Kansas: Arts in Medicine Partnership

The Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission (KCAIC) recently announced the inaugural cohort of participants in its new Arts in Medicine program. The goal of the initiative, which KCAIC is undertaking in partnership with Emporia State University (ESU), is to promote the role and facilitate the practice of art therapy in health care settings, including those in rural communities without previous arts-in-health experience. The program’s initial five participants include a children’s hospital, an assisted living and memory care facility, an organization providing day and residential services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, an incubator space for artists and creative industries, and a community organization. KCAIC managed the process of selecting the participants, who subsequently worked with the faculty and graduate students of ESU’s art therapy program to design projects responding to the needs of specific populations. The participants’ projects—now under way—feature group art therapy and individual art therapy sessions as well as arts based workshops and related activities. Collectively, these arts interventions are benefiting the psychosocial needs of patients, their relatives and other caregivers, health care professionals and medical personnel in training. Find out more from KCAIC Executive Director Peter Jasso.