Activating the Art Museum: Designing Experiences for the Health Professions, the first book on this subject, offers a argument for collaboration between educators in art museums and healthcare professionals. Through descriptions of teaching practices, the authors bring us into the galleries along with participants to demonstrate the value of art museums in supporting humanism in healthcare for the benefit of both practitioners and their patients. It includes advice on selecting meaningful and provocative works of art; models of responsive workshop design; compelling descriptions of gallery experiences; references to supporting medical literature; and the voices of medical students, physicians, and other health professionals. Chapters address key topics including tolerating ambiguity; empathy; interprofessional teamwork; confronting bias; the power of story; caring for the spirit; wellbeing and mindfulness. This inspiring and practical resource, written by three respected museum educators, is grounded in their experience with multiple individual and institutional partnerships and in designing hundreds of gallery experiences for healthcare trainees and practitioners. This book will be valuable to educators, leaders, and policy-makers in museums and health care. These readers, as well as general audiences with an interest in art and health will be inspired by the potential of art museums to activate our empathetic imaginations and remind us of our shared humanity.
Ruth Slavin (BA, history of art, UC Berkeley; MA, communications, University of Pennsylvania) has been a museum educator for thirty-five years, most recently as deputy director for education at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. At UMMA, she initiated partnerships with U-M faculty in nursing, medicine, and social work. Since 2009, she has designed gallery experiences, workshops, and elective courses with and for physicians, residents, and medical students on topics including complexity and ambiguity, empathy, storytelling, and mindfulness. Since 2015, she has been the only non-physician member of the core faculty team for the University of Michigan Medical School's Path in Medical Humanities, an elective that students participate in for all four years of medical school. This rare opportunity to work closely with medical students throughout their training has deepened her understanding of the experiences and needs of both students and clinicians. Ray Williams (MA, art history, UNC-Chapel Hill; EdM, Harvard Graduate School of Education) is the director of education and academic affairs at the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin. He also serves as teaching faculty for the Harvard-Macy Fellowship on Art Museum-Based Health Professions Education, consults to the Kern National Network of Caring and Character in Medicine, and recently completed work with the Association of American Medical College's committee on integrating the arts and humanities in medical education. While director of education at the Harvard Art Museums, he initiated several partnerships with Harvard-affiliated hospitals that continue today. At the University of Texas, he teaches three museum-based workshops of small groups reaching all first-year medical students at the newly established Dell Medical School, and also works with interprofessional teams in the Departments of Family Medicine, Women's Health, Psychiatry, and Palliative Care. His work with health professionals has focused on developing curiosity, empathy, and spiritual health; improving team dynamics; and supporting young clinicians in dealing with grief and loss. Corinne Zimmermann (MA, art history, Tufts University; MEd, Harvard Graduate School of Education) has been a museum educator for thirty years. She currently works as a consultant custom designing museum-based workshops for the health professions, business organizations, and museums. Areas of expertise include improving communication and team dynamics; cultivating leadership skills and empathic capacities; mitigating biases; and promoting well-being. Since 2010, she has worked with a broad range of healthcare professionals and organizations including Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, UMass Memorial Medical Group, Harvard Medical School, and Emory School of Medicine. Corinne is a founding co-director of the Harvard Macy Institute's Art Museum-based Health Professions Education Fellowship and co-founder of VTS@WorkO, which offers interprofessional training and certification in the Visual Thinking Strategies. She has co-authored articles in the Journal of Museum Education and the Journal of Medical Humanities, and contributed a chapter on compassion in museums for the forthcoming book Flourishing in Museums: Toward a Positive Museology (Routledge).
