Our work over the past six years at IDEAS xLab - the company I co-founded - has been guided by the unifying philosophy that CULTURE SHAPES HEALTH. A philosophy shared by the World Health Organization, who formed the Cultural Contexts of Health Committee in 2015, stating that, “incorporating cultural awareness into policy-making is critical to the development of adaptive, equitable and sustainable health care systems, and to making general improvements in many areas of population health and well-being.”

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recognized Louisville's burgeoning culture of health in 2016, specifically highlighting how arts and culture are being utilized in neighborhoods from Smoketown to Russell to support our community's ongoing health journey.

This talk explores how IDEAS xLab's 3-year cultural framework - Project HEAL (Health. Equity. Art. Learning.) - is being utilized in sites across the nation including Louisville, KY, New Orleans, LA, Natchez, MS, Wilmington, DE and Asheville, NC. And, the potential it holds for the future.

We delve into how deploying a cultural change management framework to solution-finding can help to identify and engage a community's underutilized cultural assets as the foundation from which to envision, build, measure and spread the most impactful creative solutions for shifting attitudes and behaviors toward a culture of health. Josh Miller is the co-founder and CEO of IDEAS xLab, where he and his team leverage the power of arts and culture to support community health transformation. He is an artist with a background in business, art administration, and editorial production - and explores the world through photography (and a lot of running), documenting his journey through joshmiller.ventures. Josh is an advisor for the Derby Diversity & Business Summit, was selected for Louisville Business First's Forty under 40 in 2018, and serves as the co-chair of the Louisville Health Advisory Board's Communications Committee. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx