Bridging the Gap Between Public Art and Public Health

Learning about SaludArte Arizona

Huáscar Robles, 2023 GIA Conference Blog

The intersection of public health and public art couldn’t have found a better advocate than the SaludArte Arizona program in Tucson. The collaboration of various field experts led to designing a human-centered program that used public art to strengthen the health of at-risk communities during the COVID pandemic.

Founder Adriane Ackerman explained that, like many innovative programs, SaludArte began with a particular vision: to heal socially vulnerable populations in Arizona’s Pima County, an area composed of seasonal residents of retirees and asylum seekers mainly from Latin American countries.

At that time, Pima County had hired a new Health Director named Dr. Theresa Cullen, who saw arts and culture as a vehicle for healing. Several experts were brought in to propel the program, which would rely primarily on community input.

Sadie Shaw of the Arts Foundation was SaludArte’s Community Design Manager. Community workshops followed a thorough research of stakeholders from five districts to make sure all communities felt represented in the artwork that would eventually be selected. Shaw displayed slides of the workshops that allowed community members to vent their fears, frustrations, and hopes for the future. Participants wrote down their experiences on boards that were later shared with artists and the Pima Health Department. A visual and sound gallery allowed participants to share photos of loved ones who had passed away and the sounds they associated with the pandemic, such as their neighborhoods’ soundscapes. An important asset was a room where members recorded their own oral pandemic history in privacy.

The notes, sounds, experiences, and private diaries were the fuel behind the art pieces crafted by the artists who were selected by a community committee.

Mata Ruda, one of the artists selected, confessed that SaludArte helped redefine his relationship with public art. As a muralist, he’d been commissioned with pieces that ultimately didn’t reflect his values of uplifting marginalized communities. Mata Ruda, who endured his father’s passing during the pandemic, created vases with portraits of community families adorned with hummingbirds, which represent new beginnings. The large vases also played soundscapes the artist composed from the workshops’ testimonials, ultimately creating a multisensory experience. “This project made me step away from that fast-food mentality that was happening with public art,” the artist reflected and added, “especially thinking about my father, where I am from, and slowing down, becoming healthy myself as an artist.” He was also able to sketch his dad’s face into a vase, a comment that sent a heartwarming wave through the audience.

Barbara Williams, the District 2 selected artist, shared a bit of her interdisciplinary background that led to the totems she created for SaludArte. With a background in dance, woodwork, and a plethora of other media, Williams’ work is really felt on the body, which is ultimately the purpose of public art: to educate, entertain, and instill a sense of belonging from the inside out.

Her totems held powerful quotes from either one-on-one conversations or workshop recordings. The intention was to cement remembrance, a map of memories stenciled for the community to revisit and use as a place of healing.

“Artists were paid $30,0000 for their pieces, and community participants were given a $100 stipend. We wanted to create a new model for compensating participants.”

Ackerman concluded with the lessons learned along the way. Organizers brought together three federal funding streams, in itself an organizational and fiscal challenge. Another milestone was compensating artists and community participants. Artists were paid $30,0000 for their pieces, and community participants were given a $100 stipend. “We wanted to create a new model for compensating participants,” she said, reminding the audience that health departments in underfunded areas may provide less than adequate financial compensation. “We made an entire market research model about how and why we should be compensating these community members at the expertise level we do for physicians,” she said, garnering another round of applause.