UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine hosts Creating Healthy Communities forum

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine program will be prescribing a different type of medicine in the form of art. The program’s purpose is to integrate art and healing.

UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine program started in 1990 uniting professional artists with those in the medical field or patients.

Thursday’s forum is called Arts in Medicine for Creating Healthy Communities, designed to connect Florida-based artists with essential knowledge, inspiration, and resources from across the field.

They will be doing this by highlighting innovative arts in health efforts happening throughout Florida.

A special focus of the forum will be arts prescribing and its growing role in community wellness.

“It’s known I think throughout history that art is one of the key ways we support ourselves in our well-being, just as far as a self-care simple act that one can do pretty much anywhere at any time. Now, we’re able to also direct folks back to the evidence that we’ve been able to either participated in via research or gather from other sources and essentially spread the word that art making is a healthy behavior” Erin Beardslee, artist and communications and grands socials for UF Health Shands, said.

Leaders from this program also shared that for nearly 40 years UF Health Shands Art in Medicine has been focusing their engagement at the bedside with patients, and now they are reaching out to the community to try and promote a healthier community through art.

Registration for this forum did already close, but UF Shands Arts in Medicine program is actively offering workshops and resources.

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