John Devol, Executive Director

Submitted by, Dena Malarek, Program Manager for Special Populations

What makes your organization unique? 

At Arts Horizons, our mission is to foster development of the whole person and to improve education by delivering quality arts programs to schools and communities.  Our organization firmly believes that all people shall have equal access to the arts and foster inclusive, nurturing, and productive environments.  This firm belief is carried out, with pride, by our Program Department for Special Populations, which provides individuals with special needs the opportunity to develop social, emotional, and intellectual talents for personal growth and healing. We also recognize the importance of training as demonstrated by our unique initiative, The Special Education Artist Academy, which prepares artists for working with student with special needs.

Our reach extends to provide individuals in community healthcare settings the opportunity for expression, coping and healing.   Through the ?Open Studio Program,? from 2006-2008, Arts Horizons brought visual art, music and dance to 3 hospitals. Creative arts experiences provide avenues for expression for patients and families, reduce stress, normalize the hospital experience and potentially broaden treatment arenas for allied therapists including physical, occupational, and speech therapy. 

In 2008-2009 Arts Horizons expanded our programs in healthcare with Hospital Schools, as part of NYC Department of Education. Currently, Arts Horizons musicians provide programs at three hospital schools serving individuals in psychiatric and medical rehabilitation care.   Music is clinically recognized to influence biological responses including hearth rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, muscle tone, and can be a strategy for refocusing attention and source of emotional support. Arts Horizons workshops in Hospital Schools further compliment academic learning as teachers work alongside musicians to help individual student learning outcomes to assist transitions back to school. A further extension of the program is the professional development and learning of the hospital school staff to carry out the learning through music beyond the stay of the program.

What value do you see in being a member of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare to meet goals for your organization?

Membership with SAH represents our connection and collaboration with the field of Arts in Healthcare. Distance is no longer a barrier and it immediately connects our organization to the greater community which support, represent, and propel the professional field. It serves the multifaceted role of support: camaraderie with likeminded programs, resources: access to current and relevant research and a real forum for collective effort to advocate for the professional role and benefit of Arts in Healthcare.

It is exciting and motivating to see another step in the field with the SAH Journal: ?Arts and Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice.?   This is a useful resource to examine the interdisciplinary approaches to arts in healthcare, empirical research and the momentum toward increasing sophistication in the field.

What advice would you give to someone new to the field?

Planning. Preparedness. Training and Collaboration. Well developed programs for Arts in Healthcare take many shapes and sizes; careful and deliberate effort in planning is critical to find a ?therapeutic fit.?  Just as every patient and student is unique in his/her needs, each hospital and healthcare setting is a unique community to which we must listen, learn and then collaboratively develop a complimentary program. It is also critical that artist facilitators have training and experience working with diverse populations and have clear understanding and sensitivity to the particulars of each healthcare setting. 

What is the biggest challenge you face in your work and how are you working to overcome it?

Certainly, the universal reality of fading funding faces our community and our nation at this pivotal time. It is difficult to have to scale back programs when we know their true success and value. We always have to keep in mind the approach to maximize our resources, maximize what we do have, and practically approach each situation.

What keeps you motivated to do the work you do?

Personally, as the Program Manager for Special Populations, this is truly my passion. Our programs in healthcare meet people at truly critical times in their lives. It is exciting that arts in healthcare can serve as a uniting bridge: a place where allied therapist might be able to treat, a time where medical specialists might see affect of a treatment or learn about a patient, a place where families can re-invent shared time in the face of critical illness; and a place for patients to heal, cope, and express.  Perhaps, beyond all the documented benefits, I most appreciate the humanizing effect that arts can bring to an individual and community in the time of uncertainty.

For more information contact Dena Malarek, Program Manager for Special Populations ? dena@artshorizons.org

 See more with Society for Arts in Healthcare website.