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Apr 6, 2009

"At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; a wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity." --Rachel Naomi Remen

Does Art Heal?

Seven-year-old Catriona Chennell's room is filled with samples of her artwork: strings of differently-shaped beads, a painting of a rainbow blazing across a blue sky. Cat's art decorates her room in the pediatric intensive care unit at Shands at the University of Florida, the hospital in Gainesville where she has spent six months waiting for a heart-lung tensplant. Through the Arts in Medicine program here, paid artists-in-residence and volunteers involve patients in creative activities like painting, writing, and singing. While the occasional hospital clown or musician is not uncommon elsewhere, Shands is the first institution of its kind to fully integrate the arts into its medical model.