(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Mason Gross School of the Arts (MGSA) has received the largest gift in its 49-year history—an anonymous $8.8 million gift to support the school's ongoing Arts in Health initiatives. The gift will fund programming and endow a new faculty chair in Arts in Health, thus ensuring long-term stability for these initiatives.

MGSA’s Arts in Health efforts launched in 2023 with the Arts in Health Research Lab, a collaborative partnership with the Rutgers School of Public Health (SPH) and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC). The mission of the Arts in Health Research Lab is to support arts in health research, education, community development, and interdisciplinary partnerships to improve individual and community well-being and health outcomes.

Other MGSA Arts in Health initiatives include an undergraduate-level Arts in Health interdisciplinary course and a popular and free Rutgers–NB Chancellor-funded arts and well-being program called Scarlet Arts Rx, a partnership between MGSA and the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP). Scarlet Arts Rx educates and involves GSAPP students in arts prescribing and collaborates with dozens of campus partners to offer free and varied arts programming that aims to address multiple dimensions of student well-being.

Jason Geary, dean of Mason Gross School of the Arts and Senior Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives, says this gift could help Mason Gross emerge as a global leader in a burgeoning discipline.

While institutions such as the University of Florida and the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins have instituted arts-in-health programs, Geary says, “we have the unique opportunity to chart a path forward that encompasses both the visual and the performing arts while ensuring that a practice-oriented approach to the arts remains at the forefront of our endeavors. Such an approach will ensure that our focus remains on creating curricular and engagement opportunities for our students that are grounded in their creative practice and that offer innovative career pathways combining arts and wellness with a community orientation.”

The MGSA Arts in Health initiatives such as the Arts in Health Research Lab, Scarlet Arts Rx, and the undergraduate course draw on research establishing a connection between arts experiences and well-being. A recent report from the National Endowment for the Arts found that “adults who attended live arts events were less likely than non-arts attendees to report feeling more acute levels of loneliness,” and the National Library of Medicine reported similar findings for adolescents aged 11 to 21.

Or, as one Rutgers–NB student reported after participating in Scarlet Arts Rx activities: “[Scarlet Arts Rx is] . . . genuinely the love of my life right now . . . It’s not a stretch to say that the painting/drawing events I’ve been going to are all that’s keeping me from crashing out. Being able to put work aside and just create art is such a de-stressor for me. It makes me realize that there is a beautiful world beyond my worries.”