The Providence project is a dynamic partnership between the Healthy Communities Office, Providence Housing Authority (PHA) and the Providence Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism. The team plans to create artist residencies at PHA sites. As part of their residency, participating artists will engage residents in arts activities and work alongside embedded community health workers (CHWs) to better understand the wellness goals of residents. CHWs will connect residents to available City/community resources. The artists will co-create with residents and design a culminating artwork or performance at each campus. The process will focus on healing, social connectedness, self-discovery and home.

The Honolulu project is led by Puʻuhonua Society, a Hawaiian-values based community arts organization, in relationship with Kānaka ʻŌiwi or ‘Native Hawaiian’ artists and cultural bearers. They’re creating Hōʻeu Mana, place-based and community gatherings centered on reawakening ancestral stories rooted in Hawaiʻi.

This work begins by bringing to life old stories of Kou or what is now known as downtown Honolulu through photography depicting wāhine akua or 'female goddesses/guardians,' songs of place, and food from the land and sea. Opening on September 1st, 2023 at Arts & Letters Nuʻuanu this community gathering marks the start of multiple artist-led community collaborations taking place through July 27th, 2024 and culminating in a return to Thomas Square, the site of the restoration of Hawaiʻi’s sovereignty in 1843. This day will celebrate community-created works while also sharing a space of creation in-real-time through mediums highlighting materials of place including pandanus weaving, bamboo stamping, multimedia, and various other practices that have remained and evolved despite it all.

The Tucson project is led by Borderlands Theater who will create a theatrical showcase aimed at emphasizing the vital role arts play in the well-being of communities.

In part, Borderlands Theater will share a theatre for young audiences play devised and performed by youth for youth at local schools and a musical in progress, centering girls and women that empower the community through cultural roots, resilience, and pride for the beautiful desert that is home.

In collaboration with the City of Tucson, Borderlands is also working to align its 2024 project with an effort to launch the City’s first ever Mexican American Cultural Center.

Local nonprofit Vibrant Hawai’i will support a year-long fellowship for up to 12 artists to create art that enhances collective well-being, celebrates diverse stories of culture in Hawaiʻi, and builds community resilience and social cohesion. Together, these artists will amplify the unique voices and stories of the Hawaiian people through various art expressions. Artists will also gain access to industry experts in business, planning, marketing and other areas that support their growth as artistic entrepreneurs and working artists.

By honoring and amplifying the unique voices and stories from the community, Vibrant Hawaiʻi is creating space for healing and learning that artists and their communities can carry with them well beyond July of next year.

The Kansas City project is led by Making Movies,  Yonas Media, and Art as Mentorship, a nonprofit using arts education and songwriting as a tool to tackle the youth mental health crisis. Together, they will host “Celebrate AMERI’KANA,” a music and arts festival bringing together national, local and youth performers in a celebration of Black, Indigenous, Immigrant and Latino musicians and the diverse Kansas City arts community. This festival will include a mercado, an international open air market, that will showcase local artists, creators, growers, and small businesses. Celebrate AMERI’KANA seeks to foster health and well-being through creative expression, impacting the fabric of the community for years to come.

The Bronx project is led by the Urban Health Plan (UHP), one of the largest federally qualified health centers in New York state. UHP’s Arts Desk is one of the first intergenerational and interdisciplinary arts-led social prescribing prototypes in New York City. Through partnerships with local organizations, UHP’s patients will be able to take part in provider-prescribed, art experiences within their neighborhoods of all art genres including, visual arts, dance, music, theater, spoken word, literary, horticulture and culinary arts. The UHP Arts Desk also leads the curation of a physical gallery and performance site located within the health system’s main site, showcasing the interdisciplinary arts engagement of their patients.

Led by a youth steering committee alongside leaders and staff from the City of Gainesville, in partnership with the University of Florida (UF) College of Arts, UF Center for Arts in Medicine, and local public safety and school leaders. This unprecedented cohort is funding numerous community-wide small and large-scale arts and wellness projects that cover themes of youth gun violence, safety and mental health in the community.

A large coordinated community event to showcase the projects will take place in Summer 2024.

The Utica project is led by the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture), the Town of Utica, and the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center. The project powerfully focuses on telling stories, mapping resources, and prototyping solutions around food access. Together, these partners are deepening Utica’s rich legacy of rural self-determination and artistic voice through a city-wide food and cultural festival taking place in July 2024.

In Winston-Salem, the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County, the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, the city of Winston-Salem Department of Community Development, UnitedHealth Centers and Forsyth County Health and Human Services, are all collaborating to increase community connection through the creation of public works of art performance projects rooted in civic practice. Over the past year, the Winston-Salem& Forsyth County site team have collaborated with a community advisory committee to strengthen partnerships between municipal leadership, community health centers, local artists and the communities hit hardest by the pandemic.

One powerful project coming out of Chicago is led by the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) and local partners in the Englewood neighborhood. Alongside their ongoing work through their holistic Federally Qualified Health Center, the team plans to reactivate an abandoned lot, the Go Green Griot Plaza, a closed school and even a closed public transit station. This reparative and healing-informed intervention approach aims to reduce the greatest urban life expectancy gap in the country and celebrate their communities’ rich, brilliant, expansive traditions.

In the nation’s capital, Word Beats & Life, and public and private institutions, including Turnaround Artsthe Kennedy Center, will host an event on the National Mall in July 2024. Bringing together creative artists from the region, the project will center on hip-hop theater, performance poetry, and live music including jazz, go-go music and punk. It will showcase the impact of the arts on wellness through public art creation, temporary installations, and a celebration of food from the many cultures that are Washington DC.

The Harlan County project is taking shape through the work of Higher Ground, a community arts organization who brought together municipal leaders and Cloverfork Clinic to integrate the arts into rural healthcare delivery via a new mobile health clinic, social prescribing, and other arts programming.  In this historic coal mining community, the collaborative is bringing their most remote residents quality care and coordinating an arts and music festival with a new original play performance in July, 2024.

Located in a county that was once a Covid hotspot, the City of Edinburg, in collaboration with local artists and health partners, will showcase the community’s resilience, color, and artistic richness through inspiring message murals throughout the city and community-based art programs that promote health and well-being.

Upcoming classes will serve as the foundation for the programming at the City’s Art, Culture, and Event Center scheduled to open in June 2024. The ACE Center will be in the heart of the City’s festival grounds and will serve to showcase the community’s rich Mexican culture and traditions while embracing and celebrating its growing diversity. The initiative will culminate in an Art & Wellness festival that promotes health and well-being, social connectedness, and a sense of belonging.

The Chicago project, led by the Chicago Department of Arts, Culture, and Special Events (DCASE) and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), is piloting a paid job training program exploring career pathways for artists centered in creative therapy and health advocacy by establishing one-year artist apprenticeships at City-run mental health clinics. Apprentices will also receive certification as a community health worker at Malcolm X College, where they will also be trained in mental health first aid and overdose prevention. These artists will create services and programming for Chicago residents, culminating in a public creative moment in July 2024.

ArtStart, a community arts organization, is leading the project in Rhinelander alongside the City Council. The team is working with area healthcare providers and social service organizations on their 2024 project: youth mental health and isolation. They are working with local youth to co-design and build a new skatepark with integrated art elements, providing an ongoing oasis of gathering, creativity and support for teenagers. They are also working with the county’s Aging and Disability Resource Center on art programs for adults with memory loss. Both projects are creating ongoing opportunities for art creation as a space for connection and social cohesion. The project will culminate in a July 2024 public event, seeking to change the conversation about life in rural US communities today.

The Elaine Legacy Center and The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ regional campus will collaborate on the Water Stories Project to gather stories, memories, and creative responses from its residents to address the region’s urgent water justice issues and reframe historical social divisions. In July 2024, the stories will be presented by local artists and leaders in a variety of art expressions.

The project coming out of Seattle is led by the Wing Luke Museum, and will highlight the city’s Chinatown-International District's rich cultural and artistic vibrancy through music, dance, mixed media installations, and murals. The call for joy and expression is even more pressing as the downtown neighborhood continues to recover from the pandemic, and stands up to disaster gentrification and displacement with light rail expansion.

Their Summer 2024, JamFest, festival series will proudly celebrate the community’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander migrant roots and culture. JamFest is designed to promote joy, healing, and belonging in the larger community.