Art Pharmacy is empowering a national network of arts and culture partners to revolutionize healthcare. We take personally and seriously the overwhelming body of evidence that shows the benefits of engaging with the arts. We exist to make accessible the preventative and therapeutic aspects of engaging with the arts. In the face of twin epidemics of loneliness and mental illness, Art Pharmacy is the connective tissue between care providers, healthcare partners, and arts & culture partners to provide a new care model for today’s healthcare challenges. If you’re an arts or cultural organization — or a practicing artist — you likely know first hand what has been true since the beginning of civilization — art heals. Art Pharmacy exists to make that a reality in the US healthcare system.
Art Pharmacy is a mission-driven organization consisting of artists, healthcare innovators, non-profit veterans, social justice advocates, public health researchers, teachers, technologists, and business people. Every team member at Art Pharmacy can personally attest to the role of arts and culture in improving their own health.
Art Pharmacy is incorporated as SocialRx Inc in Delaware, is based in Atlanta and has a presence nationwide.
Art Pharmacy is an ecosystem builder, meaning we work with state organizations, health insurers, care providers, health systems, universities, and governmental bodies to create the ecosystem where patients can access care through the arts. We believe there is mutual benefit to be realized when uncommon partners align around shared goals.
The care model that Art Pharmacy uses is called social prescribing. Social prescribing is a model of addressing patients’ health and well-being by prescribing non-clinical, community-based activities and resources to support social connection, improve health and well-being, and address patients’ social determinants of health. Social prescribing can be initiated by any member of an individual’s care team and need not be done exclusively by physicians. While care providers have always made community referrals, social prescribing is a system of care that emerged in the 1990s in countries with national health systems (UK, Australia, Canada) as a proven method for addressing patients’ physical and mental health in an integrated fashion.