Meet Dakota
A six year old girl suffering from an unknown blood disease who loves to paint and draw.
Welcome to Art of Health
Today, healthcare workers in 45% of hospitals nationwide include an artistic practice in their daily rounds, working at bedside with patients, families, nurses in a dual capacity of doctor-poet, or nurse-dancer. Creativity in health-seeking is more than art in the lobby: through the arts, patients come to assume responsibility for their own continuance. How is it possible, for example, that the body is calmed by a poem, a painting, or a piece of music? Few will doubt the possibility, but fewer will believe without evidence.
Our story is told by the direct experience of healthcare professionals whose work sets the stage for new health science and practice: among them are Dr. Michael Okun, University of Florida Neurologist, Rafael Campo, MD, author of The Healing Art: A Doctor’s Black Bag of Poetry, and Harvard Psychologist Ellen J. Langer, author of Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility.
This website is a growing document for new options in healthcare and sustainability, a gathering point of those who celebrate life against the wall, whether in cancer centers, pediatrics units, dialysis clinics, or even in natural disaster, such as shelters after Katrina. Here are stories at the nexus of creativity and healthcare in America.
