Arts for Healing is now ready for Social Prescribing

Cherie Kephart, sound therapy

Adrienne Hundley from Art Pharmacy recently held a webinar about a new pilot program
in San Diego for San Ysidro Health .  They have partnered with the funder Catalyst  to provide a brand new art prescription program. This is a game changer and we all know research has proven how the arts are good for the mind and then the body. She pointed out that, “We are hard wired for art.” It  now only lowers our blood pressure,  it connects us to community

There are lots of outside creative arts therapist. Some are actually located in hospitals and clinical health care centers.  But patients don’t always know about them. Social prescribing with the arts is a way for the care provider to prescribe the arts knowing that Art Pharmacy will be able to match the right choice of art to the patient. .

For the pilot, the patience’s care provider writes the prescription. San Ysidro Health will send a request to Catalyst to validate the funding and then it will be sent to Art Pharmacy who will make recommendations for a selection of activities. A care navigator will book and monitor the patient through a year’s activities on average one a month. Funding is for 2 people for the patient can be accompanied. There is an end survey and statistic are looking extremely good with high rates of participation and improved well-being and social connectedness i.e. less loneliness.

The choice of mediums and type of experiences is very wide for in person or virtual or even telephone sessions.  Some sessions are for groups, other for individuals and some are participatory other as a viewer. It is a very customized services to make sure the health goals are met.

The pilot with San Ysidro Health will begin in September so they are asking for creative art therapist of all kinds to enroll with Art Pharmacy. Fill out a form showing interest, then contact will be made to fill out the enrollment form,  All sizes of non-profit, commercial and community-based organization which are already serving the public are eligible. The is no pricing structure as they recognize different types of session have different fees attached. Art Pharmacy will arrange payment.

Enrollment is ongoing and more dates can be added to the offerings. Remember San Ysidro Health has patients throughout the county and needs venue and sessions county wide. Because of their emphasis on youth and depression, extra training is available for mental health  response training August 21 online from noon to 1 pm.

During the questions part of the webinar, we also learned that the most successful sessions are the once a of month or drop in events. For youth, they like participatory events that are very hands-on. For those practitioners that work from home, it was suggested that libraries and communities center can often be the venue for those individuals with no public venue available.

Based in Atlanta, GA, Art Pharmacy, which only started in 2022, is currently working with partners in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, and New York. It is based on the knowledge that mental health services often leave gaps in care, particularly for populations experiencing barriers to access, cultural stigma, or a preference for non-clinical interventions.

Although there is no insurance payment yet, that means no insurance forms to fill out. But it is to be hoped in the future that insurance will pay for this essential service.

Here is just one example of a healing art provider. We are lucky to have hundreds in the region.  The California Center for Creative Renewal is a healing garden retreat center located in Encinitas founded by Ellen Speert.  It provides an environment of creativity, stimulation, safety and professionalism, balancing hands-on art experiences with goal-driven outcomes and so the perfect candidate for a listing on Art Pharmacy. I attended a workshop Art, Sound, and Words: Exploring Your Inner World. This three-component workshop  started with sound therapy with Diane Mandle where we each got our own sound bath, then a relatively unstructured hands-on clay project led by Ellen Speert and then a lesson on automatic writing by Cherie Kephart. The combined sound and word prompts were the culmination of the workshop with a shared learn session which was emotional and life confirming.

My interpretation of the sound of a drop of water hitting a pond. 

Communing with the abundant nature of this garden.

Diane Mandle, Intuitive writing with no judgement

SD County Arts and Culture Commission retreat Key Note Speech, June 5, 2025, plus, plus, plus Arts Advocacy News

 

Laura Zucker,  Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission from 1992 to 2017 gave the keynote address at the June retreat for the SD County Arts and Culture Commissioners.  She was there to give advice on how to build our commission to the juggernaut that is the Los Angeles is the largest County in the United States, encompassing 88 municipalities and nearly 140 unincorporated areas.  Under her guidance, the Arts Commission funded 364 nonprofit arts organizations through a two-year $9 million grant program, implemented the regional initiative dedicated to restoring arts education to 81 public school districts, funded the largest arts internship program in the country and manages the County’s civic art policy.

Zucker was very straight forward with her advice. The commission has to have a budget to function and that budget is achieved only by using political power. Every year in put on  the county budget  is requested two weeks before the budget is published. At that time the most influential leaders and campaign donors need to visit each county supervisor’s office and get them to sign a memo of support  for the requested amount needed. You need three out of the five supervisors to assure success.

To make sure you can sell your story here is some more advice:

·       Suck up to the Supervisors big time. Invite them to events to be honored and ask them to speak.  Take their pictures and get those published. Visibility is important.

·       Make sure that you broadcast all your stories. The arts are always a good news story and the county has a lot of bad news that needs to be balanced out.

·       Be the solution to a problem, which means you have to know what the platforms of the supervisors are. What do they want to achieve and how can the arts help them.

·       Embed artists in residence every department of government. Funding can come from collaborations and having artist knowledgeable about the functioning of all the issues is so helpful.

·       Make sure that your commission has regional impact.

·       Find out what you can do that no one else can do and broadcast that. Art issues are life issues.

Now this can’t be done all at once, but there are huge opportunities in San Diego to make a difference.

The rest of the retreat was spent discussing the strategy plan and setting new priorities. Most exciting was the discussion about the project with a $29K grant from the Local Arts Agency Learning Network  where it was proposed to hold a series of County Supervisor Arts Convening listening events.  

Pictured: County Liaison Giang Meyers, Vice Chair Bob Lehman of San Diego Museum Council, Chair Jim Gilliam, Felicia Shaw of San Diego ART Matters, guest consultant Laura Zucker of AEA Consulting and past director (1992-2017) of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Jennifer Jeffries of FALLBROOK CENTER FOR THE ARTS INC, Ladan Akbarnia of The San Diego Museum of Art, Sharlene O'Keefe of Poway OnStage (aka: Poway Center for the Performing Arts Foundation), and artist Jay Bell. Not pictured: Monica Hernandez of Casa Familiar, Inc., Lucas O'Connor of San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, and artist Renee Richetts.

Other Arts Advocacy News:

There is a new program in North California (Oakland and SF) called GAAP which stands for Grassroots Artist Advocacy Program. GAAP is part of CA for the Arts' Regional Advocacy Infrastructure Network (RAIN), which seeks to reinforce advocacy capacity and efficacy at the local, state and federal levels by designing new models of collaboration at the local (county and municipal) level. This is a fellowship program for artist with a particular project in mind. San Diego are we ready for our own GAAP? In early 2023, they worked with  the San Diego Regional Arts and Culture Coalition now Arts Matter  by doing an assessment of what their needs are, and what their advocacy goals were for the year.  

Learn the ins and outs of leveraging AB 812 to create affordable housing for artists. There is finally a panel and a tool kit from CA for the Arts. The panelists include Tracy Hudak, Co-Author and Director of Field Engagement and Advocacy | CA for the Arts who last year gave the presentation for NCAN, AB 812 authorizes local governments to set aside 10% of any locally-required affordable housing units for artists within one-half mile of a state designated cultural district or within a locally designated cultural district. In Zoom on Wed, July 23 from noon - 1:30 PM.  Learn more here.

In the Art Conversation held for the benefit of the South Bay by Jonathon Glus in concert with the California Arts Council (CAC). Francisco Eme of The Front mentioned that border artists wanted to express other idea besides the border issues. Culture in Mexico is wide ranging and includes low riders, cuisines and fashion. Dr.  Alberto Lopez Pulido agreed with that. Sean Boyd of the Trinity Theater is having funding cuts so that his performances can't go to all the school that they visited last year. Bob Lehman from the Museum Council encouraged sharing resources and even merging with partners to survive. He suggested that funding be for multi-years so that some of the unpredictability of budgets could be avoided. There is an election for a new supervisor to take the place of Nora Vargas and you are urged to find out about all the candidates and show them how the arts can help with social issues.

We attended the CAC June meeting which was held in San Diego and also available to attend by zoom. We recommend that everyone attends at least one of these meeting to understand the process that these art profession use to support all of us. We learned so much and were inspired. Here is just one example: Governor Gavin Newson,  "We will be at California for All. We will not be divided between rural and urban, or north and south. Or coastal and inland. We will strive for solidarity and face our most threatening problems together. This will take courage, and that's a word that means different things to different people. And to me, courage means doing what is right, even when it is hard. We will strive for solidarity and face our most threatening problems together. This will take courage, and that's a word that means different things to different people. And to me, courage means doing what is right, even when it is hard. There's a spark of California, a hope. And a California courage that is born in all of us. It's up to us what we do with it Because the eyes of the world are upon us. Now, more than ever, America needs California."

Art Without Borders: Visionary Artists from San Diego & Baja Norte

The art film ART Without Borders celebrates Patricia Frischer, SDVAN, and the San Diego Art Prize and was created by Mark Murphy . Please share this link to spread the word about the work we are doing.

Art Without Borders: Visionary Artists from San Diego & Baja Norte

This short film features San Diego art advocate Patricia Frischer, founder of the San Diego Visual Arts Network and the San Diego Art Prize. You will enjoy an inspired tour of the artists behind the San Diego Art Prize and a binational community of artists who transcend borders through creative expression, mentorship, and cultural dialogue. 

From emerging voices to seasoned visionaries, the film showcases the impact of artistic collaboration, identity exploration, and community building in a region where art serves as both a social force and a bridge between cultures. 

🔗 Learn more about the visual arts in San Diego: https://www.sdvisualarts.net 

🎨 Subscribe for more stories from contemporary artists and cultural innovators at https://www.youtube.com/murphydesign and graphic design, marketing, or book design services, please visit https://www.murphydesign.com 

🔗 SDVAN is dedicated to fostering an inclusive and dynamic visual arts community by valuing artists, engaging the public, and using art as an economic driver. The organization emphasizes mentorship, education, and collaboration to reduce barriers to art appreciation and participation. 

By providing free access to its resources and promoting diverse voices, SDVAN ensures that the visual arts are a vital and accessible part of San Diego’s cultural life https://www.sdvisualarts.net 

SDVAN was founded by Patricia Frischer, who has orchestrated San Diego’s most significant online hub for visual arts, connecting over 1,500 artists and 1,000 organizations. Through mentorship, collaboration, and free resources, SDVAN strengthens the arts community while making creativity accessible through art events, education, and community empowerment. 

Learn more ➡️ sdvisualarts.net 

🏆 About the SDART Prize: The SDART Prize celebrates artistic excellence by awarding cash prizes and providing prestigious exhibition opportunities. This initiative highlights the creative talent that fuels our region’s vibrant cultural life. 

🌟 Why SDVAN Matters: Largest visual arts directory in San Diego 🌴 Free access to art services, management, and educational resources 📚 Promotes diversity, inclusion, and cross-border collaboration 🌎 Drives regional economic growth through the power of art 💥