Artistic Wellness
Artistic Wellness is an ongoing research project observing the connection between nutrition and theatre/dance. Its origin is quite simple: in 2019 Buxton overheard a conversation about her peers' eating habits and how disproportionate they were to their rehearsal process. Realizing she was surrounded by starving artists, she then sought to answer how this happens, why it continues, and what can be done to change this. The resulting project developed into Artistic Wellness, which aims to turn artists from starving to sustained.
Even though we may not be explicitly teaching this [starving artist] trope to young artists, we are
indirectly perpetuating it through the deprivation of resources. The industry neglects an artist’s
wellness. Within the world of theatre, lengthy and stressful rehearsals and performances can
begin to take a toll on the cast and crew, again perhaps indirectly passing on the idea that you
must starve to create. To paraphrase one of my peers, Luca Smith, artists are asked on a daily
basis to gaze into that abyss of life and death and shout back to the rest of the world through their
work, telling us what it looks like (L. Smith, personal communication, March 24, 2022).
Theatre and dance can also serve as means of expression, healing, and community-building. While there are questions we could ask about how this stereotype persists, if it is necessary, and what art is
worth without suffering, we can all agree that starvation is fatal. Sustainability, however, is not.
- From Starving to Sustained, pg 6
Project Timeline
Spring 2019-Fall 2021
Spring 2022
Fall 2022
Similar projects are researched, methodology tested, and research design is developed
Starving to Sustained: Nutrition Amongst Theatre Artists, is launched. Two surveys are distributed to students in Southern Utah University's Department of Theatre, Dance, and Arts Administration.
Buxton leads three nutrition workshops for the BFA Musical Theatre and BFA Acting students at SUU. Through these workshops she introduced them to the concept of Intuitive Eating, which is at the core of healing the artist's relationship with food.
The first Team Talk is held for TDAA, Dairy West sends 150 Greatness Guides for students and faculty/staff, an additional 20 Sports Nutrition Toolkits are sent for faculty/staff
Research Projects
Nutrition Workshops
Nutrition Workshops for TDAA began in Spring 2022. Buxton led a series of three workshops focusing on Intuitive Eating for theatre/dance, which was taught to senior BFA students. While the content of these workshops can apply to technicians, they were targeted towards performers. In Fall 2022, Alyssa Davis, MD, RD, CS, taught a Team Talk for TDAA. This workshop had 50 participants ranging from actors, technicians, educators, and dancers.
Scroll through below to view the materials used in these workshops.
This project’s future transcends Southern Utah University and encapsulates the entirety of the relationship between art and food. This moment will someday be an origin story. The dream for this project, theatre artists, and for our food culture itself is this: For a theatre artist to create in a space that provides support in all areas of wellness. For art to be an experience that invokes all the senses. For our culture to fall in love with food as an experience and not an object. To demonstrate the complexities of our little lives within these two tangible forms of healing. To ponder, to find, to see, to smell, to feel, to taste, to hear, to heal, to innovate, and to pursue. To rediscover our world through the stage and the table.
By pursuing these questions, continuing to increase this data, and by providing the necessary solutions, this dream will be fulfilled through cultivating a culture in which the meals we make and the stories we tell nourish, sustain, and inspire us.
- From Starving to Sustained, pg 43