A nonprofit advancing the arts for health & well-being
Dose of Arts exists to prove it — through advocacy, community education, and creative programming that reaches the people who need it most. We bring the arts to where people live, heal, grieve, grow, and work. And we make the case, loudly, that creative expression belongs at the center of public health.
Not a nice-to-have. Not a school subject. A daily baseline for health, resilience, and a life worth living.
From reduced pain and anxiety to stronger immune function and slower cognitive decline. The evidence is overwhelming. The awareness isn't. Yet.
"I'm not creative" is almost never true. It's learned. Dose of Arts exists to unlearn it — in classrooms, nursing homes, hospices, hospitals, and community centers across Illinois and beyond.
Play, laughter, making something terrible on purpose — these are not soft outcomes. They are neurologically restorative. We build every program around that truth.
Our Mission & Vision
Dose of Arts envisions a world where art becomes as habitual for health and well-being as exercise and healthy sleep.
We advance the arts through advocacy, programming, and community — bringing creative experiences to people in order to enhance joy, connection, and flourishing. We educate about the power of the arts to enhance health and well-being. And we make that case everywhere we can: in nursing homes, in hospitals, in schools, in policy rooms, and on street corners where someone finds a painted rock and looks up what it means.
Making the case — publicly, persistently, and with evidence — that the arts are a public health priority. Speeches, policy engagement, community education, professional training for healthcare workers, and every other platform that moves the needle.
Our own signature programs plus a growing network of teaching artists and partner organizations bringing creative experiences into nursing homes, hospices, schools, libraries, wellness houses, and community centers everywhere.
The arts shouldn't require a gallery or a tuition check. Dose of Arts meets people where they already are — and builds the partnerships, networks, and systems that make creative access sustainable and widespread.
Advocacy & Education
The research is clear. The awareness isn't. Dose of Arts makes the case — in healthcare settings, educational institutions, policy rooms, and public spaces — that creative expression is a health imperative, not an extracurricular.
"The evidence is overwhelming — the arts reduce pain, anxiety, and depression; strengthen the immune system; slow cognitive decline; and give people a reason to keep living fully. We don't need more studies. We need more people to know."— Dose of Arts
Programming & Community
We develop signature programs and activate a network of teaching artists and partner organizations to bring joyful, accessible creative experiences into the spaces where people already are — and need it most.
"The programs we build are just one expression of what we do. Anywhere a teaching artist can walk in the door and give someone an hour of creative life they wouldn't otherwise have — that is Dose of Arts."— Dose of Arts
How We Show Up
Dose of Arts shows up in many forms. Some are programs we've built. Some are partnerships we've activated. Some are conversations we've started. All of them move the same mission forward.
Through the Alive Inside program, we bring personalized music playlists to hospice patients — reaching those with dementia, Alzheimer's, and cognitive decline when other connection has dimmed. Refer a patient with just a name.
ProgramsThe Creative Life Program, A Little Breathing Room (for caregivers), and Still Here (for grief communities) are 10-week cohort experiences built around joyful creative reclamation. No talent required — only showing up.
ProgramsThree tiered programs for ages 5–17 that plant a creative identity before the world tries to take it away. In schools, libraries, and community centers. Bad Art Olympics required. Talent not required.
ProgramsWe advocate for — and bring — more creative programming into long-term care settings. Painting, music, movement, storytelling, fiber arts. Teaching artists trained and deployed. Residents reached where they live.
CommunityWe bring the research and the case to OT programs, nursing schools, social work departments, and healthcare conferences. Helping the next generation of care providers understand that creativity belongs in the care plan.
AdvocacyPublic talks, community events, social prescribing awareness, and every other format that helps communities understand: the arts are good for you.
EducationWe recruit, train, and activate local teaching artists — painters, potters, musicians, storytellers, movement artists, digital creators — to bring their practice into the settings our partners serve. The programs we've built are a template. The network is the engine.
CommunitySocial prescribing — where healthcare providers prescribe arts and community activities alongside or instead of medication — is transforming health systems in the UK and Canada. Illinois has no presence yet. Dose of Arts is building it.
AdvocacyPublic art drops, community installations, and the kind of small joyful surprises that make a neighborhood feel more alive. The arts belong in public space. We put them there.
CommunityWho We Serve
That sentence is almost never true. It's learned. Dose of Arts exists to interrupt that story — in every setting, at every age, for every person the arts haven't reached yet.
Little ones who haven't yet built the wall. Tweens where self-consciousness is just starting. Teens who've been told to keep it down. We meet each age where they are, before and after the story hardens.
People who used to make things and stopped. People in life transitions. People who never believed they could. All of them.
People who have given everything to someone else and lost track of their own inner life. They deserve a room of their own. We build it.
People navigating loss who need a space that isn't defined by what they've lost. Joy is not a betrayal. We make that case — and prove it.
Nursing homes, hospices, hospitals, memory care, wellness houses. Residents and patients whose daily lives have too little beauty and too little creative expression.
OT students, nurses, social workers, physicians. The people who can prescribe creativity — if someone gives them the evidence and the framework.
Partner With Us
We partner with anyone who believes the arts belong at the center of health and community life. Organizations, schools, care facilities, community groups, individual artists, funders, advocates, and arts lovers of every kind. If it moves the mission forward, we're interested.
Bring Dose of Arts programs and teaching artists to your organization, facility, school, wellness house, or community — wherever people are who would benefit from a dose of creativity.
Program PartnershipAre you an artist who wants to bring your practice into new settings — nursing homes, hospices, schools, community centers? We want to build a network with you at the center.
Artist PartnershipIf you believe the arts are a public health imperative and want to help build the evidence, the programs, and the movement — we'd love to talk about what's possible together.
Funding & AdvocacyReady to connect? Reach out directly:
adoseofarts@gmail.comGet Involved
Whether you want to join a program, bring Dose of Arts to your organization, become a guest artist or teaching artist, advocate alongside us, or simply learn more — we want to hear from you.
Serving communities across Illinois and building statewide.
Partners welcome everywhere.