NEA Publishes “Guide to Community-Engaged Research in the Arts and Health”

On December 8, 2016, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) published a Guide to Community-Engaged Research in the Arts and Health, a blueprint for collaboration among academic researchers, arts organizations, and artists aiming to study the arts’ effects on health and extend this research to arts programs or therapies.Responding to a need identified by the federal Interagency Task Force on the Arts and Human Development, the NEA commissioned this guide from the cognitive neuroscientist Julene Johnson, PhD, UCSF, and the arts consultant Jeff Chapline, New Art Horizons. It advises arts practitioners and biomedical or behavioral health researchers how to partner effectively in documenting and studying the contributions of community-based arts programs to positive health outcomes.

Guide to Community-Engaged Research in the Arts and Health

A blueprint for collaboration among academic researchers, arts organizations, and artists aiming to study the arts’ effects on health and extend this research to arts programs or therapies.


The guide is another product of the Federal Interagency Task Force on the Arts and Human Development. Led by the NEA, task force members represent units of the federal government, such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education, among others.  The task force encourages more and better research on how the arts can help people reach their full potential at all stages of life and has produced the following resources.