What does arthave to do with medicine?

A patient perspective by Regina Holliday

HXD Conference BostonMarch 26, 2012

Art.

That’s for kids, right?

Picture BooksBedtime StoriesFamily TelevisionDrawing, PaintingDancing, Singing

Children immerse themselves in art.

They live art.They learn from art, and do not separate it from daily life.

Then there is design.

Good design is beautiful,functional

and creates space

for

growth

and

change.

Art within design can be the path itself or the weeds that grow between the cracks.

Art can be “safe.”It can provide therapy for injured souls.

It can be containedwithin waiting rooms’ closetsAnd rolling art carts.

Art can be pinned down upon a sheet of construction paper

Static,StillA waxwork of emotion.It can be a moment of process with no intent.

Or it can be more.

Art can make clinical spaces “pretty.”

But as any child can tell you,it can be dangerous to enter candy houses.

Art can be used to

mask the rotten apple or it can be used to

reveal it.

Art can compare hard data to soft data and apples to apples.

“During this hospital stay, how often was your pain well controlled?”

Art can provide a face to cold clinical statistics.

Are you ready to jump?

Are you ready to change the way you think about art within medicine?

Writing on the Wall.

Since the beginning of time, we have written on Walls.

Sometimes the writing was

official notices and history.

Sometimes it was

Graffiti Or

Tagging.

Sometimes the writing was a cry for help,

A plea for change,Or simply the statement:

“I was here.”

Regina, the child

They can Write it on a Wall.

How can an outsider artist,

an enterprising start-up,

social media savvy doctor,

Send a message to us all?

Painting Advocacy meets

Social Media

Street art is truly the first global art movement fueled by the Internet. –Marc and Sara Schiller, Wooster Collective, 2010

“Shouldn’t Art stick to what it does best-the delivery of pleasure?

And forget about being a Paintbrush warrior. Or, is it when the bombs are dropping we find out what art is really for?”

-Power of Art by Simon Schama

This is the painting 73 cents.

This is the vital patient story, the social history , the sacred heart of Fred’s

ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD.

And this painting, like the internet, advocates 24 hours a day

and you cannot tell a wall to shut up.

On October 20th 2009 we dedicated the mural singing,

“Where do we go from here?”

Patients spend much of their days living in

Negative space.

Instead of being the subjectof attention

We are often the space around The image of medicine.

The back ground The prop

Look at children playing Doctor’s office.

One role is active, one role is passive

We teach our children how to be patients.

Healthcare is not Rainbows and Butterflies.

Join a Walking Wall of Patient Stories

The Walking Gallery

Street Art:The more stickers that are out there the more important it seems. The more important it seems, the more people want to know what it is.The more they ask they ask each other.

It gains real power from perceived power.-ShepardFairey

We can redefine expectations of the role of art in medicine at every hospital, clinic and conference.

Let Patients Speak

We must encourage every committee, conferenceand hospital board,to actively recruit and include patientsin every aspect of the care process fromdesign to implementation to resolution.

Noting about us without us.

From the exam room to the board room.

Invite patients and you will include artists,poets and writers in creating health policy.

Are you ready ? Art is what you make of it…

You can choose the role of art in medicine.

Choose wisely.

I hope to see you in the rabbit hole. ~ @ReginaHolliday