12 NOVEMBER 6-12, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | A Healthy Appreciation of Creativity DENVER ARTS WEEK WILL NOURISH BODY AND SOUL WITH NEW PROGRAMMING. BY KRISTEN FIORE Denver’s outdoorsy culture encourages a healthy lifestyle, with plenty of opportunities for hiking, biking and eating balanced meals. But even some of this town’s biggest fi tness fanatics might not realize that you can also feed yourself with the arts. No, really. It’s been scientifi cally proven that making and engaging with art can re- duce stress, improve cognitive function, help manage chronic pain, lower blood pressure and much more. Take a bite out of that, or at least try a sample at this year’s Denver Arts Week, which has added “Art & Well-Being” as a pillar of the nineteenth annual celebra- tion of the city’s cultural scene. “As a city defi ned by health and wellness through outdoor adventure and mindful liv- ing, Denver also recognizes arts and culture as a vital part of community wellbeing,” says Caroline Campbell, communications manager for Visit Denver, which organizes Denver Arts Week. “It aims to build new audiences for local artists, galleries, muse- ums, theaters and cultural venues by offering special programming and free or discounted admission, so everyone can experience in- credible arts and culture across the city.” From November 7 through November 16, Denver Arts Week will highlight more than 600 events representing nearly 220 participating organiza- tions. Several of those events are part of a program called “Flourishing Through the Arts and Science,” and Shannon Robinson, who started that initiative, hopes that the new focus will lead to more awareness, improved arts funding, and maybe even policy changes regarding arts education. “We’ve fallen into this myth that the arts are a luxury, not a necessity,” Robinson says. “It’s always the very fi rst thing that gets cut.” She’s not wrong. Earlier this year, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities rescinded grants around the country as the agencies were order to redirect their focus under the Trump administration. As a result, more than twenty Colorado arts organizations lost over $400,000 as large chunks of the more than $11 million that would have been awarded to Colorado Humanities and other state cultural organizations, such as universi- ties and museums, suddenly disappeared. Meanwhile, new research is showing just how important the arts are. “We’re wired for the arts, the arts are good for us, and the arts are perhaps one of the most powerful modes of promoting physical, mental, social and spiritual health,” Robinson says. “I’m hoping that this will radically change the dialogue about arts when it comes to public funding, provision of arts in health care and our artists who need to be supported.” She points to research outlined in the 2023 book Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Trans- form Us, by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, as well as the rapidly developing fi eld of neuro- arts, which studies how the arts change our brains, behaviors and bodies in benefi cial ways. Robinson recounts how opera singer Renée Fleming underwent MRI scans while singing, speaking and imagining singing – all while researchers watched her brain light up. The study showed that her brain was most activated while she was singing. Because music activates so many parts of the brain, music therapy can often be benefi cial for people with Alzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Art therapy has been shown to improve cognitive function, reduce stress and aid in confl ict resolution, according to Husson University. More than 50 percent of U.S. hos- pitals now offer arts programming, and that percentage is rising, according to Americans for the Arts. The Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab is a multi-disciplinary group of researchers, doctors, artists and therapists conducting research with the University of Colorado An- schutz Medical Campus, the Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Lighthouse Writers Workshop and the NEA to explore the psychological benefi ts of creative arts in Colorado. According to research in the National Library of Medicine by Frontiers in Psy- chology, dance and movement therapy was found to decrease depression and anxiety and increase quality of life and cognitive and motor skills. When its expansion is completed early next year, Denver’s Cleo Parker Robinson Dance will feature a healing arts center with a theater, movement studios, multidisciplinary arts classrooms and more. “Right now, the research resides within the halls of academia, laboratories, and it’s exploding in health-care facilities around the world,” Robinson says. “All this research is affecting architecture, art therapy programs and art in public spaces. But we want to make sure that everybody, not just people who happen to be in health-care facilities or patients or staff, knows about it.” Through the nonprofi t she founded in 1999, Windows to the Divine, Robinson’s been gathering research about the health benefi ts of the arts and sharing that information. Last November, Windows to the Divine hosted a salon on the health benefi ts of the arts at Gal- lery 1261, where several organizations offered presentations before an enthusiastic audience. As a result, Robinson says, she created the Flourishing Through the Arts and Science council “so we can have all these represen- tatives involved, and try to initiate a series of events on a city-wide basis and con- vert this to a public health initiative.” Chaired by Robinson, the council includes artist rep- resentative Jane Hunt and representatives from the Art Students League of Denver, Colorado Ballet, the Denver Art Museum, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Gallery 1261, CU An- schutz Center for Bioethics and Humanities, Visit Denver and Windows to the Divine. Many of these organizations will offer free lectures, presentations, performances, exhibi- tions, tours and more as part of the Flourishing programming during Denver Arts Week. “Studies show that regular arts participa- tion — both making CULTURE continued on page 14 KEEP UP ON DENVER ARTS AND CULTURE AT WESTWORD.COM/ARTS “Movements” by Quang Ho and “A Sweeping Western Light” by Jane Hunt will be two of the paintings in the DAM fi nale event on November 16. MONIKA SWIDERSKI COURTESY OF SHANNON ROBINSON
