Arts in Healthcare

VSA Alabama is embracing the international arts in healthcare movement by working to bridge the gap between Birmingham’s world-renowned healthcare community and its vibrant arts community.  VSA Alabama is a proud member of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare.

VSA Alabama offers arts programming in the following healthcare settings:

  • Children’s Health System Division of Hematology/Oncology

We provide weekly art therapy to newly diagnosed pediatric cancer patients and to patients who attend the Hematology/Oncology Outpatient Clinic.

  • Children’s Health System Psychiatric Unit, under the direction of the Occupational Therapy Department

We provide bi-monthly drumming and rhythm activities to children and teens at this unit.

  • University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for Palliative Care

We provide art therapy to patients who are nearing the end of their lives along with their family members. Our work focuses on the creation of legacy pieces and the healing process. VSA Alabama is a member of the UAB Interdisciplinary Team for Palliative Care.

“Our partnership with VSA continues to provide an added dimension to the holistic care model for our patients, their families and our staff.  The ability to explore emotional expression through an artistic outlet with a trained professional through VSA adds tremendously to the experience of those facing advanced illness as well as the ones who care for them.”

- Dr. Rodney Tucker, Medical Director, UAB Palliative Medicine Program

  • Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services Children’s Rehabilitation Services Clinics

We provide fun arts activities in the waiting rooms to children and teens who visit many of the CRS outpatient clinics located in Homewood and Children’s Hospital.

This wall-size public art installation was created by VSA Alabama Art Therapist Allison DeCamillis and a dynamic group of people in a healthcare setting. “Art as Part of the Palliative Approach” encourages discussion of what it means to work in end-of-life care, created with the inaugural staff of nurses and doctors at the UAB Center for Palliative Care.

Arts-in-Medicine (AiM) Project

The Arts in Medicine (AiM) Project is designed to expand VSA Alabama’s Arts in Healthcare (AiH) initiative by increasing programming opportunities targeted at current and future healthcare professionals and by broadening mutually beneficial partnerships within the medical community including the University of Alabama School of Medicine (UASOM), Children’s Hospital, and UAB Hospital. In order to keep VSA Alabama at the forefront of Arts in Healthcare nationally, informing the doctors and nurses of today and tomorrow about the importance of art in the healing process is absolutely essential. Doing so allows VSA Alabama to serve as a resource for these professionals and serve as a prime example of what the power of art can do for their patients.

The AiM Lecture Series

The AiM Lecture Series provides fun, dynamic talks combining the fields of art and medicine by bringing in lecturers from both fields. Lecture topics will range from discussions of famous artists with disabilities (i.e. Klee and schizophrenia) to the portrayal of doctors in film to the dual roles of doctor-artists in the real world. Speakers may include professors and researchers from UAB in the fields of art history and medicine, museum curators, and therapists, to name a few. Benefits to lecture attendees include enhanced observational skills, expanded humanities programming, exposure to bright minds from multi-disciplinary departments at UAB, potentially improved doctor-patient relationship through increased understanding of disabilities, cross-training in academics, and access to informative, creative talks with question and answer sessions. VSA Alabama aims to partner with different departments and organizations within UAB to offer these lectures and presentations.

The most recent AiM Lectures:

“Art and Medicine: An Ambineural Experience”
Don Stewart, MD
DS Art, LLC

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
6:00 pm / UAB Spain Auditorium

Presented by VSA Alabama and The Griffin Society

“Tne Neurobiology of Creativity”
David Sweatt, PhD
Evelyn F. McKnight Chair,
Department of Neurobiology Director,
McKnight Brain Institute
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Tuesday, December 16, 2008
5:30 pm / UAB Spain Auditorium

Presented by VSA Alabama and The Griffin Society

Please contact Sarah Margaret Wade, Program Coordinator, for more information about the AiM Project and if you would like to be involved!