Inspiring healthy communities through art and youth empowerment

Art over time has always been a medium that allows us to tell stories, challenge perspectives, and understand histories, whether through cave paintings, historical murals, intimate portraits, or abstract geometry. Art uniquely can blend fact and emotions, and often offers perspectives that other storytelling mediums cannot always capture. This ability to give empathy for experiences we haven’t personally gone through, thinking of the world in a different way, makes art a powerful tool to convey narratives about ourselves, our community, and core issues to our society like our health.

While health encompasses a huge continuum from personal, to community, physical to mental, we can use art to communicate valuable messages that can transcend cultural and political divides. Its real impact on health through spurring empathy for others, bringing new perspectives highlighting unique experiences, creating awareness of issues to unite people, and ultimately inspire change, can be powerful tool to realize a society where everyone can lead their healthiest life.

It also shouldn’t be lost that there are also intrinsic health benefits to art. When processing and navigating having a serious illness, and the weighty and challenging emotions that might bring creation or appreciation of art can help promote holistic wellness and serve as motivation to overcome that challenge. Including the arts in health care delivery has been shown to support positive clinical outcomes for patients, positively impacting healthcare providers, as well as offering validation and healing to the wider community.

This background emphasizes why the unique Teen Perspectives collaboration at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) can be so impactful. The program gives high school students the opportunity to explore health at the intersection of equity in their communities through the medium of art. Currently in its fourth year, Teen Perspectives empowers youth to reflect on their community’s health inequities, trauma, and with its connection to the soon to be open Giants exhibition- to celebrate Black joy. Such reflections will result in inspiring and original art that can offer new perspectives, enable healing, and expand the aperture of what health is to ultimately create healthier communities. During the seven-week program, 18 students were mentored by local teaching artists and mentors including Leslie Barlow, Kprecia Ambers, Akiko Ostlund, Lisse Karpeh, and others. The focus this year will see students explored topics related to mental health and wellbeing, drawing on their own lived experiences when creating artwork.

The Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys (the Deans), which is coming to Mia on March 8^th, is serving as inspiration for Teen Perspectives, but is on its own an internationally recognized and renowned collection that celebrates Black excellence and demonstrates how art can inspire societal change. Giants explores themes of Black identity, resilience, and creativity through a range of media. Works by Derrick Adams, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Arthur Jafa, and Meleko Mokgosi — whose largest-ever painting is included in the display — will be shown alongside extraordinary portraits by Toyin Ojih Odutola and iconic photographs by Gordon Parks. The exhibition also includes ephemera and objects from the Deans’ personal lives that reflect their diverse interests and deep involvement in both music and the visual arts. The Deans have long been celebrated not only for their music but also for their dedication to the arts. As collectors, their Dean Collection champions Black visual artists worldwide, contributing to a vital conversation about the global impact of Black art. “Giants” reflects their passion for supporting established and emerging artists while fostering important dialogues about art, culture, identity, and community.

For the high school participants, the exhibit is a source of strength and motivation for students as they used mixed media including paintings, drawings, and sewing to reimagine a healthier future for their families and communities. Using a multi-generational approach, bringing professional artists and youth together to engage in creative storytelling through art is a provoking way to inspire and positively transform health.

You can see both exhibitions at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in the coming weeks and months.

Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys

March 8, 2025 – July 13, 2025
Target Galleries
General Admission $20; Contributor Member+ Free (additional tickets $16); Youth 17 and under Free

Exhibition Title: Teen Perspectives: Minneapolis as Monument

Dates: May 10, 2025 – July 20, 2025

Location: Katherine Kierland Herberger Gallery, First Floor, Minneapolis Institute of Art

Cost: Free