14 NOVEMBER 6-12, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | and engaging with art — can contribute to positive changes in the health and well-being of adults,” says Heather Nielsen, deputy direc- tor and chief learning and engagement offi cer at the DAM. “It was natural for us to partner with the Flourishing Through the Arts and Science programming, given our alignment around how critical art and creativity are for a healthy and thriving community.” On Thursday, November 6, the CU An- schutz Medical Campus will open the initia- tive with a tour of Dr. S. Abbas Shobeiri’s art exhibition, Do You See Me? The Art of Mater- nal Pelvic Health, Healing, and Advocacy, as well as a panel discussion, “Harnessing the Arts to Promote Wellness.” Later, partici- pants can tour the art collection at Benson Hotel, “a wonderful example of what hotel art should be doing,” Robinson says. The Denver Art Museum will host “Arts & Whole Person Health: Prescriptions for the Future,” an introduction to neuroarts by Emmeline Edwards, research director for Neuroarts Blueprint, along with a creative arts therapy storytelling demonstration. That will be followed by a reception at Gallery 1261. And that’s just the fi rst day of the pro- gramming. “Our last event is going to be an inter- disciplinary experience for the audience at the Denver Art Museum on November 16,” Robinson notes. “We’re going to have three different paintings that will also be in the Flourishing exhibition at Gallery 1261. They will be the subject of this guided experience.” The paintings will be displayed one at a time, as a pianist and dancers from Colorado Ballet respond to the visual art with music and dance; audience members will be given materials to sketch their reaction. “They can write down thoughts, words, they can draw, they can do any kind of reaction they’re having to the art experience,” Robinson says. “And then at the end of the hour and a half, if people would like to, they can leave those papers that they’ve sketched on, and the art museum is going to put them all together in a big collage.” Robinson would like to see Flourishing Through the Arts and Science become a regular part of Denver Arts Week, with more events added every year. “I really, truly believe that we need to resurrect the term ‘patron of the arts,’” Rob- inson says. “It has such a stodgy old name that was connected with wealth, when in fact I want to invite the public to realize we are all patrons of the arts to some extent, when we read a book, when we watch a movie. I want to turn it on its head and stop thinking about the arts as this orphan silo or aside of life, when the arts are central to the lives of every person...or should be.” While engaging with the arts can promote mental and physical health, Robinson notes that it is also a way to bring communities to- gether, which benefi ts social health. “One of the biggest issues we see today is that people are so increasingly isolated and lonely,” she says. “The arts bring us together; they also allow us to express ourselves so that we don’t act out in ways that are violent or unhealthy.” The DAM and other local arts institutions plan to continue their health-related art programming, like Mindful Looking, which invites art museum visitors to slow down and spend time with a single work of art on the third Tuesday of each month. “Savoring and mindfulness are essential qualities to promoting positive well-being, and muse- ums like the DAM have built programs that utilize meditation and mindfulness as a way to engage with works of art,” Nielsen says. Artists have enjoyed the benefi ts of be- ing creative for centuries, and now science is confi rming the real ways that interacting with and making art can improve physical and mental health — whether it’s doodling in your notebook, turning the radio on or danc- ing in your living room. “The arts are like ex- ercise and diet,” Robinson says. “They need to be incorporated into our daily rituals.” Flourishing Through the Arts and Science runs from November 6-16; get the full schedule on windowstothedivine.org. For the Denver Arts Week calendar, go to visitdenver.com/denver- arts-week/events. Culture continued from page 12 “Winter Sunset Bear Creek” by Dan Sprick will be one of the paintings in the DAM fi nale event on November 16. Shannon Robinson is the Flourishing Through the Arts and Science Council’s chairperson. COURTESY OF SHANNON ROBINSON COURTESY OF SHANNON ROBINSON ......... ........ ................. .................... .................... ................... ........ .................... ........................ ......... .... .... ..... ..... ..... ..... . ............ ................. ............... ..... .............. ............. ...................... ..... .... .
