While California recognizes its artists as essential second responders, what is needed to place artists and culture bearers at the center of our state’s health efforts? This panel gathers leaders at the intersection of arts and health to reimagine wellness in the US and to examine the systems change needed to sustain and grow a creative workforce that can deliver health outcomes. Practitioners, researchers and advocates will discuss program models and evidence-based impacts along with infrastructure change we should be considering, including funding, cross-sector connections, policies and adaptations to health insurance such as social prescribing. What can advocacy and activism look like in this space and what policies could we promote to ensure that “The Arts Work” to help our state recover and thrive?
Background:
Making and experiencing art can be a space for processing physical and emotional trauma like stress, grief, and anger. Artists create hope and help heal individual and communal wounds through sharing their work with their communities, or inviting folks to express themselves through engaging in the process of creating. Policies to support this work; chronic pain, mental health, trauma recovery, addiction- how do we create systems change.
Panelists:
Jill Sonke, PHD, Research Director, Center for Arts in Medicine, University of Florida
Tasha Golden, PHD, Director of Research at the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University
Ping Ho, MA, MPH, Founder and Director, UCLArts & Healing
Moderator:
Trevor Davis, Executive Director, REACH for Community
Dr. Jill Sonke, Research Director, UF Center for Arts in Medicine Jill Sonke, PhD,
Dr. Jill Sonke is a research director in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF), director of national research and impact for the One Nation/One Project initiative, and co-director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab at UF. She served as a senior advisor to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is an affiliated faculty member in the UF School of Theatre & Dance, the Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, and the Center for African Studies, as well as a consulting editor for Health Promotion Practice journal. Jill has been a principal dancer and soloist with Lori Belilove & the Isadora Duncan Dance Company in New York and a guest performer and choreographer with Dance Alive! and Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theatre. She is a mixed methods researcher with 27+ years of leadership in the field of arts in health. She is the recipient of a New Forms Florida Fellowship Award, a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship Award, a NISOD Excellence in Teaching Award, a UF Internationalizing the Curriculum Award, a UF Most Outstanding Service-Learning Faculty Award, a UF Public Health Champions award, a UF Cross-Campus Faculty Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and over 300 grants for her programs and research.
Tasha Golden, PhD Director of Research, International Arts & Mind Lab, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Tasha Golden, PhD is Director of Research at the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University, and a national leader and consultant in arts + public health. She studies impacts of the arts, music, aesthetics, and social norms on health and well-being, including on health research and practice. Holding a PhD in Public Health Sciences, Dr. Golden has served as an advisor on several national health initiatives, and is adjunct faculty for the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine. She is currently leading the pilot evaluation of CultureRx in Massachusetts: the first arts-on-prescription model in the U.S. Golden is also a career artist and entrepreneur. As singer-songwriter for the critically acclaimed band Ellery, she toured full-time in the US and abroad, and her songs appear in feature films and TV dramas (ABC, SHOWTIME, FOX, NETFLIX, etc). She is a published poet and the founder of Project Uncaged: an arts-based health intervention for incarcerated teen women that amplifies their voices in community and political discourses. Golden is an international speaker and thought leader, giving talks and workshops to help artists, businesses, researchers, and practitioners enhance and reimagine their work. As a consultant, she helps organizations draw on the science of “arts and health” to further their goals. www.tashagolden.com
Ping Ho, MA, MPH, Director of UCLArts & Healing
Ping Ho is Founder and Director of UCLArts & Healing, which offers trauma-informed and culturally-responsive training and public education in the use of arts integrated with mental health practices for self-discovery, connection, and empowerment. This work represents the nexus of her graduate education in counseling psychology and public health with her lifelong experience in performing arts and developing integrative health programs at UCLA and Stanford. Ping co-developed and served as principal investigator for the evidence-based training program, Beat the Odds®: Social and Emotional Skill Building Delivered in a Framework of Drumming. In addition, she spearheaded the development of the Certificate Program in Social Emotional Arts (SEA) and a sustainable SEA on a Shoestring training program of supportive art, movement, music, and writing for individuals and groups in any setting. Ping is a steering committee member for the UCLA Integrative Medicine Collaborative, and she serves as associate editor for the creative arts therapy section of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Ping also co-chairs the annual Expressive Therapies Summit: Los Angeles, which features 150+ hands-on workshops on creativity and the arts in healing. In addition, she is co-author of the National Parenting Products Award-winning book, The Innovative Parent: Raising Connected, Happy, Successful Kids through Art (2019, Ohio University/Swallow Press).
Trevor Davis, Executive Director, REACH for Community
Trevor Davis has been a community organizer, social impact consultant and nonprofit executive for over 15 years, leading advocacy to help pass the Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative in LA County, among other grassroots efforts. He is Founder and Executive Director of REACH for Community, a nonprofit working to articulate and advance the field of 'arts-based social work.” Davis also serves as a founding board member of USC’s Institute for Theatre and Social Change. He consults on grassroots marketing strategy for impact campaigns, and currently serves as Executive Producer on the film series from Straight Up Impact that addresses root causes of the youth mental health crisis, “Meaning in Madness” alongside Sir Ken Robinson and the Viktor Frankl Institute. Previously, he served as Co-Chair of the Arts & Culture Committee of the Empowerment Congress; on the Program Advisory Committee of Arts for LA; as a Cultural Agent for the U.S. Department of Arts & Culture; and on the Boards of the both the acclaimed Ate9 Dance Company and Imaginese Productions -- where he spearheaded arts education programs as Executive Director that developed civic leadership with at-risk youth. In 2017, Davis was recognized as one of “40 Under 40” Emerging Civic Leaders by the LA County Board of Supervisors and the CA State Assembly for his work as an arts advocate. He is a grateful husband and father, dedicated to leaving a better, more compassionate world for the next generation.