Creative forces bubble up from the winter’s dormant earth re-energizing efforts to reclaim and reassert our presence in our endeavors and communities. Spring reveals how joining together strengthens our community bonds and unifies our sense of purpose and resolve.
The Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Saves Lives by Daisy Fancourt published in the U.S. in February 2026 has hit our shores and I could not be more pleased. Dr Fancourt’s work focuses on the health impact of the arts and the studies she is compiling are making inroads in the resistance to application to health fields. Formal studies with meticulously documented and analyzed data are vital to bridging the art and science divide around experiential data. The resulting health impacts go a long way to supporting this effort.
Fancourt’s analyses meld with U.S. initiatives including the 2020-2025 The Massachusetts Cultural Council efforts with The Social Prescription pilot project. In 2025 the first formal association with Art Pharmacy, now Social Rx, began. Social Rx serves as an interface between arts and cultural organizations and healthcare partners to match their patients to arts and services to improve mental health, address loneliness, and support chronic disease management. Positioning the arts alongside medicine and physical exercise as a health-giving practice, i.e., physical and mental health, is a huge step forward for community care.
Through his 2009 book, Still Here: A New Philosophy of Alzheimer’s Care, John Zeisel introduced a way to offer to offer arts experience to Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers/partners. By setting basic practices for offering arts outreach he set a new standard for community caregiving. It is inspirational work I was introduced to by Dr Zeisel himself in 2007. Today his legacy I’m Still Here Foundation offers grants for innovative practices engaging individuals living with dementia and their care partners. This philosophy, built on top of the cultural creative movement featured in the book 2001 publication by Ray and Anderson, The Cultural Creatives: How 50 million People Are Changing the World influenced my own life choices. Combining my interpretation of these two philosophies powered my early career in community creative action and led to y mart practices, aging outreach and further graduate education.
In my community outreach practice, I apply my background in counseling and the arts to invest my current efforts with my belief in the creative power of care and kindness to mobilize individuals. Offering activities of mindful movement, meditation, and thoughtful, respectful conversation bring renewed vigor to the down-hearted and encourage continued hope. We must sustain our hope while seeking change. Large and small movements can together contribute to the greater good. I see firsthand how my groups in Creative Oasis and book discussion sessions for older adults can result in a pause of life’s daily stressors. The participants attend sessions to engage in an arts practice and discussions incorporating kindness to self and others while extending their courtesy of attention to their community of participants. What begins as a novel experience becomes a highly anticipated occasion for community and personal growth.
Humans are makers. With the power of creation we share with all living things we add our “big brain” capacity to imagine and attain ever more complex goals.
Balance and harmony between the private world of the individual and interactions with communities local and global can continue to influence change and an unknown future. By focusing on those closest to us, we invest in future generations and support family and friends. Focusing on the goodness, care and kindness within us sustains our efforts. By example we can help grandchildren and young people to activate their capacity for empathy and face challenges with a pragmatic attitude, separating what is within their control from the fraught actions of others.
©April 2026 www.clairemauro.com ~Please reference responsibly~
References
Fancourt, Daisy. The Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Saves Lives, 2026. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250364531/artcure/
Golden, T., et. al. Arts On Prescription A Field Guide for US Communities https://massculturalcouncil.org/documents/arts_on_prescription_field_guide.pdf
Mauro, C. and Simoni, D. For Grief’s Sake: the Resilient Caregiver Caring and Coping Well. 2024. https://www.amazon.com/Griefs-Sake-Resilient-Caregiver-Caring/dp/B0DPTSLG1T/
Ray, Paul H and Anderson, Sherry R The Cultural Creatives: How 50 million People Are Changing the World, 2001. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/139500/the-cultural-creatives-by-paul-h-ray-phd-and-sherry-ruth-anderson-phd/
Social Prescriptions https://massculturalcouncil.org/communities/culturerx-initiative/social-prescription/)
Social Rx (formerly Art Pharmacy) https://www.socialrx.com/
Zeisel, John. I’m Still Here: A New Philosophy of Alzheimer’s Care, 2009. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/303485/im-still-here-by-john-zeisel/