For most people, the link between the arts and health is a crooked line, but take a closer look and you can find many examples of the arts playing a role in health and well-being. This idea, “Incorporating the Arts to Improve the Health and Wellbeing of Washington, D.C.,” is what brought out community leaders and clinicians to the 6th Annual Rodham Institute Summit.
“One of the reasons we decided to choose ‘Incorporating the Arts to Improve the Health and Wellbeing of Washington, D.C.’ as the theme of this year’s summit is that the arts have really been the glue that binds our society together. The arts are really who we are as human beings,” explained Jehan “Gigi” El-Bayoumi, MD, RESD ’88, professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and founding director of the Rodham Institute.
The 2019 event was held in the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center and live-streamed by online health resource publication BlackDoctor.org. More than a dozen members of local organizations kicked off the daylong summit, with each giving brief presentations or performances on how they are incorporating music, dance, art, and storytelling into their community health and engagement efforts.
