Healing Arts at Lifespan

Adults and children can stretch their creative muscles and find an expressive outlet for their feelings.

M u s e u m                
          o n   R o u n d s  

The Museum on Rounds program brings arts professionals into the hospital to lead creative sessions. The program began in 1991, as a collaboration between Rhode Island Hospital and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art. The program has grown to include both outpatient and inpatient areas of Hasbro Children's Hospital and Bradley Hospital.

In weekly sessions, visiting artists show reproductions from museum collections and lead a discussion of each piece of art. Patients are then given an opportunity to channel their creative energies through projects inspired by the artwork: a collage in the style of Matisse or a watercolor after Monet.

With a variety of art forms that include painting, mask making, sculpture, jewelry and collage, adults and children can stretch their creative muscles and find an expressive outlet for their feelings. Also at Hasbro, the Partial Hospitalization Program takes an intensive family-centered approach to helping children with serious illnesses. The cultural arts component of the program offers diversion, stimulation and involvement in a comfortable setting. Professional storytellers, musicians and artists visit weekly.

At Bradley Hospital, students from the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University teach a class titled Arts as a Source of Healing. Students work with patients to create works of art that often become permanent installations at the hospital. The Newport Art Museum also offers art classes at the Bradley Schools and artists come to Bradley Hospital periodically for art presentations and workshops.

For many children, the Museum on Rounds program is their first exposure to great works of art and the creative process. The program allows hospitalized children the chance to create art and helps them gain a greater sense of accomplishment, self-worth and control during an unsettling situation.

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