Health

After food, water and shelter the basic need is  for medicine. After medicine comes morale. Connections have been made between the arts and preventive medicine. Creativity is linked to longevity. And when people are ill, the arts can lift their spirits.

ArtVenture identifies organisations working through the arts in hospitals, hospices, children's and old people's homes and addiction clinics. Most institutional settings are intolerably gloomy or depressing. Having things to look at and listen to allow the imagination to escape the confines of a damaged and institutionalised body and mind.

Visitors who know how to entertain are even more welcome than those who demonstrate concern. People need something other than illness or confinement to talk about. Recorded music, films and books can also ease discomfort or feelings of hopelessness.

Hundreds of thousands of children are institutionalised and millions more have been orphaned, especially in Africa, as a consequence of HIV/AIDS. The arts can provide a conduit of hope and happiness for these children. ArtVenture also seeks creative approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention such as participatory learning programmes in Zimbabwe which work with dance, drama and music to address, empower and educate on HIV/AIDS.

There are fruitful grant-making opportunities in therapeutic fields such as grief counseling. For people who find it difficult to express their feelings through words, the language of art provides a non-verbal means of communication. An example is a programme in Mindanao, the Phillippines, where through drawing and painting, children affected by conflict can express themselves.