Howard County arts and health leaders generally agree that creative expression - be it painting, poetry, dance or theater - can offer significant physical and psychological benefits.

The question is in how to get the biggest health payoff from investments in the creative arts.

With that challenge in mind, the Horizon Foundation, a 3-year-old nonprofit foundation established to promote good health in Howard, commissioned a $40,000 study of how the arts are being used to promote good health elsewhere.

The results are back and now the foundation and the Howard County Arts Council hope to use the 135-page report's findings to help direct future spending on the arts in the county.

The arts council's board of directors says its health and wellness program will likely take the form of a grant committee that will disburse funds to beneficial programs. The council already gives out about $380,000 in grants annually.

The information in the report will be used in other ways, too, according to Colleen West, the council's executive director. The findings will be valuable in educating potential partners, guiding program development and securing more funding, she said.

The council already sponsors several projects - such as No Boundaries theater group for developmentally disabled people and the Fabulous 50+ Players, which performs in hospitals and nursing homes - that fall under the heading of therapeutic arts.

"We're already practicing what we preach," West said. "We're just hoping to build a more formal program."

Finding funding

Creating an arts program solely dedicated to health and wellness requires capital, though, and the council is hoping to get it from Horizon, which has given $20,000 to the Fabulous 50+ Players during the past two years.

West submitted a $30,000 grant request to Horizon, which typically doesn't hear from arts organizations. The money would go toward the establishment of a planning committee.

Horizon President Richard Krieg said he has seen how the arts benefit at-risk kids in inner-city schools, which is one of the reasons he called for the study.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that getting the grant is a sure thing.

"I very much applaud the work that the council does," Krieg said. "But we received 72 other proposals in this one grant cycle. That's the most we've ever gotten. We have to look at all the grants that come in and make a decision. ... In the worst-case scenario, the [council] would have to wait until next year or the future."

Krieg said the Horizon board will vote on the grant next month, and that it has plans for the findings in the report regardless of its relationship with the arts council.

"What I think this report will do is provide a useful roadmap to the kinds of things that have worked elsewhere," he said. "We'll see how it plays out in the months ahead."

Study results

The study looked at nine model programs across the country that have been successful in addressing issues identified as Howard County priorities: youth, aging and community cohesion.

Projects studied included Chicago's Teen Street, which promotes literacy, social skills and positive lifestyles through theater; Brooklyn's Elders Share the Arts, which transforms life's stories into dramatic, visual or literary presentations; and Philadelphia's Village of Arts and Humanities, through which residents rebuild neglected spaces.

Based on these case studies, recommendations were made for starting similar projects here. Among them are:

Creating long-term arts partnerships with organizations such as hospitals, senior centers and schools.

Establishing an advisory group of arts and health representatives.

Establishing resource and training centers for arts and health professionals.