International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
Open Access

Project 222, Women in Arts, Mental Wellness, Holistic Health, Resilience

222 MISSION STATEMENT: Providing resources to all genres of the urban, cultural and contemporary arts community. Supporting collaboration and creativity through endowments and grants. Promoting sustainability and healthy life choices through community foundation partnerships and artist creative collaborations (Figure 1).

Figure 1: The Collaborative Connection Between Art and Women’s Health and Wellness.

222 WOMEN IN ARTS: (WIA) - In 2001, the inaugural meeting we had a full house based of our main membership, the first meeting had thirty artists. Why so many? So fast? That was a mystery. When we had open discussion, the subjects gravitated to personal stories about various personal experiences, what we ended up with was an open discussion on domestic abuses and women telling their personal stories and a general feeling of communal safety to be open. We had 150 members within a month. My question at the end of the meeting was “Was there a reason you felt so safe to be so open?” the compassionate openness of the group and honesty was the answer. It was a hugely emotional moment. The next meeting we asked the question “What type of programs/workshops would you be interested in?” They were first, mental health and second business development assistance. We worked with National Association of Mental Health (NAMI) in March of 2024 and had a mutli-threaded event that guided our artists through domestic violence awareness and creating sketches of their feelings. We currently have brilliant new leadership in WIA and will be expanding our programs and resources. WIA currently has about 200 of the 1100 members we have internationally, predominantly in Hawaii (Shefi N, 2022).

222 HEALTH IN ARTS : This group was created from the WIA interactions and meetings. To provide access to holistic health resources for our artist members to assist with maintaining life balance and maximize their potential. Resilience and balance especially after the pandemic tended to be a struggle with our artists. Art projects that include collaborations and creativity seemed to create a better sense of balance as we grew. This program launches September 1^st, provides resources for artrists dealing with health issues. We are standing up an intake program for eligibility and triage (Stuckey HL, 2010).

Future Events:

• Women in Arts – September 1^st 2024 (Zoom)

• 222 Monthly Funding Meeting (Hawaii Kai) – Mid-September (TBD, Zoom)

• 222 Artist Opening (Mokichi Okada Academy) – Mid September, (TBD)

• 222 Annual Festival Fundraiser – “Dia de Los Muertos” Bishop Museum, November 2^nd 2024

This interaction among women artists, including performers, painters, photographers, videographers, film producers and even designers of hairstyles, clothing and everything one considers artwork can definitely lead to healthier outlook and emotional positivity for those who choose to join the meetings. Social interaction in person and th rough zoom are used to evaluate the benefit of this undertaking to resilience as measured by adjustments in positive growth. Research is now underway in the population of women artists to evaluate Posttraumatic Growth (PTG). PTG and the influence of the immediate sociocultural context are different in different cultures so Appreciation for Life and Spiritual Change will be evaluated within varying cultural contexts including New Mexico, Venezuela and Yucatan, Mexico. Finance is from goodwill supporters in the financial areas as well as those who understand the investment in mental health and resilience among the population of women collaborating in this effort.

Shefi, N., Orkibi, H., Huss, E (2022). Creating an empirically-based model of social arts as a public health resource: Training, typology, and impact. Front Pub Hea. 12;10:985884.

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Stuckey, HL., Nobel, J (2010). The connection between art, healing, and public health: A review of current literature. Am J Pub Hea. 100(2):254-63.

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