Creative Forces

🎨🧠 How can the arts help our minds and bodies respond to stress? A Scientific American article delves into neuroaesthetics—the study of how arts and aesthetic experiences measurably transform our brains, bodies, and behavior. The article features Creative Forces creative arts therapies, including mask-making, as an innovative neuroarts intervention. It highlights how these therapies support service members with traumatic brain injury and PTSD. As author Susan Magsamen writes: “Making these pieces of art has enabled service members to open up to their families, speak about their experiences, diminish the occurrences of flashbacks, and restore a sense of control…” 🔗 Discover more: bit.ly/Neuroarts 📸 : A Navy Special Operator created this mask to portray the everyday face that he shows the outer world with contrasting aspects of his identity: a bright, peaceful side and a dark, tumultuous side. Photo credit: The NICoE, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD #CreativeForces #Neuroaesthetics #CreativeArtsTherapies #ScientificAmerican

“As a writer and visual artist, I realized the significance of art’s impact when you give people permission to take something so painful and give it a tangible space to live outside themselves.” – Luz Helena Thompson, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Path with Art teaching artist Path with Art provides veterans with opportunities to process trauma through creativity and community. Supported by a 2022 Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant, this Seattle-based nonprofit offers classes in visual arts, music, theater, and literature, helping veterans transform their pain into healing. 🔗 Learn more about their impact through the story of one of their teaching artists, Luz Helena Thompson: bit.ly/PathwithArtImpact #CreativeForces #VeteranVoices #PathWithArt #ArtsInHealth

“I want other veterans to see…that art can help them in ways that go far beyond the medium. It can provide human connection, a community of like-minded people, an understanding of the difficulty others have faced.” – Michelle, U.S. Army veteran and Path with Art participant Path with Art offers veterans opportunities to rebuild their lives through creative expression. Supported by a 2022 Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant, the Seattle-based nonprofit provides trauma-informed visual arts, music, theater, and literature classes, creating a space for connection and healing. 🔗 Discover their impact at bit.ly/PathwithArtImpact #CreativeForces #VeteranVoices #PathWithArt #ArtsInHealth Mid-America Arts Alliance National Endowment for the Arts

In January 2024, we hosted our Community Engagement Grantee Convening at the National Endowment for the Arts headquarters in partnership with Mid-America Arts Alliance. We continue to be inspired by the veterans, artists, program directors, administrators, and creative arts therapists who joined the conversation. We're excited for the grantees to meet again this February. #ArtsinHealth #CommunityArts #CreativeForces

Have you signed up for the Creative Forces newsletter? Subscribe for the latest news and updates from our Community Engagement Grant program, our clinical team’s creative arts therapies work, and our research activities. 🔗 Sign up at https://lnkd.in/g8WjZa3P 📸 Image: A workshop participant at a Pop Up Creative Arts Cafe hosted by VETART works clay on a wheel in May 2019.

Through creative expression, Path with Art is reimagining a way forward and transforming the lives of veterans exposed to trauma and homelessness. Supported by a 2022 Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant, this Seattle-based nonprofit offers trauma-informed classes in visual arts, music, theater, and literature. Their impact is deeply personal and inspiring. Sarah Blum, a U.S. Army nurse and Vietnam veteran, shared: “Being around other veterans and all the wonderful people at Path With Art gave me the emotional support I needed to keep going.” 🔗 Explore their impact: bit.ly/PathwithArtImpact #CreativeForces #VeteranVoices #PathWithArt #ArtsInHealth Mid-America Arts Alliance National Endowment for the Arts

How can your organization use the arts to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life of military-connected communities? Creative Forces Community Engagement Grants help military service members and veterans exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers, through experiences of art or art making. This national program is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Cost-sharing grants, which range from $10,000 to $50,000 each, are available to nonprofit organizations and state/local/tribal government entities. Applications are closing soon! Deadline: January 15, 2025. Learn more at bit.ly/3Ywionu #CreativeForces #ArtsAndMilitary #NEACreativeForces

Happy New Year! 🎉 From all of us at Creative Forces, we wish our military service members, veterans, and their families an artful year that supports improved health, well-being, and quality of life. 📸 Image: Attendees pose for a group photo during the Creative Forces Community Engagement Convening in January 2023. Photo by Thomas Young #ArtsInHealth #MusicTherapy #ArtTherapy #DanceTherapy #CommunityArts

We’re entering the new year inspired by these stunning photos from the Odyssey Project based in Buffalo, New York. Founded by photographer Brendan Bannon in collaboration with Creative Forces grant recipient Josephine Herrick Project, this project uses photography to help combat veterans reintegrate into civilian life. Through photography, social connection, and artist mentoring, the Odyssey Project has become a transformative space for veterans, offering creative expression, healing, and camaraderie. Discover the veterans’ stories and explore more about the project here: https://bit.ly/3PiZigh #OdysseyProject #CreativeForces #VeteranArt #ArtsInHealth 📸 Image 1: Nate Maybee, 2005/2018. Photo by Nate Maybee 📸 Image 2: Curtis Heath, Self Portrait. Photo by P Curtis 📸 Image 3: Zhou Chen, New Leaf. Photo by Jojo Chen 📸 Image 4: Edward Dudek Former US Army Captain with Vietnam Service ’69-’70. Photo by Ed Dudek

Did you know Creative Forces offers tools to guide the impact of community arts engagement programs? 📊 The newly launched Logic Model section on the NRC website provides a set of big-picture tools for designing and evaluating programs that support military-connected communities through the arts. The first model offers a big-picture overview of the national Community Engagement program, supporting trauma recovery for military-connected individuals. The second model is designed to guide individual projects, helping clarify goals and strategies to maximize impact. Explore these Logic Models and other resources to enhance your work in the arts! 🔗 Check it out here: bit.ly/CFLogicModels #CreativeForces #LogicModels #ProgramDevelopment Mid-America Arts Alliance National Endowment for the Arts