For this course, students will investigate the degree to which art can influence issues of immediate concern to today's society, such as mental health and the environment, urban problems, communicable disease and disaster, through their studies in public health. The collaborative work with the School of Public Health will make it possible to gain a new perspective on the issues of environment and spirit, body and mind. More than restoring the individual to health, public health emphasizes what the community can do to prevent the occurrence of a problem beforehand. Students will learn to treat the issue of the environment and the body inclusively from the perspective of a group society rather than that of an individual member formed by society. They will treat the issue scientifically from a macroscopic perspective, learning how to present projects to society as effectively as possible. During Phase One, students, under the guidance of the committee, will create plans for multiple art projects related to the community and public health, based on concrete examples. For their final project, students will create a new environment, using the School of Public Health Building as their testing ground. This new environment will serve to cleanse both body and spirit, while becoming a place for "meditation and mediation" which will foster dialogue on the topic of society. In Phase Two projects treating art and public health will evolve based on the results of Phase One, with our focus on Detroit's Eastern Market.