• Full Episodes, Podcasts, Newsletters, Live

The science behind using the arts to combat loneliness and social isolation

Aug 4, 2026 6:25 PM EDT, By — Paul Solman and By — Diane Lincoln Estes

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio

A new program in Charlotte, North Carolina, is using the arts to tackle loneliness and social isolation. Paul Solman reports on prescriptions for art instead of medicine for our series at the intersection of art and health, part of our CANVAS coverage.

Read the Full Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Amna Nawaz:

Now for a look at a program using the arts to tackle loneliness and social isolation. Located in Charlotte, North Carolina, it requires a prescription for art instead of medicine.

Paul Solman has the story for our series at the intersection of art and health, part of our Canvas coverage.

Alisha Bigby, Charlotte Art on Prescription Participant: I wouldn’t go anywhere. I stayed at home.

Paul Solman:

Alisha Bigby was traumatized by family tragedy.

Alisha Bigby:

I would get invited to things, and I would say I would go, and then I would kind of get a panic attack and wouldn’t go. And I would just sit in the dark at home or sit on the front porch.

Paul Solman:

But now she’s giving interviews to strangers, visiting museums.

Alisha Bigby:

Growing up, my mom collected these little African American figurines.

Paul Solman:

One of her favorite paintings at the moment, David McGee’s Drum Call.

Alisha Bigby:

When I came here and I saw this, I was like, oh, my goodness, this reminds me so much of my mom and the little figurines that she kept in her armoire. And I just immediately gravitated towards this.

Paul Solman:

In fact, this museum was key to her turnaround, The Bechtler in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, and its program Art on Prescription.

Todd Smith, Executive Director, The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art: So individuals who are under the care of a doctor are prescribed art as medicine, and instead of going to the pharmacy to have their prescription filled, they come to the museum, where they get a year’s worth of arts programming for free.

Paul Solman:

Todd Smith runs this contemporary museum.

Todd Smith:

It’s a way to combat loneliness here in Charlotte. They attend performances, they create art, they talk about art, they share experiences, and in the end they become friends.

Paul Solman:

Eighty participants have gone to the ballet, the theater, taken art making classes, and visited The Bechtler to see most recently David McGee’s riffs on art classics from the past, like The End of Summer, playing off Caravaggio’s famous Bacchus.

Todd Smith:

We would ask participants to just start talking about what they see. What do the colors make you feel? How does it express an emotion to you? It’s just about getting people to talk.

Paul Solman:

Bigby didn’t talk at all after an unimaginably painful series of events that began with the death of her brother.

Alisha Bigby:

His truck went down and the embankment and it exploded. And then just a few days later, my mom passed away.

Continue/Read Original Article: The science behind using the arts to combat loneliness and social isolation | PBS News