Creativity & Transformative Values
Arts|Lab at BU Medical Campus is an invitation to new generations of artists to reimagine the role of art in society.
Open to all student artists in BU College of Fine Arts, this unique collaboration thinks about healthcare as an unbiased context to reencounter art’s transformative power. It’s a space with no mistakes and an approach to creativity with openness, genuineness and true communication. Working with colleagues and patients at BU Medical Campus, this partnership provides endless opportunities to learn, honor, enrich and transform.
About the Team
Leadership
Moisès Fernández Via
Founding Director
moisesfv@bu.edu
@ViaMoises
“I’m a concert pianist fully convinced that art should be where life is – where people are struggling and face lots of questions, but not really any answers.”
Maya French
Program Assistant
frenchm@bu.edu
Su Yin Chan
Program Assistant
schan19@bu.edu
ADVISORS
Chase Crossno, MPH
School of Public Health
Theatre Collective Paper Chairs
Rafael Ortega, MD
School of Medicine
Professor of Anesthesiology
Associate Dean of Multicultural Affairs
Sarah Kimball, MD
School of Medicine
Assistant Professor
BMC Immigrant and Refugee Health Program
Kristen Kremer, SPH
Boston Medical Center
Manager of Patient Experience
Projects
Each artistic intervention arises in result of a concrete need. Thus, the arts become a reliable partner to support the Med Campus’ mission. The benefits of this approach are twofold: projects gain a clear frame of evaluation; and the presence of art and artists in clinic or nearby shelters is justified without paternalistic nor decorative approaches.
Art Cart
Clinical scope: qualitative expressive outlets; Pediatrics ED; Surgical Unit
A cart provided with visual art materials transits around BMC inviting individuals to guided mindful-based art experiences. The goal is to offer qualitative expressive outlets to patients, their families and staff during their stay at BMC. For our artists-in-residence this is an opportunity to accept whatever arises as a genuine source of inspiration.
Presents
Clinical scope: patient experience; defeat hospitalization’s isolation; social workers support
In collaboration with social workers and staff, artists “on call” envision and deliver personalized artistic presents for at-risk patients. Carefully conceived protocols facilitate a meaningful interaction between them. In fact, the real present is not art, but the basic warmth of genuine creative encounters.
Poetry
Clinical scope: Cancer Center; chemotherapy treatments; nurse support
For the imagination, words as an exit sign to escape the long chemotherapy sessions. In the intimacy of an IV treatment a patient choses a topic. On the spot, a student-actress/actor reads poems or texts according to the choice. There is nowhere to hide, no gimmicks, only the magic of two individuals and words jointly evoking meaning in the midst of uncertainty.
[Silence]
Clinical scope: promotion of environments suitable for recovery; staff support
Stress taints the environment of a surgical unit. Noise has a negative impact in the recovery of patients. [Silence] is an initiative to transform the unit through curated musical performances – promoting awareness towards unnecessary noise. Musicians join the same discipline of awareness, exploring the role that silence plays in their own music making: a discovery of implications between silence and expressiveness, space and performance, fear and sound.
Lullaby
Clinical scope: adolescent clinic; midwives and social workers support
Young parents and musicians team up during a song-writing workshop to co-create a personalized lullaby for their babies. These unique compositions help strength the link between parents and child, while allowing them to openly relate with their own uncertainties toward parenthood.
Concerts
Clinical scope: stress reduction; public safety support
MUSIC AT THE HEART OF BMC is a group of impromptu performances at the epicenter of BMC. It is music at the center of real life – a direct and unbiased context to discover the impact of music in our current society. To the overwhelmingly diverse crowds, music provides contagious micro-moments of surprise, owe, appreciation, joy, tenderness and beauty. These performances have revealed inherent qualities in life music for the promotion of safer public spaces.
A MOMENT FOR MUSIC AT ROSIE’S is a concert series of early afternoon and dinnertime performances at this exceptional institution for homeless and poor women near the Med Campus. At Rosie’s, music offers a clear opportunity for true communication. These concerts foster an on-going curiosity for innovative forms toward authentic audience-artist interactions.
Words
Clinical scope: Education; English literacy support for refugee women
Rosie’s Place carries on a thriving educational project. Women with no English literacy are given an opportunity to enjoy a basic education; some even learn to read and write for the very first time. Five new words take three weeks of work. During Writing Café sessions students enjoy a sort of graduation from these five words, before moving on to a new group of five.
The care and tireless dedication of these brave women inspired us to create the project Words – a musical game to support their quest for literacy skills. A word is not a phonetic sound but a living experience in sound. Musicians prepare five musical moments that convey each one of the five words. Students express orally and in writing which word they think is being expressed through music: a moment that allows each student to voice her experience as perfect and unique.
Waiting
Clinical scope: ED; patient’s psychological time experience; anxiety
Long or short, waiting is an important part of the Emergency Department – often a moment of silent anxiety. Waiting provides carefully planned music interventions to our friends in the waiting room: from a Bach suite to a spontaneous improvisation. Music defeats the void of waiting and its anxiety, providing a sort of pre clinical care.
The conceptual framework of Waiting – relying on sensitivity and context awareness – offers musicians a parallel chance to make friends with their own performance anxiety.
Our Community
There is no place quite like the BU Med Campus. It is more than a hospital; the schools of Medicine, Public Health and Dental Medicine, and nearby shelters. It is a vibrant community of individuals––a network of support and care that touches the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in need each year.
Boston Medical Center (BMC) is Boston’s largest provider of world-class health care accessible to all, regardless of status or ability to pay. With an average of 1,000,000 patient visits per year, BMC offers a comprehensive range of care in more than 70 specialties and subspecialties of medicine and surgery. BMC’s Interpreter Services Program is the most extensive in New England, offering in-site and video interpretation services in 150 languages.
Rosie’s Place. Founded by Kip Tiernan in 1974 is the first women’s shelter in the United States. Rosie’s provides a safe and nurturing environment for every woman who comes to their door, helping them take the next steps on their journey to security, dignity and opportunity. Rosie’s creates answers for 12,000 women a year through a wide-ranging support, housing and education services.
Artists
“Why do we applaud, and for what? Has the stage [ART] a real place in our lives? What function can it have? What could it serve? What could it explore? What are its special properties?” – Peter Brook, The Empty Space
Each year, 100 student-artists at the College of Fine Arts provide 50 potential answers to these crucial questions––50 artistic interventions addressed to care for what needs care. In that way, art is not a speculation or a myth, but a thriving genuine dialogue.
Getting to Med Campus
The BU BUS is a free shuttle offered by the University that operates on a regular basis during the school year.
You can also check the MBTA website for customized route information.
Parking: There is metered parking around BMC.
Meeting Point: The 710 Albany Street BUS stop. The shuttles run on a loop, so you will return to the same stop to take the BUS back to the main campus.
Interested in Participating?
BU College of Fine Arts students are invited to get involved with Arts|Lab at Med Campus. Please connect to learn more about how you can participate through your art.