To celebrate Arts & Health Antigonish (AHA!) in November, 2013, AHA! launched a special fund, with a particular focus on those with ongoing illnesses and disabilities. Starting with a gift of $25,000, the AHA! Fund is intended as start-up monies for artists and health care workers to unite their efforts in giving the creative arts their appropriate complimentary place in the individual and collective healing of the body, mind, and soul of our community.
AHA! and GASHA have already launched a new artist-in-residence program at St. Martha’s Hospital, through the activities of Tom Curry, a music therapist, and Noella Murphy, a visual and performance artist. This initiative has been received with enthusiasm by St Martha’s patients, families and staff alike. We hope and believe that the steady growth of the AHA! Fund will allow a constant expansion of creative arts initiatives within our larger community, and lead to growing recognition of the many ways in which the arts can complement today’s medical and nursing care.