ArtsRx
Art + Wellness Initiative > ArtsRx
Engaging students in arts experiences to impact wellbeing.
ArtsRx is an arts prescribing initiative, and part of Arts NC State’s Art + Wellness Research Collective.
As an upstream mental health intervention, NC State full-time students can self-prescribe an arts engagement wellness offering by selecting from ArtsRx programming offered at the Crafts Center and at various Arts NC State exhibitions and performances.
Browse the ArtsRx experiences available this semester
Dates, times and locations will be shared after you self-prescribe.
As of October 12, these classes have openings:
Physical Comedy Workshop with Lamar Whidbee: 10/27 at 6 pm
Join ArtsRx Fellow Lamar Whidbee on Tuesday, October 27 in Thompson Hall room 150 from 6pm to 7:30 pm for Physical Comedy Workshop by University Theatre. The workshop includes gaffs, sight gags, takes, and general tomfoolery! The safe approach to creating comedy through physicality. Come dressed to move and preferably to work with bare feet. No experience required, and it’s open to everyone. This workshop allows for a focus on being present in your body, utilizing physical movement as stress relief, and a venue for socialization, fun, and play!
Guided Tour and Meditation with Maya Freelon and Arienna Whittick: 10/29 at 3 pm
Join ArtsRx Student Fellow Arienna Whittick to share in a meditative experience offered by artist Maya Freelon for an immersive gallery tour of Grounded, exploring the evolution of her work, creative practice, and the Freelon lineage and legacy. Through conversation, “slow looking”, gentle movement, awareness, and discovery, participants will engage with the textures, colors, materials, and memories embedded in Freelon’s work.
Painting with Purpose Class with Lamar Whidbee: 10/31 at 1 pm
Join ArtsRx Fellow, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, and PhD candidate Lamar Whidbee in a journaling and painting class to improve self-talk and self-regulation using the miracle question: “If you woke up in the morning and anything could be different in your life, what would it be?” This session is solution focused: What is the present issue? How did we get there? Where are we going? Come paint with purpose!
Mixed Media Journal Collaging with Kiki Salata: 11/4 at 12 pm
Unwind, tap into your creativity, and make a customized journal that is uniquely yours. In this hands-on mindful collage workshop, you will transform a composition notebook into a personal work of art using materials from various magazines and scrap paper! Whether you’re here to find a little peace of mind, zone out with some scissors and glue, or just make something cool, there’s a place for everyone!
Fighting, Falling Down and Running Into Things: A Combat Workshop with Darcy Schueler: 11/5 at 6 pm
Join ArtsRx Fellow Darcy Schueler on Thursday, November 5 in Thompson Hall room 150 from 6pm to 8pm for Fighting, Falling Down and Running Into Things. University Theatre Fight Directors Heather Strickland and Danica Jackson will show you the basics of unarmed stage combat, including safety protocols, tips and tricks, and best practices for maintaining good form in a variety of styles. This workshop allows for a focus on being present in your body, utilizing physical movement as stress relief, and a venue for socialization while you learn the magic and illusions of stage combat!
ArtsRx programming has been demonstrated to impact wellness by improving participants’ positive emotions, engagement, and sense of belonging, purpose, and accomplishment. Additionally, Arts NC State collaborates with student-facing units, such as NC State’s Counseling Center, so that students can be referred to ArtsRx programming.
Arts NC State provides students with arts engagement that will improve student mental health outcomes, as assessed through an adapted PERMA+ survey administered at the end of each ArtsRx session. The PERMA+ instrument measures positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment.
Student mental health data
Arts engagement has been proven to be an effective intervention to improve student mental health. Improvement in key areas like loneliness, isolation, stress, anxiety, and depression. (SocialRx 2025)
60% of college students currently meet the criteria for at least one mental health challenge
90% of counseling center directors report a significant rise in students seeking support services
39% of students report having experienced loneliness within the previous day
The Crafts Center will be the permanent site for ArtsRx
ArtsRx is an intervention that uses the arts as a vehicle for therapeutic impacts inherent in arts engagement.
The effects of arts engagement on mental health and wellbeing is widely studied, well researched, and indicates positive effects on personal development and growth, and sense of happiness and satisfaction with life (see NORC’s “Outcomes of Arts Engagement for Individuals and Communities”).