Private donors have long fueled the bulk of the Rhode Island Hospital Healing Arts programs’ efforts to ease hospital and emergency room visits through creative expression with funding subject to individual finances, but the recent inaugural Healing Arts Inspire 2017 fundraiser holds the promise of regular support.
“It’s the first one we’ve ever done for the Healing Arts programs,” said coordinator Paula Most, who founded the program in 1997.
Most said the programs run on about $90,000 a year, not including the support provided by Lifespan Inc. in the form of office space and marketing services. “I have all the resources of Lifespan at my fingertips,” Most said.
David Levesque, director of media relations at Lifespan, said most of the cost is funded through donors.
But if those donors have a bad year, or move away, the funding goes with them.
“It comes and goes,” Most said. “If people’s portfolios dip, their check to us gets eliminated.”
That happened with the Healing Arts Performing Arts program, which one family generously donated $20,000 per year to for 15 years, she said. Two years ago, the family reduced their support to $8,000 a year, then moved to Florida, and decided to support programs in that state instead.
“When I lost that money, that program essentially ended,” Most said.
Most said a friend, Nancy Gaucher-Thomas, who co-chaired Healing Arts Inspire with her, suggested they launch the fundraiser to add to that program’s funding.
Most said she told Gaucher-Thomas she’d do it with her help. Gaucher-Thomas agreed.
Gaucher-Thomas said the arts community in Rhode Island needs to learn more about the important work that Healing Arts does, to draw more support from what she said is a very generous group.
“I do not know of any state that is as passionate about their nonprofits and charitable giving. I am always amazed at the number of ways a community will come together to support a cause. It is truly heartwarming. We are the smallest state with the biggest heart,” Gaucher-Thomas said.
For instance, when Most and Gaucher-Thomas reached out to Eric Delin, of Delin Design in Pawtucket, he offered to underwrite the organization of the fundraiser and handle all the promotion, invitations and printed media.
“I couldn’t do it without Delin Design,” Most said.
The Oct. 19 fundraiser at the Providence Art Club charged $75 per ticket and featured hors d’oeuvres, entertainment by the Big Nazo Band, Dan Butterworth’s Marionettes, and a tape-art demonstration by Michael Townsend. Most said she hoped to raise between $25,000 and $50,000.
Most said she is considering making the fundraiser an annual event.
The funding supports work that makes a significant difference in the lives of patients at the two hospitals, during times of great emotional stress, Most said. That’s an element of their work they hope the fundraiser will highlight.
The Healing Arts programs can make a big impact in an individual’s life, Gaucher-Thomas said, whether the patient is a child or an adult.
There are no formal studies, she said, “But we do think that the programs are extremely therapeutic in their daily value,” Most added.
Most remembers the story of one 14-year-old girl, Amy, a cancer patient at RIH’s Hasbro Children’s Hospital whose treatment was eased by the Healing Arts Museum on the Rounds program.
That program is a hands-on art history project where the artist teaches about a significant work by a famous artist, such as Pablo Picasso or Claude Monet.
“The lesson, then, is inspired by that piece of art,” Most said. The artist guides patients in creating their own art in that artist’s style, using mediums that include paint, chalk, pastels and collage.
Amy was very enthusiastic about the Museum on the Rounds sessions during her treatment. “It gave her something to think about other than her issue,” Most said. When Amy passed away at 15, in 1997, her mother wrote about how the program helped her daughter.
“The program does wonders for kids in the hospital, and for Amy it gave her a chance to do something other than brood about her illness. It inspired her, motivated her to tap into her creative side and most of all, helped her to heal inside,” Amy’s mother wrote.
The Healing Arts programs also include the Animal Visiting program, with an in-hospital zoo at Hasbro Children’s Hospital; Art on the Rounds, similar to Museum on the Rounds; Art While You Wait, which leads kids through art projects in hospital and emergency waiting rooms; Museum on Wheels, which allows patients to choose art to hang in their rooms; Music on Rounds, which sends a musician traveling throughout the hospital; and Projects of Possibility, where patients, family members and staff collaborate on a piece of art that is later exhibited in the hospital.
“It is important to be able to separate the illness from the person and that happens when art is involved. Art can transport a person to a special place where one can forget about their illness for a short while,” Gaucher-Thomas said.
