Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network works to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers. Read more about us.

Young white man in a U.S. Army uniform sits outside playing a guitar.

Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network

Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs that seeks to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers.

Creative Forces places creative arts therapies at the core of patient-centered care at clinical sites throughout the country, including telehealth services, and increases access to community arts activities to promote health, well-being, and quality of life for military service members, veterans, and their families and caregivers. Creative Forces is managed in partnership with Civic Arts, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, and Mid-America Arts Alliance.

Learn more about Creative Forces
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Healing the Invisible Wounds of War

Creative Forces: Healing the Invisible Wounds of War was an interactive online exhibition of 45 pieces of visual art, music, and performances by military service members and veterans who are current or former participants in the Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network.

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Creative Forces programs

A white male with short brown hair wearing a Marines military uniform seated while holding a paintbrush and painting.

Clinical Program

The Creative Forces Clinical Program brings creative arts therapies to military patients and veterans who are receiving care at Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs facilities across the nation.
A group of performers on an outdoor stage. Eight people are standing with their hands or first in the air while two men kneel beside a performer in a wheelchair.

Community Engagement Program

The Creative Forces Community Engagement Program supports community-based programs and activities that enable military-connected people to experience and create art.
A dance therapist and her patient are shown walking in profile in a clinic. The patient has an artificial leg and is wearing black shorts.

Impact

Across our programs, Creative Forces invests in research and evaluation to understand the impacts and benefits of creative arts therapies and community engagement opportunities for military-connected people.

New clinical report

Research on the use of creative arts therapies for military and veteran populations shows promise for improving a variety of factors and outcomes. Our new report, “Clinical Research Priorities for Creative Arts Therapies Addressing Service Members and Veterans with TBI and Associated Psychological Health Conditions,” is intended to serve as a planning tool for military and creative arts therapies in military and veteran populations. It identifies potential civilian researchers and clinicians who wish to study the efficacy and impact of topics for research and provides resources and actions to support that research

The focus areas include:

  • Cognition
  • Emotion regulation
  • Functional activity
  • Opioids and other substance use
  • Pain
  • Trauma exposure
  • Suicide

Later this spring Creative Forces will host a webinar exploring the positive impact
of creative arts therapies on health and well-being. Stay tuned for an event
announcement in the coming weeks!

Read the report
A collection of military memorabilia, patches, and medals sits on a white shelf. One patch reads Puget Sound Honor Flight, another says Improvise Adapt Overcome. A framed photo of two people is in the background.

Path with Art: Reimagining a Way Forward

From singing to visual art, veterans use creative expression to transform their lives

Path with Art, a nonprofit organization in Seattle, Washington and a 2022 Creative Forces Community Engagement grant recipient, helps veterans find a way forward through creative expression.

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