I want to be a liaison, guide, and facilitator for Pinellas County artists to work in the healthcare field to increase the positive exchange between the worlds of art and healthcare.
The University of Florida’s Arts In Medicine program teaches artists how to work in the healthcare field and how to develop programming for art to be used in the recovery process or maintaining well-being. It is not art therapy, but can work closely with creative art therapists to give deeper, richer art experiences. This new field is being adopted as part of recovery, improving quality of life in hospitals, rehab centers, support groups, community centers, aftercare programs, and assisted living facilities. During my first year in the program I interned in Dunedin and St. Petersburg with Voices of Hope for Aphasia a non-profit support group for people with aphasia. I created and instructed art projects with members and it was a wonderful learning experience.
I graduated from UF in December 2019 with my MA in Arts in Medicine. My thesis research or capstone project was to offer visual art experiences for people with aphasia and measure their responses to the experience. It is now part of the UF library of research and will be published in the Arts in Health Journal. See the button below to download my paper.
Below is a listing of projects I have engaged in within my Arts in Medicine career.
VOICES OF HOPE FOR APHASIA CAPSTONE RESEARCH PROJECT SEPT - DEC 2019
My thesis or capstone project to finalize my graduate program requirements focused on the impacts of visual arts and people with aphasia. I worked again with Voices of Hope for Aphasia to engage in pre and post surveys and an art activity. It was a huge learning experience and will hopefully be the beginning of further research between the Arts In Health field and the aphasia population.
SPEAK LOVE & PEACE AROUND THE WORLD PRINTMAKING PROJECT - OCT 2019
Pasco Hernando State College hired me to develop and instruct an art project for four of their campuses for their annual Peace Week 2019. This project centered around the theme of “Think Global, Act Local”. I used printmaking to engage the students and staff to print different ways to say Love and Peace in the top most spoken languages around the world. The words where then strung together to make a set of Peace Flags to be donated to the PHSC campus.
ARTLINK AT CREATIVE CLAY - JAN TO SEPT 2019
ArtLink is a program run by Creative Clay a non-profit arts organization in St. Petersburg, FL. This program encourages local artists to work with young artists with disabilities to create a body of work that culminated as a group show September 26th, 2019 at The Museum of Fine Art., St. Pete. The young artists will learn processes of developing a body of work, preparing for exhibition, and writing a clear artist statement.
UF ARTS IN MEDICINE SUMMER INTENSIVE JULY 2018
In a two week intensive, I shadowed working artists in residence at UF Shands Hospital while gaining hands on knowledge of the needs and requirements for arts programming in a hospital. This summer intensive also brought a community of artists from all over the world who are interested in developing and exploring the arts in medicine field.
VOICES OF HOPE FOR APHASIA INTERNSHIP
I spent over 120 hours developing and instructing art projects to members of Voices of Hope for Aphasia. It was a huge learning experience and I will be working with them for my capstone project in the Fall of of 2019.
MARKS OF HUMANITY COMMUNITY PRINTMAKING PROJECT
Pasco Hernando State College hired me to develop and instruct an art project for three of their campuses for their annual Peace Week 2018. This project centered around the theme of Humanity. I used printmaking to engage the students to create symbols that represented how they connect to humanity.
MARKS OF COMPASSION PRINTMAKING PROJECT
For my Compassion and Art class in 2018, I reworked my Marks of Humanity printmaking project to focus on how people experience compassion and how they can perform compassionate acts. I presented this this project at the Dunedin Library and engaged all ages throughout the day.
ARTS FOR HEALTH FLORIDA
I am a member of Arts for Health Florida and was hired to help facilitate arts for wellness projects during a busy Tampa work day so that people on their lunch break could stop by and relax for a moment creating.
THEATRE EXCEPTIONAL
Theatre Exceptional hired me to develop background imagery for their production of Our Town. I worked with all of the cast to paint symbols that represented their characters in the play. The final production was engaging, moving and beyond my expectations.
