The Arts in Medicine Program of Shands Teaching Hospital and the Health Sciences Center of the University of Florida announces a four-day Symposi um titled "Re-storying Lives, Restoring Selves: The Arts & Healing," to be h eld June 22-25, 1995, at the Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Florida campus.
Recently described at the national c onference of the Society for Health and Human Values as "one of the most innovat ive programs imaginable," Arts in Medicine brings healthcare givers and artists together to find new ways of healing, in addition to humanizing the hospital env ironment. It also conducts an active program in education and research based on the premise that there is a relationship among the body, the mind, creativity, and healing.
The Symposium theme addresses the issue of how telling about our illnesses, making a narrative of them through art--sto ries, music, dance, painting, plays, diaries--complements, indeed can enhance th e work of the healthcare giver. A wide variety of people, from the Gainesville area as well as about the state and nation, will be coming: patients and their f amilies, artists, physicians, dancers, nutritionists, educators, therapists, childlife workers, counselors, musicians, nurses, as well as practitioners of both traditional and modern healing arts.
There will be nationally-known speakers, such as the popular writer Michael Samuels (author of Well Body Book and Seeing with the Mind's Eye), Patch Adams (MD, clown, and Director of The Gesundheit! Institute), and Richard Lippin (MD,.President of the International Arts Medicine Association), as well as specially commissioned performances of Star Bradbury's dance piece, Tribes, and Sidney Homan's play, Oh, Doctor! Oh, Nurse!, a comic look at the health profession.
The Symposium opens Thursday with a day-long session on "The Art of Designing Spaces to Facilitate Healing" and concludes Sunday with a special performance and workshop by dancers Stuart Pimsler and Rick Rose
Still, the focus of the Symposium will be hands-on workshops, covering the variety of interests and activities represented by the Arts in Medicine Program. Some of those workshops include: "Writing for Healing," "Dancing the Body's Stories," "Visualization: The Simonton Approach," "Powers of the Mind: Psychoneuroimmunology and Beyond," "Nutrition and the Art of Food Preparation," "Arts and the Older Adult," "Good Health Is a Laughing Matter," "Art Techniques That Work in Hospitals," "H.E.A.L.S.: Bereavement Work with Children," "Finding Our Stories in Dreams," "Art Therapy as an Approach to Wellness," among others.
If you would like a brochure, more information, or registration material, please contact the Symposium Co-ordinator, Ms. Gail Ellison (phone, 904-377-3137), the Director of the Arts in Medicine Program, Dr. John-Graham Pole (Fax, 904-338-9808), or Professor Sidney Homan (English Department, 4008 Turlington Hall, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611).