GILC Announces Global Arts and Social Connection Initiative

WASHINGTON, Aug. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection (GILC) has announced the launch of the GILC Global Arts and Social Connection Initiative, a new international effort to advance the role of arts and culture in strengthening human connection, belonging, and community resilience.

The initiative launches with partners including the Social Connection Institute, SocialRx, The Foundation for Art & Healing, documentary producer Adam James Smith, and Adam Rosendahl of Late Nite Art, with support from Think Film Impact Production. Additional partnerships are in active development.

Connection Is Built, Not Inherited
In 2025, the World Health Organization estimated that loneliness related risks contributed to 871,000 premature deaths globally, roughly 100 every hour. These are not abstract numbers. They describe what happens when the conditions that allow people to belong, trust, and show up for one another are absent from everyday life.

Research by Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, cited in the 2023 U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on Social Isolation and Loneliness, found that people with strong social ties have a 50 percent greater likelihood of survival compared to those who are more isolated, and that chronic disconnection increases the risk of serious chronic illness by 26 to 28 percent. “The arts are not merely a reflection of human connection, they are one of the ways we practice it,” said Holt-Lunstad, co-founder of the Social Connection Institute. The science on what disconnection costs us is settled. What has lagged is a galvanizing strategy for how we build connection back in.

The arts have always been one of the answers. Across cultures and history, film, music, visual art, performance, and shared creative experience have been among the most reliable ways communities build trust across difference, mark transitions, grieve together, and create a sense of belonging. The GILC Global Arts and Social Connection Initiative is built on the premise that this is not incidental. It is infrastructure.

“For too long, the arts have been treated as a luxury addition to community life rather than a foundational element of it,” said Edward Garcia, co-founder of GILC. “This initiative is about changing that, building the evidence, the practice, and the policy frameworks that make the connection-building power of the arts impossible to overlook and impossible to defund.”

Multi-pronged Approach
The initiative seeks to work across research and evidence, practice and innovation, policy and investment, and storytelling and public engagement. The intent is not to create a new arts organization but to serve as a connective layer, linking artists, researchers, health practitioners, and policymakers who are already doing this work but rarely in the same room.

The Social Connection Institute provides the scientific foundation, translating the evidence on social connection into frameworks that practitioners and governments can act on. SocialRx, the national U.S. leader in social prescribing, grounds the initiative in practice, connecting people to arts and community based experiences as part of their healthcare. Think Film Impact Production has spent years moving audiences from a cinema seat to a policy conversation that leads to tangible change, reflected in documentary producer Adam James Smith's forthcoming film Nighthawk, developed with GILC to open conversations that would not otherwise happen. Adam Rosendahl of Late Nite Art extends that work into leadership, using the arts to help leaders build trust across their organizations and communities. Finally, The Foundation for Art & Healing bridges science and practice: through its Project UnLonely initiative, it turns creative expression into scalable interventions across healthcare, education, and community settings.

Planned activities include a global research collaborative, a documentary impact program, and the Global Lecture Series webinar Art as a Pathway to Social Connection, taking place August 12, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. ET, bringing together experts to explore how the arts build belonging and connection.

An Invitation to the Field
The initiative is actively seeking partners. Organizations working in film and documentary storytelling, music, performing arts, museum programming, visual arts, arts prescribing, and community-based creative practice are invited to explore collaboration. The goal is to build a global community of practice that treats the arts not as a cultural supplement but as essential infrastructure for human connection.

About the Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection (GILC)
The Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection (GILC) is a global network of organizations working to advance social connection through policy, research, and practice. GILC serves as a neutral convener, bringing together diverse stakeholders to align on shared challenges and accelerate progress across roughly 30 countries. GILC is a registered 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN: 87-3476184).

Contact

Suparna Chhibber
Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection
suparna@gilc.global 

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8841d240-b72d-4e47-a85e-eb7c36b81eea

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GILC Announces Global Arts and Social Connection Initiative