Artists in Healthcare: Collaborations and Complexities

The economically over-burdened U.S. health care system and extended life expectancies for older adults offer a unique opportunity for working artists—not arts therapists—to intervene in the rapidly expanding field of arts and health. This humanities-focused course examines how artists and health professionals negotiate competing ideas about value, expertise, wellbeing, and risk when arts and health practices intersect. Guests frequently join to offer insights. Students analyze policies, programs, and professionalization efforts alongside COVID-era trends in arts and health funding and investment to uncover the power hierarchies and inequities that shape both institutionalized health and institutionalized art in the United States. No formal arts or health training required. All are welcome.