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What Medical Students Can Learn From Art MuseumsThere’s more to being a doctor than diagnosing symptoms. And that’s whereart comes in. 02/12/2016 11:17 am ET
Priscilla Frank Arts Writer, The Huffington Post
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PHOTOGRAPH C. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
A hospital is not just a laboratory. A patient is not simply a diagnosis. Andmedicine is often more than a science.
“We are pretending to be accurate scientists but we’re really socialscientists,” Alexandra Charrow, a resident in internal medicine anddermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told The HuffingtonPost. “We’re dealing with human beings. The way we collaborate will patientswill not be based on their numbers, it will be based on their non-objective
data.”
Charrow recognizes the importance of exploring subjective modes of thinkingin her medical practice and evolution. And while art may not seem like themost essential aspect of a medical curriculum, amidst a stream of facts,diagrams, equations and machines, its value is critical. Standing before acarved sarcophagus from 350 B.C. can communicate the unspeakablemagnitude of death and dying more than a textbook ever could.
PHOTO COURTESY BOSTON MFA
As part of their humanistic curriculum, residents at Brigham and Women’sHospital are mandated to attend what are called Art and Medicine workshopsat Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, located less than a mile away. The programof study is designed to help doctors treat their patients as people, not justsymptoms.
“We focus on the human side of being a doctor,” Brooke DiGiovanni Evans,the MFA’s head of gallery learning, told HuffPost. Using artwork as a jumpingoff point, the residents converge to discuss the challenges of both treatingpatients and coping with the demanding lifestyle of a medical practitioner.
Often the discussion will begin with a close reading of a work ofcontemporary art coupled with a single question: how does this work of artrelate to your current life situation? In the neutral environment of the museum,doctors can discuss their pressures, fears, and hopes, exposingvulnerabilities that remain concealed during school and work hours.
“When people realize other doctors are feeling the same thing, they’re not asalone,” Evans said. “Often they haven’t had a chance to voice those thoughtsyet.”
BOSTON MFA
The workshop also contains a creative activity, often inviting the class to worktogether as a large group to create an image. This exercise emphasizes theimportance of teamwork, with each doctor-turned-artist adding their ownperspective and skill set to yield the final outcome.
This year, Evans has also added sculpture to the syllabus. For this exercise,everyone gets a small piece of clay and uses the it to tell a story about howthey’re feeling about their residency at this very moment. “One womancreated a very long, stretched out piece of clay that was maybe six feet long,saying she felt incredibly stretched thin,” Evans said.
Although the MFA Gallery Learning team are not art therapists, there issomething undoubtedly therapeutic about the program and its mission. Justthe physical act of slowing down, feeling clay morph and yield in your grasp,is a vital recess from the accelerated pace of life within hospital doors. Fortwo hours at a time, the residents are not rushing, not stressed, not checkingtheir phones. They’re engaged with the feel and weight of a small piece ofclay, answering to no one but a small voice inside.
“We try to bring residents back to the human side of being a doctor,” Evanssaid. “Giving them ways to connect with their patients, have empathy andunderstanding for what they’re going through. It reminds them that slowingdown can really help, and that the skills they bring as a doctor to that. They’reopportunities to be clear with their patients, the opportunity to connect withcolleagues.”
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BOSTON MFA
The Museum of Fine Arts also works with dermatology students from HarvardMedical School, though the program goals are distinct. With theseworkshops, the focus is on building observation skills that can be translateddirectly into dermatological diagnoses.
“A lot of the things you notice in a work of art — the color, line, texture,shape, is similar to what a dermatologist is looking for in skin conditions,”Evans said. “Using the artwork as a way to talk about what you are seeingand to building a case for what you are noticing as well. You can say you areseeing this or that in a painting, but you need to be able to explain why. Thatreally helps doctors work on their evidence building skills and descriptivelanguage.”
Both dermatologists and medical practitioner residents work with artworkfrom the MFA’s collection. In one room full of ancient Buddhist imagery, theconversation touches on the importance of self care and meditation. In acontemporary gallery, a certain image can have unexpected ramifications.
For example, Charrow mentioned a certain series of photographs by NicholasNixon, in which he photographed four sisters every year for 40 years. Whenthe photos made the rounds on the Internet in 2014, the overwhelmingreaction was one of nostalgia and the magic of sisterhood. For Charrow,however, the image illuminated the often tangled web of family dynamics, aparticularly difficult aspect of her work.
“It was a really haunting set of images,” she said, “and hard to distinguish therelationships between the people. As a doctor, you are seeing a family in thisbizarre time slice. You have a window into these weird interactions younormally would not have. Sometimes the decisions they make seem soforeign. Like in the photos, as a doctor you can feel very clueless to the
dynamics of the family in some situations.”
Overall, Evans hopes the workshops provide medical residents a safe spaceto process the intensity of their daily experiences, thus better enabling themto continue treating patients with not only accuracy but compassion andstrength.
Another goal is presenting the museum as a space of refuge, an availableresource to meditate, unwind and think.
Works from the MFA’s collection:
Photograph c. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tomb Effigy of Elizabeth Boott Duveneck Frank Duveneck (American, 1848-919) 1894 Marble. Gift of Frank Duveneck
Photograph c. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Lovers Kathe Kollwitz (German, 1867-1945) 1913 Plaster. Gift of Mr. andMrs. Hyman W. Swetzoff in memory of Mr. and â̈Mrs. Solomon Swetzoffc.2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph c. Museum ofFine Arts, Boston
Photograph c. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Artificial Rock #85 Zhan Wang (Chinese, born in 1962) 2005 Chrome platedstainless steel. Gift of Ann and Graham Gund in honor of Malcolm Rogersand to â̈celebrate his remarkable accomplishments as Director of the MFA,Boston Reproduced with permission. Photograph c. Museum of Fine Arts,Boston
Photograph c. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism Josiah McElheny(American, born in 1966) 2007 Hand-blown mirrored glass, low iron andtransparent mirror, metal, â̈wood, electric lighting. Museum purchase withfunds donated by the Linde Family Foundation c. Josiah McElheny 2007.Photograph c. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Most Popular Museums Around The World 20
Photograph c. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Sarcophagus and lid with husband and wife 350-300 B.C. Marble. Museumpurchase with funds donated by contribution and the Benja. Photograph c.Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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Mary Mitchell · University of Wisconsin-Madisonthe drs. to be having t5o work with clay is regresive and allowing them to relax thru malipulating thesoft clay being creative expressing creativityLike · Reply · Mar 6, 2016 7:44pm
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