EDGY Conference

Elisabeth headshot
Elisabeth Nails (she, hers)
Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture
Elisabeth Nails (she, hers)
Elisabeth Nails, MSW, (she/her) is a program manager for Creative Wellbeing at the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture and is dedicated to ensuring all young people in Los Angeles have access to culturally-responsive and healing-centered arts education. She co-chairs the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Network’s Youth Advisory Board and is a UCLA Arts & Healing certified Social Emotional Arts facilitator. She is co-founder of Typewriters Anonymous a performance group that designs and leads workshops and poetry installations that have been featured at the Skirball Cultural Center, the Los Angeles Library Foundation, Play the LA River, and Ciclavia. Prior to her work at LA County, she served as assistant director at the UCLA Art & Global Health Center and co-produced arts-based public health interventions in Los Angeles and in global cities on four continents. She earned her master’s degree in Social Welfare from UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts from UC Santa Cruz.

SESSION OVERVIEW

Creative Wellbeing: Centering LGBTQIA2S+ Joy and Care Through Healing Centered Arts Practices
Experience the power of healing-centered arts and collective joy. The arts offer so much more than expression — they ground us in cultural memory, spark belonging, and help sustain our movements. In a moment when LGBTQIA+ communities and advocates are navigating harmful legislation, ongoing erasure, and systemic inequities, creative practices become vital tools for renewal and resistance. Join us for a Creative Wellbeing workshop designed to uplift, restore, and reconnect. In partnership with local arts organizations, we’re co-creating an experiential session that invites participants into movement, poetry, or both — all rooted in the radical practice of nurturing critical hope. Together, we’ll explore how art can refill our personal and collective reservoirs, strengthen community care, and celebrate LGBTQIA+ joy, creativity, and ancestral wisdom. This session includes: • An introduction to the Creative Wellbeing approach • Hands-on arts experiences that cultivate grounding, reflection, and connection • A dynamic Q&A featuring teaching artists, County partners, and community advocates • Real stories and examples of how healing-centered arts are transforming spaces across LA County • Strategies for weaving belonging, cultural equity, and wellbeing into youth-serving environments Creative Wellbeing blends healing-centered arts with evidence-based mental health promotion to support systems-impacted youth, young people at risk of system involvement, and the adults who walk alongside them. Developed collaboratively by the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, Office of Child Protection, Department of Mental Health, Department of Children and Family Services, and Arts for Healing and Justice Network, Creative Wellbeing is active across 83 sites — from schools to foster family agencies to County departments — helping build communities of wellness through culturally rooted creative practice.