NAPLES, FLA.: The Naples Players (TNP) and Naples Comprehensive Health (NCH) have announced the launch of ArtRX, a collaboration designed to promote healing, joy, and well-being through the transformative power of the arts. Combining TNP’s mission of building community through access to theatre with NCH’s mission to help everyone live a longer, healthier life, this collaboration will bring performing and visual arts into healthcare environments with the aim of enriching the lives of patients, clinicians, and volunteers.
“ArtRX is built on a simple but powerful idea: that art can heal,” said Bryce Alexander, CEO and executive artistic director of the Naples Players, in a statement. “By integrating theatre, music, visual arts, and storytelling into patient and staff experiences, we’re helping transform hospitals into spaces of empathy, expression, and connection.”
ArtRX’s areas of focus are patient experience, staff and volunteer well-being, and training and development. Patients will be able to engage with the arts for comfort, agency, and emotional healing with bedside concerts, hallway choruses, storytelling and art workshops, and more. For health workers, ArtRX will provide creative workshops, pop-up performances, and collaborative art installations, to strengthen workplace culture and promote emotional resilience. The Naples Players will partner with NCH Judith and Marvin Herb Family Simulation Center for role-play and scenario-based training with actors to enhance clinical communication, empathy, and teamwork.
ArtRX is built on scientific research from the World Health Organization and leading medical journals that shows that engaging in the arts can reduce anxiety and pain, improve mood, enhance communication, and lower the need for certain medications. By embedding this research into practice, ArtRX aims to introduce a data-driven approach to compassionate care that can transform the clinical environment into healing for both body and spirit.
The program will begin with pilot projects at NCH campuses in 2025 and 2026. Each year, it will expand to include more departments, facilities, and initiatives. TNP’s involvement with the NCH Judith and Marvin Herb Family Simulation Center will be overseen by TNP artistic associate James Duggan, who has led efforts with NCH and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. New staff and patient programs are being designed and directed by the Naples Players’ director of arts access, Summer Pliskow, and NCH’s chief culture officer, Jennifer Hart. All are working to create a sustainable model for long-term impact and national replication.
“The arts are an essential part of human expression, and when we bring them into healthcare, we remind people of their humanity,” said Summer Pliskow in a statement. “ArtRX isn’t just about performances; it’s about building meaningful connections that support healing for both patients and caregivers.”
“Our caregivers dedicate their lives to others,” said Jennifer Hart in a statement. “ArtRX helps nurture their own well-being and reminds everyone on an NCH campus that healing involves both science and humanity.”
Naples Players and NCH hope this partnership can ignite a national movement, inspiring hospitals across the country to embrace the arts as an integral part of healing and healthcare.
“We’re proving that art isn’t just entertainment; it’s medicine for the mind and heart,” Hart said in a statement. “ArtRx is a perfect demonstration of the power of community partnerships and our goal to provide a culture of wellness for our patients, caregivers, and team members.”
