Noma Art Group

As we actively emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, poor and low-income Americans are experiencing worsening mental health due to the intensifying of social failures like food, housing, and job insecurity, and growing domestic and social violence. In 2020, the international non-governmental organization (NGO) Human Rights Watch reported that Covid in the US “put a spotlight on economic inequalities and a fragile social safety net that leaves vulnerable communities to bear the economic brunt of the crisis…”. Many residents of Broome County, NY, a region with higher rates of the aforementioned social failures than the state and the country at large, must sacrifice their mental well-being while dealing with the incredibly stressful realities of economic marginalization. I proposed Saturday art groups at North of Main Streat (NoMa) Community Center in downtown Binghamton as a creative challenge to the health-jeopardizing realities of economic marginalization in a pandemic context. I argue these groups contribute to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of health which extends far past freedom from sickness to include the essentiality of mental and social well-being. Here, WHO acknowledges the essentiality of mental health in our understanding and treatment of health in its entirety. When discussing the inextricable link between arts and human well-being, WHO says “In recent decades, we have come to understand the intrinsic health benefits to artistic and leisure activities…Benefits are seen across several markers, including health promotion, the management of health conditions and illness, and disease prevention.” Research performed by European Office for the WHO concluded that one’s interaction with different modes of art carries the potential to positively impact both mental and physical health. With the guidance and support of the incredibly gracious Brandy Brown, NoMa’s coordinator, and one particularly committed Binghamton University (BU) first-year Chloe Nestro, we facilitated Saturday art groups at NoMa from 12:30-2 pm.

“Life is what happens while you’re busy planning”. I set out with this codified plan of having 12 volunteers. I ended up with one consistent one besides myself, and a second, less frequent, one. I would measure my community impact through participant return and self-administered surveys. Many of the participants were children and thus both aspects became relatively untenable. Although I had this plan, what materialized was far from it. To that end, we undoubtedly created a space where folks of all ages, even though our primary participants were children, embraced their creativity in the company of others. Further, I continually watched the palpable act of community building as participants would open up to each other about themselves while creating art.

Kimberly and Cadence, a dynamic sister duo, were walked into NoMa by their grandmother. Chloe welcomed them excitedly as I made a cup of coffee—light, but not too light—for grandma. The smiles beaming from this family were infectious. Kim and Cadence, both under the age of 10, were so eager to create with us. We were happy to spend time with them, learn about new school year drama, talk about how Cadence got her name because her father is a drummer, and paint pictures of food we had cut out of magazines. As grandma accessed the free food at the weekly food drive, we got to spend time with her girls making art. This experience captures what this art class has been and will continue to be: a space to create yet also so much more.

References:

1. Human Rights Watch, US: Address impact of Covid-19 on Poor; March, 19 2020; https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/19/us-address-impact-covid-19-poor
2. Feeding America, Map the Meal Gap; https://map.feedingamerica.org/county/2018/overall/
3. World Health Organization. Initiatives- Arts and Health; https://www.who.int/initiatives/arts-and-health
4. World Health Organization, Daisy Fancourt and Saoirse Finn, Health Evidence Network Synthesis