Healing, Equity, and the Arts (HEARTS)
Healing, Equity, and the Arts/Artivism
The term Artivism describes the umbrella that captures a portfolio of activities that leverage the arts (visual and performing) to facilitate antiracist, antidiscrimination, and antibias transformation in the DGSOM and UCLA Health.
Goal
Leveraging the Arts as a catalyst of change to advance race and health equity.
Key Goals
- Enhancing awareness and humility around topics related to racism, discrimination, and bias
- Improving the organizational climate and culture
- Fostering community building
Core Activities
- Artist in Residence Series, multimedia programming, extramural visits to galleries, museums and public art spaces, curator-led discussions and lectures, and collaborations with UCLA’s arts departments to bridge initiatives
Learning Objectives
Understand the Role of Art in Addressing Racism and Health Equity
- Analyze how the Artivism program leverages visual and performing arts to enhance awareness and humility in topics related to racism, discrimination, and bias.
- Explore the impact of arts-based initiatives on improving climate and culture within healthcare and academic settings.
Develop Strategies for Using Art as a Vehicle for Social Change
- Identify ways in which art can be used to build bias resistance and resilience in medical organizations.
- Design and implement arts-based programming that promotes inclusivity, community engagement, and addresses health inequities.
Collaborate on Interdisciplinary Initiatives to Promote Health Equity
- Engage with initiatives like the UCLA ART Sci program to explore the intersection of art, science, and social justice.
- Foster partnerships between medical and arts departments to develop comprehensive strategies for advancing race and health equity.
Evaluate the Effectiveness of Artivism in Transforming Organizational Culture
- Assess the outcomes of the Artivism program’s activities, including the Artist in Residence Series and multimedia projects, in creating meaningful cultural change.
- Reflect on the ways in which community-partnered arts activities can enhance connections within and outside the academic medical community.
Thematic Areas of Exploration
Sample Thematic Areas of Exploration
- White Coats for Black Lives, Race and the Carceral State
- Broken Treaties and Indigenous Health Outcomes
- LGBTQ and Trans Mental Health, Anti-AAPI Hate and Racism
- Maternal Health Outcomes
- Access and Bias Affecting Neurodivergence
- Epigenetic Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences and Health Outcomes
- Latinx and Indigenous Women’s Health
- Climate Change and Health
Core Activities
- Artist in Residence Series, multimedia programming, extramural visits to galleries, museums and public art spaces, curator-led discussions and lectures, and collaborations with UCLA’s arts departments to bridge initiatives
Why?
Racism as a Public Health Crisis
- Public Health Crisis: Recognized nationally, legislatively, and by organizations (CDC, NIH, AMA).
- Call to Action: Increase antiracism literacy in the biomedical and behavioral workforce.
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration:
- Partnerships between museums and medical schools enhance medical skills via arts observation.
- Builds empathy and understanding.
- Structural Determinants of Health:
- Legislation, institutional policies, neighborhood characteristics, social resources.
- Address root causes of health inequities for structurally vulnerable patients.
Art and Social Justice in Medical Education and Faculty Development
Medical Education
- Art fosters empathy and emotional intelligence, helping students understand the human condition.
- Social justice integration raises awareness of systemic inequalities and social determinants of health (e.g., race, socioeconomic status).
- Holistic training encourages viewing patients as whole individuals, enhancing compassionate and equitable care.
Faculty Development
- Art deepens emotional intelligence, enabling educators to teach patient-centered care effectively.
- Social justice training equips faculty to challenge systemic healthcare inequities and advocate for institutional equity.
- Integrating art and social justice enhances teaching quality, producing empathetic, culturally competent physicians.
Impact of Art in Medical Education and Faculty Development
Impacts of Visual Art
- Highlights social determinants of health (e.g., poverty, racism, access to care) through a visceral, non-verbal lens.
- Prompts reflection on implicit biases and systemic inequalities in healthcare.
- Fosters empathy by connecting physicians to the lived experiences and resilience of marginalized populations.
Community Building through Arts Partnerships
Structural Competency Curriculum
- Museum-based education partnership with the Hammer Museum at UCLA
- Since 2019, incorporated classes at the Hammer Museum into psychiatry residency program’s orientation
- Core curriculum that emphasizes health equity, structural competency, inclusivity, implicit bias, mental health, LA-based social movements, anti-racism, and more
- “Building Community and Structural Competency Through Art: An Art Museum and Psychiatry Partnership”
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