My favourite hospital news story of the year isn’t about a new medical procedure, diagnostic test, or treatment, nor about bioethics; my field before a mild cognitive impairment stemming from my rare disease ended my beloved career. No, this news piece is more like something we’d expect about a gallery or a museum rather than a local university-hospital centre:
Matisse, Hockney and Picasso are names you expect to see on gallery or museum walls in Montreal, not where doctors are hard at work.
“It is one of the largest public collections in Quebec, especially for a hospital,” said Alexandra Kirsh, McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) RBC Art and Heritage Centre Curator.”
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Alexandra on a few occasions, including when I participated in an eight-month temporary exhibition at another hospital run by the same university-hospital network. She’s a lovely person, and very passionate about her role in bringing art into healthcare settings.
The MUHC Foundation owns approximately two thousand art pieces and medical objects.
The collection is then given to the MUHC hospital and distributed throughout the Glen site.
There are pieces dating back to the hospital’s foundation in 1821.
“It’s very important for us to provide a healing environment that is peaceful, and it is demonstrated that art actually contributes to reducing stress, reducing pain,” said MUHC Foundation president and CEO Marie-Helene Laramee.”
Look for works, in this CTV News Montreal video, by David Hockey on a pale gray wall, by Henri Matisse on a yellow one, by Pablo Picasso (approximately) on blue, and much more!
As a local emerging artist & CRPS rare disease patient who uses her own artwork to raise awareness of chronic pain – through my Art Despite Pain [#ArtDespitePain] initiative – I was happy that this news report mentions research showing that art can reduce stress and pain, even within hospital environments. And as a member of the (American) National Organization for Arts in Health, I’m always happy to see media reports on the importance of art in healthcare settings.
Link to video and written report, by Videojournalist Olivia O’Malley for CTV News Montreal (anchored by Mutsumi Takahashi):
