Researchers are looking to see how art, such as music, improves emotional, physical and mental health, especially among seniors with memory loss. Residents will be tested before and after each art session to see if their health improved.

“When you see the people dancing or when they know the words, or people that aren’t able to speak because of a stroke, but once a song comes on, they are able to mimic the song with their mouth, that’s beautiful to me,” said Jackie Laskee, activities director at Christian Care Communities. “That brings joy and a tear to my eye.”

Check out the video to learn about this research.

The project, called “,” will offer playwriting workshops to residents of the West End as a way to explore critical issues, stimulate discussion and expose others to a more nuanced view of the community.

“We want people to experience the strength and beauty of the community as well as the challenges and struggles,” said Nefertiti Burton, chair of the UofL Theatre Arts Department.

The project was one of nine arts-based projects funded this year by the Jennifer Lawrence Arts Fund and has through February to match the $10,000 grant.  

Playwright and poet will guide as many as 20 community members aged 16 and older through a series of 10 weekly workshop sessions. The sessions are designed to help residents voice their experiences living in a neighborhood that is “struggling to overcome the images of violence, poverty and apathy that have defined it in local and regional media for decades.”

Participants will hone skills in writing, performance and production. Burton said the plan is to create 10-minute plays and stage them at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage and possibly throughout the state.

“We wanted people to have the opportunity to get their stories collected and shared in such a way that they are circulated beyond West Louisville into the broader community,” Burton said.

Burton will act as the artistic director and grad students from Theatre Arts may be tapped to help as well.

Burton said people have already expressed interest in participating.

“People often ask for our help as a department, and we’ve staged workshops before. But this is our first time doing an ongoing effort,” she said.

to make a donation to the Arts Match Fund to support the project.

With a grant provided by the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence and in partnership with the Fund for the Arts, the institute will launch “engAGE Arts” at the Speed Art Museum on UofL’s Belknap campus.

“As the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence continues to work to improve the overall health of our community, we recognize that the arts have a vital role to play in achieving our goals,” said Jeff Polson, Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence executive director.

EngAGE Arts will enroll 128 participants in arts experiences, measuring the impact of the programming on the participants’ health and well-being. The study will draw from two populations: older adults, including veterans, and high school-aged youth. They will be recruited from local aging care facilities and veterans’ groups, as well as from Central High School.

“We are dedicated to bringing about a new vision of aging where individuals and society are able to approach aging as an opportunity, not as a disease,” said Anna Faul, PhD, executive director of the institute. “The arts are an untapped resource for promoting health that demand to be explored further.”

Staff from Frazier History Museum, The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Kentucky Shakespeare and KMAC Museum (Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft) will lead the participants in arts activities. Project goals include addressing the needs of older adults and youth in the Greater Louisville community through advancing the policy, practice and quality use of the arts as tools for improved health and wellness, raising visibility, understanding and support of the use of the arts in the promotion of health and demonstrating the use of the arts as a tool for health.

Past research has shown that creative engagement has positive effects on general health, age-related cognitive functioning, balance, mental health, use of medications and overall well-being in older adults and on academic and social-emotional development in youth. Additionally, programs focused on connecting youth and older adults in meaningful relationships have been shown to help break down generational stereotypes and create rewarding experiences for both younger and older generations.

“This is new territory for our community with a transformative grant program that partners an arts nonprofit, private foundation and leading university research center to measure the impact of the arts on participants’ health and well-being,” said Kat Abner, Fund for the Arts Impact Officer.

For information about the study, contact the institute at 502-852-5629.