Could a prescription for the arts improve your health?
The arts have long been recognized for their capacity to heal souls and bodies, and to strengthen communities. Music and dance are used throughout the world as a foundation for health and well-being. Cultural arts practices have gained new traction as today’s healthcare providers look beyond clinical interventions to address health disparities and social determinants of health through a holistic, person- and community-centered approach.
A recent WHO report synthesizes a growing evidence base, demonstrating that engagement with the arts can improve health through strategies addressing prevention and health promotion, as well as management and treatment. The benefits of music and movement are being validated in community settings, where they have been shown to have broad impact. As outlined in a recent report from the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, engagement with the arts can offer direct and immediate health benefits, including increased physical activity, stress-reduction, increased social cohesion and reduced loneliness, better coping with chronic conditions, and increased happiness and wellbeing.
Peabody Prescribe Arts for Health and Well-Being brings the healing power of music and dance to communities within the Baltimore region. Teaching artists provide encounters with the arts that stimulate, enrich, uplift, and inspire, helping people to thrive and live their best lives, in and through evolving health circumstances. Through partnership with Johns Hopkins’ medical care providers and researchers and building upon best practices in Arts in Health program design and delivery, Peabody Prescribe group activities are designed to promote joy and delight, reduce isolation and loneliness, and offer avenues for creative expression and arts learning.
And while your doctor may soon be able to provide you a social prescription for the arts, none is needed to join a Prescribe class.
Learn more about or sign up for Prescribe programs.