.Lonely Nation, Artists Needed Now More than Ever

Throughout history, Americans have turned adversity into action, transforming injustice into powerful movements for change. 

When faced with segregation, we built a civil rights movement. When faced with environmental destruction, we built an environmental justice movement. 

Today, in the face of an epidemic of disconnection and loneliness, what movement will rise to meet this moment? Who is leading the work of bringing us back to one another? It is the musicians, the muralists, the actors—the artists. Artists are not just responding to this crisis; they are leading us through it, quietly stitching society back together through beauty, music and shared experience.

When I look at the fractured state of our world, I notice where connection still thrives. Where else can you find a Catholic businessperson, a Jewish teacher, an interracial gay couple, sober and drinking folks and a Gen Z influencer all together? A music festival. A movie. A gallery. The dance floor. A poetry slam. Arts experiences remain one of the few truly democratized spaces where our diverse identities are free to gather and are celebrated as essential to the experience.

How did we get here? We’re living in a world shaped by generations who chose individual success over collective wellbeing, business profit over humanity and technological convenience over true community. And we feel it everywhere: in the silence of our grocery store lines, in the disappearance of casual “water cooler chat” at work and even in the lack of vulnerability in conversations of our closest circles. 

Believe me, this isn’t just random folks feeling awkward—these are symptoms felt by all of us. The deeper disease is showing up in the mental health crises among our students and communities, the collapse of trust within our public institutions and our collective soul’s aching for belonging that we can no longer ignore.

In Sonoma County, YouthTruth found 40% of teens describe themselves as “chronically lonely.” More than half of California’s young adults report feeling isolated. The U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 Advisory says loneliness increases the risk of premature death by 29%—about the same as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Isolation doesn’t just harm us as individuals; it corrodes democracy, empathy and the very idea of community itself. 

The antidote to loneliness is community. The antidote to division is shared experience. Artists, and the spaces we create, are the vital infrastructure for this social cohesion movement. If connection is the cure, then how are we investing in the people and spaces weaving us back into one another?

This is the first in a series called “Arts as … Connection. Healing. Beauty.” that will identify where one can help change the world. Healing isn’t a metaphor anymore; it’s a mandate. And the work starts now.

Nikko Kimzin is social impact producer and cultural strategist with Kimzin Creative, a Petaluma-based arts and equity consulting group. KimzinCreative.com.