About

Overview

With the goal of advancing community-based health resilience, Health & Arts Community Collaboratory uses the arts to foreground community perspectives and engage audiences in new ways of seeing (and feeling) what it means to be well. Students and faculty in the fields of art and nursing collaborate in applying photography, storytelling, and curation to create interactive exhibitions that foster campus and community dialogues.

Frameworks

Building Health Resilience Reflections on Care Consciousness and Community Exhibition at CCP 2025

Every region has unique health resilience challenges. HACC is based in the southwest region of the United Stated near the U.S.-Mexico border where there are escalating environmental challenges—extreme heat, water scarcity, and rapid urbanization—that disproportionately harm vulnerable populations. Health resilience will require a healthcare workforce that is not only technically skilled, but also socially aware, and deeply connected to their communities. HACC offers an innovative model of workforce development, interdepartmental and interinstitutional collaboration, and arts in health.

Photo by Mikyla Leigh De Alba

Public Programming

The arts are a powerful facilitator for communication, education, and healing. Leading medical and nursing programs now integrate arts-based learning because it is effective in developing empathy, the ability to understand and manage emotions, as well as observation and communication skills essential for compassionate and effective care.

VR virtual reality exhibtion Building Health Resilience Reflections on Care Consciousness CCP 2025 (500 x 400 px)

Health & Arts Community Collaboratory aims to improve lives locally and globally through meaningful application of the arts to public health discourse and professional healthcare education.

Meet the Team

The team leading this project is interdisciplinary. It combines socially engaged arts practices and museum studies with nursing. Amy Kraehe, Carissa DiCindio, and Denisse Brito of Arizona Arts bring decades of experience in curating and producing inclusive exhibitions, tours, and participatory community engagements. Tarnia Newton from College of Nursing and Lisa Kiser from the Zuckerman College of Public Health contribute their expertise in healthcare and innovative education to enrich the project, focusing on community engagement in under-resourced borderland regions.

Denisse Brito

Center for Creative Photography

Carissa DiCindio, PhD

College of Fine Arts

Lisa Kiser, DNP, CNM, WHNP

Zuckerman College of Public Health

Amy Kraehe, PhD

Arizona Arts

Tarnia Newton, DNP, FNP-C

College of Nursing

Health & Arts Community Collaborative Is an innovation of Health Sciences and Arizona Arts divisions at the University of Arizona with support from international partners and local collaborators.

Partners

Nursing professors from Universidad De Sonora (UNISON) in Hermosillo, Mexico and Instituto Interamericano de Educación Superior para la Salud (IIESS) in Guaymas, Mexico, facilitate the exchange for nursing students from Mexico, enriching the dialogue and enhancing the experiential learning for all participants.