all. In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) released the findings of a health evidence synthesis report and scoping review that included over 900 publications, analyses, and studies. According to the report, results from over 3,000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness across the lifespan. However, the report noted that, due to lack of awareness of the evidence, there has been little consistency in policy development in this area and pointed to ways to further the beneficial impact of the arts.

"Over the past two decades, there has been a major increase in research into the effects of the arts on health and wellbeing, alongside developments in practice and policy activities in different countries across the world. The beneficial impact of the arts could be furthered through (i) acknowledging and acting on the growing evidence base; (ii) promoting arts engagement at the individual, local, and national levels; and (iii) supporting cross-sectoral collaboration." World Health Organization, 2019

The Countywide Cultural Policy, adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 2020, provides direction for how LA County and all of its departments can ensure that every resident has meaningful access to arts and culture. It connects arts and culture to County plans, initiatives, and services to promote equity across policy areas. In 2022, the Board adopted the Cultural Policy Strategic Plan, developed with stakeholder input, which includes 18 actionable strategies to achieve the three goals of the Cultural Policy—to invest in cultural infrastructure and access to arts and culture; to advance arts and culture in every sector of civic life; and to promote cultural equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Investing in these strategies would enable the County to support positive outcomes across human, community, and economic development.

Over the past several years, Arts and Culture, across its Civic Art, Arts Education and Youth Development, Grants and Professional Development, Research and Evaluation, and Cross Sector Initiatives divisions, has advanced the intersection of arts and health. This work includes initiatives in cross-sector arts collaboration with several County departments including Mental Health, Public Health, Health Services, Probation, Child and Family Services, Aging and Disabilities, Parks and Recreation, Public Works, Library, and the Offices of Child Protection, Education, Violence Prevention, Immigrant Affairs, Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative, and more—to utilize the arts to further equity across policy areas and civic life.

Since 2018, Arts and Culture and Public Health have collaborated to use cross-sector arts as a strategy to positively impact health at individual, community, institutional, and policy levels. Public Health programs have partnered with Arts and Culture’s Creative Strategist-Artist in Residence program, where artists have worked alongside Public Health staff to develop strategies to complex challenges facing the department. For the Office of Violence Prevention, a Creative Strategist used arts-based, trauma-informed storytelling techniques to record the stories of nearly 100 LA County residents who have experienced violence at the individual or systemic level. The Creative Strategist placed with the Policies for Livable, Active Communities, and Environments (PLACE) program, developed artistic interventions, strategies, and community engagement to raise awareness about traffic safety as part of the County’s Vision Zero initiative.

The MLK Healing and Trauma Prevention Center and Regional Health Offices across the County are using the arts to promote healing and wellness through art and performance workshops. As part of Public Health’s Trauma Prevention Initiative, led by the Office of Violence Prevention, Arts and Culture contracts with nonprofit organizations to provide arts-based, healing-centered youth development for young people in the County’s highest need neighborhoods. Through Creative Wellbeing, Arts and Culture and its partners deliver arts and mental health strategies for systems-impacted youth, as well as self-care for the adults who support them. Additionally, the Public Health Student Wellbeing Centers integrate the arts into practices that promote mental wellbeing, identity, and self-expression.

Arts and Culture and Public Health are committed to this work in a variety of ways. Looking ahead, we are pleased to announce that we will expand our collaboration with the Department of Public Works by integrating art and artists into a new Vision Zero project on pedestrian and street safety (more details will be announced this summer).

Leveraging existing services and resources, we aim to further build on this work by:

• Convening an inter-departmental arts and health departments to explore ways to further integrate the arts into health, civic, and community infrastructures;
• Engaging philanthropy through the Center for Strategic Partnerships to build on existing community and stakeholder input from artists, cultural organizations, health professionals, staff, and residents, to co-create innovative recommendations, leverage promising practices, and seek sustainable partnerships toward the goals of the Cultural Policy; and
• Cross-promoting grant opportunities and resources to our networks.

Together, we envision a future where every resident of Los Angeles County thrives, supported by a robust ecosystem of arts and health resources that prioritize equity and inclusion. By working collaboratively, across public and private sectors with artists, culture bearers, organizations, communities, funders, researchers, and partners, we can harness the transformative power of the arts to create a healthier, more vibrant, and equitable future for all.