Five Questions With: Paula Most

The Healing Arts Program at Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital has been helping to ease the experience of hospital and emergency room visits for children and adults through creative expression for 20 years.

Friends of Healing Arts will host The Healing Arts Inspire 2017 fundraiser on Oct. 19 at the Providence Art Club to benefit the Healing Arts Program. Tickets are $75 per individual, and grant the bearer access to hors d’oeuvres, entertainment by the Big Nazo Band, Dan Butterworth’s marionettes, and a tape art demonstration by Michael Townsend.

Providence Business News took the opportunity to ask Healing Arts founder and coordinator Paula Most, who launched the program in 1992, to talk about her work.

 

- Advertisement -

PBN: How did the inspiration for Healing Arts strike you? What led to the program’s founding?

MOST: I was working in the Department of Education at Museum of Art, RISD [Rhode Island School of Design]. The museum’s curator of education was looking to develop outreach programs for the Providence community and Rhode Island Hospital’s Department of Child Life expressed an interest in an art program for children. It was a natural fit! Together, we developed the Museum on Rounds program as a collaboration between R.I. Hospital’s pediatric department (Hasbro Children’s Hospital did not exist at that time) and the Museum of Art, RISD. The program continues to this day to offer art workshops to hospitalized children. In weekly art sessions, patients create their own artwork inspired by a famous work of art.

PBN: How important is creativity to people who are healing in a hospital setting?

MOST: Art provides patients with a sense of normalcy. Being sick does not mean you are unable to create, think, make decisions, etc. Maintaining a linkage to the patient’s normal world is crucial in promoting healing. Programs like this provide creative and comforting activities for patients and families in an otherwise very stressful situation. Being involved in the act of creating a work of art can aid in pain management, help patients retain a sense of control and provide relief from anxiety over their medical issues.

PBN: Is the program well known among artists?

MOST: When Hasbro Children’s Hospital was built in 1994, the Museum of Art, RISD held an event to encourage Rhode Island artists to donate art to the new hospital. Over 600 works of art were generously donated. From the very beginning, artists were made aware of the value the arts would play in the hospital. In addition, over the years there have been many opportunities for commissioned works at all Lifespan hospitals for artists. I send out request for proposals to many artists.

PBN: What is your goal for the Healing Arts fundraiser, Inspire 2017?

MOST: The hospital funds a portion of the Healing Arts Program, but the majority of funding comes from the philanthropic community. Our goal with this event – the first community fundraiser for this program – is to raise awareness of the program and increase donations in order to expand services. Most of our programs take place one to two times each week, but with additional funding we can make the Healing Arts programs available to more of our patients and families. Why should the experience for patients be enriched on Tuesday, but not on Wednesday? That’s the goal.

PBN: What would you like the future of the program to look like?

MOST: We want a more-robust program with more programs serving more patients and families. This would include expanding outreach to additional units in the hospital. More funding would enable us to achieve this goal.

Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.