Healing, Bridging, Thriving

I was so honored and privileged to attend the National Endowment for the Arts’ Healing, Bridging, Thriving summit yesterday in DC. The convening was a deeply inspiring call to action with so many fantastic folks sharing their perspectives and experiences doing meaningful work in their communities. Kentucky was even repped up on the big stage with the ever thoughtful Alex Gibson.

I was particularly struck by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy who was ringing the alarm bell about about the epidemic of loneliness in America. It was a good reminder that there is no one better positioned to tackle this crisis than artists and culture bearers.

Building social cohesion is a critical aspect of strengthening civic health. It has always been an implicit part of our work at CivicLex, but yesterday made me really think that we need to be much more explicit about it and that we should start making combatting loneliness a goal inside that work. It also made me think about how we can bring the expertise of our community’s artists to bear on this issue.

I’m so excited to go back home with so many ideas for how we can tackle this challenge and so many more in Lexington.

Big congrats to Jamie Bennett, Jen Hughes, and so many other folks who made this beautiful day possible.

It was also just so great to see so many old friends from across the country that I haven’t seen since the ArtPlace days! I miss seeing y’all all the time!

I know this is not an original thought, but the convening was also such a reminder of what a gift we have in having Maria Rosario Jackson as NEA chair. My goodness.