Blog / 2025 / What’s the Matter with Us?

I was in a room with five hundred people, and everyone there believed that art matters.

It sounds like a dream, I know, but it really happened! For people who work in other fields—and especially in industries like finance or construction where the money really flows—the idea that hundreds of people agree on the importance of what they’re doing isn’t anything new, but, when it comes to art, those of us who champion it are generally fewer and further between. That’s what made the Creating Healthy Communities Convening event so special.

This gathering brought together artists with those working in public health to imagine a world where art’s ability to heal is taken seriously.

The researchers at the conference gave me hope, with one presenting the finding that, in a nationwide sample of over ten thousand people, 96% agree that arts participation builds wellbeing in their community and 90% say they want to participate more in the arts for their own wellbeing. The researcher pointed out that it’s unusual for people to be so obviously united on any question, and the fact that it’s art that creates this consensus pleases me deeply.

Through the talks, I also learned that art is a human right, as proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms adopted by the UN in 1948. Article 27 reads:

“Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”

It seems impossible that I didn’t know this—that nowhere in my years of schooling and reading about art did this come up. It may be that I wasn’t ready to hear that the world recognizes art’s value until now, in middle age, after years of advocating for art on my own. However it happened, I’m glad to know it now.

I’m relieved to hear that public health researchers are, as Dr. Kate Mulligan of the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing puts it, working to shift our focus away from “what’s the matter with us?” to “what matters to us?”

I got a stunning glimpse of that last week at the library in my tiny town, where paintings from Everything’s Fine are currently on display along with coloring pages from the project that have been filled in beautifully by my community. The Lambertville Free Public Library threw a reception for the work that included a coloring social, and both the LFPL and I were awed when colorers packed the room.

I know that people like coloring: it’s why I turned the paintings into a coloring book. But being in the room with a group of humans who were each making the images their own brought the project full circle, especially since the writers’ group that helped me make this project happen used to meet in that very same room!

It’s also been fun to note that, so far, this coloring page has been the most popular at the library, with the stack of skeletons being the page that I’ve needed to replenish most consistently.

I recognize that its appeal may wane as we move out of the spooky season, but it delights me to see how people choose to bring color to this bony figure and its background.

Back when I was designing it at the beginning of last year, I worried it would be too fussy and not very fun to color in.

I’m glad to see I was wrong, and it makes me think of the beauty of Halloween more generally.

In Lambertville, we take our demonic decorating very seriously—I wrote about just how seriously in an article for a local news blog earlier this month.

This creativity spreads from neighbor to neighbor as residents are inspired by each other to produce ever more elaborate displays, and I’ve always thought that it’s part of what makes my tiny town so strong. Since meeting Dr. Mulligan and the many other public health researchers who presented at Creating Healthy Communities Convening, I now know there are numbers to back that up!