The arts and health messaging: Exploring the evidence and lessons from the 2014 Ebola outbreak

nat rosasco • Apr 29, 2020

The arts have been shown to be an effective and efficient means for communicating health information to large audiences. The arts enhance emotional engagement with messages, and thus optimize social learning patterns and motivation to change behaviors. This article explores the roles and impacts of the arts in public health, including use of the arts for health messaging in the Ebola response in West Africa. 

Arts in public health is defined as a discipline, and outcomes related to use of the arts for health communication are presented along with examples of arts-based initiatives that were engaged to communicate critical health messages within the Ebola crisis of 2014-15. Recommendations for building the evidence base for arts in public health programs and for advancing evidence-based practice are offered.

APA Citation: Sonke, J., & Pesata, V. (2015). The arts and health messaging: Exploring the evidence and lessons from the 2014 Ebola outbreak. BMJ Outcomes, 1(1), 36-41.
Read more
30 May, 2023
Art Against Racism is a virtual arts exhibition which aims to lift up the tremendous array of creative works made in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. In doing so, project organizers hope that the exhibition will serve as an archive of the national artistic response to this historic moment.
30 May, 2023
La Raza Youth Leadership Institute hosted an art contest for youth ages 12-19 with the goal of motivating Latinx youth to get vaccinated. Three winners were chosen, and the first place winner's artwork was displayed on buses and in bus stop shelters near a number of schools. A phone number is included with the artwork for youth to call to receive more information about vaccines.
22 Jul, 2022
Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective's Perception Isn't Always Reality engages BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) teen and young adult artists to reevaluate messages they may have received about Covid-19 and vaccinations and to reevaluate the sources of the information. Through their own brand of urban storytelling that involves collaborative work in hip hop music and krump dance, spoken word, videography, photography, and podcasting, the artists will produce a challenging body of work for the public to experience on urban canvases such as the sides of city buses and on air waves.
22 Jul, 2022
Based in St. Louis, Missouri and incorporated in 2014, the Story Stitchers Artists Collective uses a collaborative model to create social justice art. The mission of Story Stitchers is to document St. Louis through art and word and to promote understanding, civic pride, intergenerational relationships, and literacy. Story Stitchers works to promote a better educated, more peaceful, and caring region through the creation and dissemination of original art.
21 Jul, 2022
The product of a collaboration the Potters' Guild of Las Cruces and Mesilla artist Josh Switzer, The Healing Wings project was developed to gave people in Las Cruces who were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic a chance to honor those lost during to COVID-19. Las Cruces community members were invited to paint clay-sculpted wings to hang on a metal tree. The wings gave the community members an artistic outlet to share their griefs or honor loved ones. The project also included a sculpture comprised of metal boxes, where people could write their experiences of grief on a paper and then put it in the box. Once the boxes are full, organizers plan to burn the notes as a symbol of letting go.
21 Jul, 2022
The Madisonville Community Studio is an ongoing project co-created by Madisonville residents and Design Impact to explore key questions about the inclusiveness of neighborhood changes. The project is supported by the Kresge Foundation. To improve interracial relationships in Madisonville and increase Black residents’ power, influence, and representation in the neighborhood’s development decisions.
Show more
Share by: