CANVAS, PBS NewsHour’s art hub, reports that “about half of the nation’s hospitals include arts programming, and the trend appears to be growing.” Project Knitwell is proud to be a leader in arts in health from the early days when Carol Caparosa worked with patients and caregivers at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital.
This PBS Newshour segment, Artists work next to doctors to help with healing in hospitals, covers how those facing stressful circumstances can benefit from engaging creatively. The rhythmic motion and portable nature of knitting in particular makes it ideal. The program highlights the well known Center for Arts in Medicine program at the University of Florida, where Director Jill Sonke works closely with artists at the UF Health Shands Hospital. An interesting highlight is at (5:55) where they talk about arts being part of a “social prescription.”
Lauren Brennan, PK’s Executive Director, will participate in the Creating Healthy Communities program at the UF Arts in Health starting in August. The program should allow Project Knitwell to partner and collaborate with top notch researchers and artists. Read more about the initiative here.