Theo Edmonds, JD,MHA,MFA
nat rosasco • April 7, 2020
Artist & Health Innovator:
University of Louisville Center for Creative Placehealing
Bio:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified the systematic neglect of culture as the single, greatest barrier to the advancement of the highest standard of health worldwide. Health is more than the absence of disease. It is a state of wellbeing that allows diverse groups of people to contribute their full, creative potential to the communities they love. This interaction helps us derive a personal sense of hope, trust, and belonging. These are cultural metrics, transferable to a wide range of diverse communities, which, according to research, can predict wellbeing.
Even as inequity rises, America is experiencing a decades-long decline in social services funding. Likewise, we are at the beginning of a privatization movement directed at our nation’s public health system. How all of this plays out over the long term is yet to be seen. However, one thing is sure. The private, public and nonprofit sectors must become better aligned. UofL’s Center for Creative Placehealing was created to help find the way forward. A way that creates value for both business owners and society.
Whereas many of today’s business innovation models focus on creating “disruption”, the Center for Creative Placehealing is focused on something far more powerful. We seek to create “meaning”. Culture is the result of how diverse communities make and share meaning. It is the “why” of both people and businesses. The future of business is tied to creating value: both in the market AND in society. In other words - doing well, while doing good. This is fundamentally a CULTURAL challenge.
La CASA (Center for Arts, Self-determination, and Activism) is a transformative $33 million initiative by Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) in Boston's South End.This four-story facility will consolidate IBA's diverse programs—including affordable housing, education, financial empowerment, and arts—under one roof, enhancing access and community outreach.Supported by a $20 million New Markets Tax Credits allocation and $12 million in tax-exempt bond financing led by TD Bank, La CASA exemplifies a strategic partnership aimed at fostering socio-economic mobility.Upon its anticipated completion in 2026, La CASA is projected to serve over 2,500 individuals annually through resident services and youth development, with an additional 5,000 benefiting from its arts programming, reinforcing its role as a beacon for Latino culture and community empowerment in Boston.
The Welman Project aims to support educators by making the reuse of materials a resource for creativity in the classroom, and to increase arts participation in underserved groups. They serve educators, artists, makers, and families through three main programs: the Educator Resource Program, the Curiosity Shop, and their Creative Reuse Education Program. They are dedicated to using the arts as a space for healing and confronting social injustice.
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.
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.
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.
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.
