Teaching Artist Talks

Arts & Health | May 9, 2025

Thank you for joining us.

This 90-minute webinar will feature discussions about the Arts and Health sector, how arts education can lead to mental and physical health outcomes, and how teaching artists can prepare themselves to be engaged in a multitude of wellness-based environments.

To view the Fall 2024 offering, Teaching Artist Talks: Arts in Corrections, click HERE.

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Presenters

Claire de Boer

Claire served as founding director of Center Stage Arts in Health and director of The Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine at Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine for almost fifteen years. She helped found the National Organization for Arts in Health in 2016, and served as its second president. Some of her areas of focus within the field of Arts in Health include best practice sharing, funding structure, evaluation strategies, and artist in health training. In September of 2024 Claire transitioned to fulltime work in her own capacity as an Arts in Health LLC. Her current projects include directing an international film festival, facilitating art exhibit opportunities for refugee and immigrant communities, and developing art programs for senior populations.

Aly Maier Lokuta

Aly Maier Lokuta, MA (she/her) is the Assistant Vice President of Arts & Well-Being at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), where she leads innovative research, evaluation, education and programming at the intersection of arts and health, serving communities in Newark and New Jersey. She is a co-founder of the NJPAC-Rutgers Arts in Health Research Lab, and is leading the first arts prescribing program in New Jersey in collaboration with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. Prior to this role, Aly was the inaugural Assistant Director of Arts in Medicine and Arts Program Manager for NYC Health + Hospitals, on the Advisory Task Force for the first Social Prescribing pilot in the US: CultureRx out of Massachusetts, and co-author of The Arts on Prescription Field Guide. A multidisciplinary artist, Aly stays well through creating visual art and writing. You can learn more about NJPAC Arts & Well-Being at www.njpac.org/well and about Aly’s art and consulting work at www.alysonmaier.com.

Special Appearance By...

Lady Brion

Lady Brion is an international spoken word artist, activist, organizer, and educator. Lady Brion currently serves as the executive director of the Black Arts District, an organization she founded in 2019. In 2024 she was appointed by Governor Wes Moore as the Poet Laureate of Maryland, making her the youngest Poet Laureate in Maryland’s history and the only spoken word artist to ever hold this position. She received her B.A. in Communication and Culture from Howard University and her MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Design from the University of Baltimore. During her slam career she has won the 2016 and 2021 National Poetry Slam, the 2017 and 2019 Southern Fried Regional Slam, and the 2019 Rustbelt Regional Slam. In 2021 she became the Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion making her the number one ranked woman slam poet in the world.