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2024 Arts and Health Week
Los Angeles County Arts and Health Week Summit
On Friday, June 14, 2024, LA Opera held the third annual Los Angeles County Arts and Health Week Summit. Hosted by LA Opera in collaboration with LA County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, First District; Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and Healing Arts—an initiative of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab—and the World Health Organization, this unique annual Summit offers conversations and participatory experiences, and promotes creative ways to approach wellness. Experience the Summit by watching the presentations and panels below.
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Speakers:
Christopher Koelsch – President and CEO, LA Opera
Andréa Fuentes, EdD – Vice President, LA Opera Connects
The Honorable Hilda L. Solis – Los Angeles County Supervisor, First District
Renée Fleming – Special Projects Advisor, LA Opera and WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health
Julie Gerberding, MD, MPH – CEO, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health
Rachel Moore – President and CEO, The Music Center
Advancing Arts and Health: LA County in Conversation
LA County Department of Arts and Culture highlights strategies to advance arts and health through cross-sector collaboration with County health departments, arts organizations, philanthropy, and communities with a goal of cultural and health equity for all.
Presenter:
Kristin Sakoda – Director, LA County Department of Arts and Culture
Speaker:
Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd – Director, LA County Department of Public Health
Harmonizing Wellness: Exploring Arts and Health Research
Leading experts in research at the intersection of arts and health discuss recent projects, trends, and advancements.
Moderator:
Daniel J. Levitin, PhD – Neuroscientist, Bestselling Author, Musician – Founding Dean and Special Advisor to the President of Minerva University
Panelists:
Robert M. Bilder, PhD – Tennenbaum Family Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and Psychology, UCLA Semel Institute and Director, National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab at UCLA
Nisha Sajnani, PhD – Co-Director, Jameel Arts & Health Lab/Professor, NYU Steinhardt
Patricia Moore Shaffer, PhD – Deputy Director, Research & Analysis – National Endowment for the Arts
Musical Performance
Soprano Alaysha Fox and pianist Nicholas Roehler, alumni of LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program.
Arts as Preventative and Restorative Practice: Increasing Wellbeing in Community and Hospital Settings
What can we learn from existing LA institutional and community programs as we grow integrated approaches to preventative and restorative care that bring the arts into clinical practice and clinical practice into the arts?
Moderator:
Josephine Ramirez – Executive Vice President, TMC Arts – The Music Center
Panelists:
Helena Hansen, MD, PhD – Professor & Interim Chair, UCLA Psychiatry & Semel Institute
Jorge Orozco – CEO, LA General Medical Center
Being a Part of Something Larger Than Ourselves
Eric Whitacre, GRAMMY®-winning composer, conductor and creator of the Virtual Choir, utilizes technology to foster creativity and connection, even in the most challenging circumstances. Exploring the rise of organic humanistic online communities and his own creative pathways, Whitacre helps us unlock the fundamental idea of creating something bigger than the sum of its parts.
Presenter:
Eric Whitacre – Composer, Conductor, and Speaker
A Moment of Creative Wellbeing
Participants cultivate moments of peace and presence, as well as learn self-regulation tools through a mindfulness grounding practice, supported by live guitar, infused with breath and vocal activations, including call and response, toning, and song.
Presenter:
Stacie Aamon Yeldell, MA, MT-BC, AVPT – Best-selling Author, Speaker, Music Therapist and Founder of Amöntra
Measuring the Impact of the Arts
Arts experiences have enormous value to individuals and society, but measurement of arts' impact has proven elusive. This presentation describes efforts at the NEA Research Lab at UCLA to develop an Arts Impact Measurement System (AIMS) and demonstrates its application live.
Presenter:
Robert M. Bilder, PhD – Tennenbaum Family Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and Psychology, UCLA Semel Institute and Director, National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab at UCLA
Keynote Presentation – Arts on Prescription: Centering the Arts in Creating Healthy Communities
Mounting evidence suggests that the arts have important roles to play in addressing critical public health issues, such as loneliness and chronic disease. This presentation highlights current opportunities for advancing access to the arts for health promotion through arts prescribing, as well as the work of artists and arts organizations in clinical and community settings.
Keynote speaker:
Jill Sonke, PhD – Director of Research Initiatives, University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine
Action the Future: Arts for Society Panel
Renée Fleming leads a culminating discussion about the future of embedding the arts into healthcare and across our society, with highlights from her new anthology Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness.
Moderator:
Renée Fleming – Special Projects Advisor, LA Opera and WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health
Panelists:
Daniel J. Levitin, PhD – Neuroscientist, Bestselling Author, Musician – Founding Dean and Special Advisor to the President of Minerva University
Sarah Lyding – Executive Director, The Music Man Foundation
Indre Viskontas, MM, PhD – Director of Communications/Scientific Advisory Board Chair/Associate Professor, Sound Health Network/NeuroArts BluePrint/University of San Francisco
Stacie Aamon Yeldell, MA, MT-BC, AVPT – Best-selling Author, Speaker, Music Therapist and Founder of Amöntra