navigate: home: magazine: fall 2003: article

Arts-based outreach project brings community together
Dr. Susan Hutchinson (left), Penn State; Elaine Burns (center), Community Action Commission, Harrisburg; and Dr. Samuel F. Dennis Jr., Penn State, participate in the South Allison Hill Community Mural Kick-off. Photos by Ermyn King —Arts and Health Outreach Initiative	Residents of the South Allison Hill community of Harrisburg, Pa., came together in May to celebrate the cultural diversity of their neighborhood, thanks to the efforts of Penn State faculty members, their students and members of the community. The South Allison Hill Community Mural Kick-off was an outreach project stimulated through the Arts and Health Outreach Initiative (AHOI) and supported by the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Recreation Management and other sponsors.   According to Dr. Susan Hutchinson, assistant professor of hotel, restaurant and recreation management in the College of Health and Human Development, who planned the festival with students in her new Community-based Multicultural Event Planning service-learning course, in collaboration with community members, “All involved were elated by the community-building impacts of using the arts and culture as event-organizing principles.”   The festival also showcased the KidSpace park developed in conjunction with neighborhood children by Penn State landscape architecture students taught by Dr. Samuel F. Dennis Jr., assistant professor of landscape architecture in the College of Arts and Architecture. His history of engagement with the South Allison Hill community paved the way for collaboration with Hutchinson and the festival project.   As a follow-up to the festival, Hutchinson and Ermyn King, AHOI coordinator, moderated an “Arts, Health and Community Transformation” panel in September at the Institute for Healthy Communities’ Summit 2003 conference in Harrisburg.   The Arts and Health Outreach Initiative is a three-year interdisciplinary pilot program that demonstrates, documents and develops resources about the interrelationships between the arts and personal and public health. It is supported by the colleges of Arts and Architecture, Health and Human Development and Medicine, as well as Penn State Outreach. An outreach program of the College of Arts and Architecture, College of Health and Human Development, College of Medicine and Penn State Outreach
Residents of the South Allison Hill community of Harrisburg participate in a wide range of arts and cultural activities organized through the efforts of Penn State faculty members, their students and community residents to celebrate the cultural diversity of the neighborhood. The festival was an outreach project stimulated through the Arts and Health Outreach Initiative and supported by the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Recreation Management and other sponsors.