The KAIH project is an initiative of the University of Louisville’s ���Ի���, based in the , along with .

“I have always had the intuitive sense that creative community art can make a difference, but this opportunity will provide not only a method for gauging our success, but the tools to make sure we are headed in the right direction,” Smith said.

Smith is an interdisciplinary artist and educator, and teaches 2D, 3D and digital art at universities in the region. He also is the artist behind Bike Sense Louisville, a public art project that is tracking volunteer cyclists around Louisville, sensing environmental data as they ride and interpreting it into sound on the Big Four Bridge.

A primary component of the KAIH residency is training on the Universal Community Planning Tool (UCPT) developed by the  in Maryland. UCPT uses open-source technology to equip communities with sustainable, culturally-responsive strategies. 

“We’re developing an entrepreneurial population health workforce who thinks differently about how to solve deeply entrenched challenges that require new approaches,” said Theo Edmonds, director of UofL’s Center for Creative Placehealing. “The KAIH residency brings together transdisciplinary teams of community members, researchers, practitioners and creatives, which is the foundation of our pioneering approach to cultural wellbeing.” 

 “Todd will work alongside community members and researchers to adapt the UCPT platform for Kentucky, and I’m looking forward to seeing how his expertise as an artist working with technology informs the process and supports more equitable data-driven decision making,” said Josh Miller, co-founder and CEO of IDEAS xLab. “This artist residency presents a chance to re-rame how we approach urban-rural collaboration in creating a more healthy, just and creative Kentucky.”  

The KAIH Residency is supported by funds from the ; a Community Collaborative Learning Fund award; ���Ի���a from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention through the Kentucky Cabinet for Health & Family Services. 

The two entities are working together to design, create and implement a Center for Art + Health Innovation within the CIK to help Louisville become a national thought leader and training site for the improvement of community health through art.

“One of the greatest challenges in public health is authentically connecting with communities, as well as communicating effectively,” said Monica Wendel, DrPH, MA, director of the Commonwealth Institute of Kentucky and associate dean for Public Health Practice at the UofL School of Public Health and Information Sciences. “Our best science is relatively useless if we can’t make it accessible and actionable for people. Arts and culture provide us with the language necessary to foster mutual understanding.”

“We believe artists are a catalytic force who shape and influence our cultural, political and economic environments,” said Theo Edmonds, co-founder of IDEAS xLab. “They have the ability to make new options visible, and with the right training and support, can (re)introduce humanity into policy discussions and shift how community members define and advocate for their health and well-being.”

is IDEAS xLab’s signature project, and uses arts and cultural engagement to help communities discover creative ways to identify their health priorities and develop a health equity action plan for sustainable impact.

Edmonds says although data suggests that arts and culture influence population health, an evidence-based model is needed, and CIK researchers will be important collaborators in the process.

Last year, the CIK and IDEAS xLab partnered to launch a photovoice exhibit at the

. The project featured photographs and written observations of West Louisville residents, and set the stage for community conversations on ways to reduce violence in their neighborhoods. CIK and IDEAS xLab hope to bring more of these initiatives to life under the Center for Art + Health Innovation.

“CIK and IDEAS xLab have our eyes on the same goal –social justice and health equity. We are bringing our unique skill sets together to advance that goal in a creative way,” Wendel said.

CIK is part of the with a mission of informing policy and practice that will improve the health of populations in Kentucky and beyond. IDEAS xLab is a Louisville-based artist innovation company that trains artists as social entrepreneurs to help create equitable places and nurture healthy communities.