In her chapter, “Is Art Good for You?” Susan Pointe describes an outreach program undertaken by the McMullen Art Gallery, a space in the middle of the University of Alberta Hospital. The Artists-on-the-Wards program began in 1999 as a pilot project in which visual artists visited adult patients in their rooms and led art-making activities. The program eventually grew to include more wards and more artistic media. As Pointe carefully explains, the Artists-on-the-Wards program is not art therapy (a specialization which requires professional clinical training), but it provides patients with the opportunity to participate in creative experiences and create lasting testimonials to their presence in the hospital.
Pointe is very forthcoming about why the program was conceived: despite the gallery’s generally positive reputation in the art community, no one in the hospital seemed to know the gallery was there. In addition to being bad for the gallery’s visitor numbers, this was also in clear violation of the gallery’s purpose for being. As Pointe writes, “Although the gallery was mandated to serve patients, only 4 per cent of its visitors were hospital patients” (p.115). Meanwhile, “Most hospital staff did not visit the gallery and many did not know why it was there; some had actually never heard of it” (p.115). In response, the gallery staff worked to create appealing and explanatory signage, installed artwork throughout the hospital, opened the gallery for drop-in art-making, and redesigned their feedback cards. Most importantly, they decided to take art to the patients themselves. For Pointe, the challenge in implementing her gallery’s social relevance seemed to lie in the acknowledgement of and rededication to the mission, rather than in arguing against those who disagreed with it. Despite the realistic threat of the hospital choosing to replace the gallery with for-profit ventures, careful planning and execution of new programming seemed to make for relatively smooth sailing.
Although not all strategies in this case study would translate to contexts without patients, Pointe herself acknowledges that some American hospitals (particularly the Shands Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida) had already undertaken artists-on-the-wards programs to positive effect. Similarly, our course reading, “Museopathy: Exploring the healing potential of handling museum objects” (Chatterjee, et al), suggests that positive museum-like experiences in hospitals are not limited to art programming. More broadly, Pointe’s chapter underscores the necessity of making museums know and serve the needs of their audiences.
Pointe is very forthcoming about why the program was conceived: despite the gallery’s generally positive reputation in the art community, no one in the hospital seemed to know the gallery was there. In addition to being bad for the gallery’s visitor numbers, this was also in clear violation of the gallery’s purpose for being. As Pointe writes, “Although the gallery was mandated to serve patients, only 4 per cent of its visitors were hospital patients” (p.115). Meanwhile, “Most hospital staff did not visit the gallery and many did not know why it was there; some had actually never heard of it” (p.115). In response, the gallery staff worked to create appealing and explanatory signage, installed artwork throughout the hospital, opened the gallery for drop-in art-making, and redesigned their feedback cards. Most importantly, they decided to take art to the patients themselves. For Pointe, the challenge in implementing her gallery’s social relevance seemed to lie in the acknowledgement of and rededication to the mission, rather than in arguing against those who disagreed with it. Despite the realistic threat of the hospital choosing to replace the gallery with for-profit ventures, careful planning and execution of new programming seemed to make for relatively smooth sailing.
Although not all strategies in this case study would translate to contexts without patients, Pointe herself acknowledges that some American hospitals (particularly the Shands Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida) had already undertaken artists-on-the-wards programs to positive effect. Similarly, our course reading, “Museopathy: Exploring the healing potential of handling museum objects” (Chatterjee, et al), suggests that positive museum-like experiences in hospitals are not limited to art programming. More broadly, Pointe’s chapter underscores the necessity of making museums know and serve the needs of their audiences.
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