built on a legacy
of RESULTS

Representative Projects

As the founder of Arete Arts Consultancy, Marete Wester draws on over 35 years of leadership experience designing and delivering high-impact initiatives. These featured projects, completed in prior roles with national and state organizations, reflect her long-standing commitment to collaboration, innovation, and excellence. Each was achieved through the contributions of exceptional teams and trusted partners—a spirit that continues to define Arete’s work today.

credentials

Creative Forces™: The NEA Military Healing Arts Project

Worked with the National Endowment for the Arts, Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs and State Arts Agency leaders to expand the integration of creative arts therapies in clinical care and new community arts engagement programs for service members and veterans across 13 DoD and VA sites with funding from a 5-year federal cooperative agreement. Directed $15M+ in contracts, managed 20+ professionals, and helped publish 19 research studies. Result: A national network, groundbreaking new research in the use of creative arts therapies in the treatment of traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress, and online resource center to disseminate project information.

NAPEO Creative Industries (US Department of State)

As part of the U.S.-North Africa Partnership for Economic Opportunity (NAPEO)—a State Department and Aspen Institute initiative—Arete’s founder co-led the creative industries component in collaboration with Creative Leaps International and the NAPEO advisory board in Algeria to support economic development through the arts. Organized a U.S. delegation of creative economy leaders to Algiers for a multi-day training summit with artists, educators, and entrepreneurs. Result: Facilitated cross-cultural exchange, built strategic alliances, and laid the groundwork for sustainable infrastructure supporting regional creative economies in Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.

ACES - Arts Create Excellent Schools Initiative ACES - Arts Create Excellent Schools Initiative

This statewide initiative, coordinated by Arete’s founder, piloted arts-infused learning in K-12 schools in partnership with the Alliance for Arts Education/NJ, NJ State Department of Education, NJ State Council on the Arts, and the National Conference of State Legislatures, with support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Result: the establishment of model schools demonstrating how integrated arts education could strengthen academic outcomes. The initiative also built a public/private funding structure and a replicable framework for systemic, arts-based education reform.

National Initiative for Arts & Health Across the Military

In partnership with Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Americans for the Arts and a coalition of federal and nonprofit agencies—including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Patient-Centered Care and Cultural Transformation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the NIH, Global Alliance for Arts and Health and National Center for Creative Aging—this groundbreaking initiative helped integrate the arts as tools for health and well-being for military-connected populations. Result: A series of first-of-their-kind national convenings—summits, roundtables, and community forums—engaged over 200 stakeholders and produced a national blueprint for action and two white papers detailing collective action strategies in policy, research and practice. These efforts laid the groundwork for a growing new field in arts, health and the military, and established new formal interagency partnerships that supports training for VA health teams on integrating arts partnerships into Whole Health models of care.

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built on a legacy of RESULTS

Representative Projects

built on a legacy
of RESULTS