{"id":8493,"date":"2022-07-15T15:34:56","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T19:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?page_id=8493"},"modified":"2025-11-10T14:08:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T19:08:02","slug":"arts-lab","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/research-scholarship-community-engagement\/arts-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"ARTS | LAB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artistry in Healthcare<\/h3>\n

The ARTS | LAB passion is to ensure that a future of art and health in unison arrives sooner. Our mission is to advance the understanding of creativity as health<\/strong>\u2014the quiet foundation beneath individual and collective wellbeing.<\/h5>\n

Since 2012, this unique collaboration has led the way in a new creative field: artistry in healthcare. Over the years, generations of Boston University student artists have answered the call to go beyond the isolation of studios and practice rooms. They meet the complexities of healthcare as artists, guided by curiosity\u2014present and open to rediscovering artistic skill and creative practice anew.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The result is creative research at its best\u2014paving new avenues for artists in a culture of health, while creative innovation supports the mission of BU\u2019s teaching affiliate, Boston Medical Center.<\/p>\n

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Many years later I still remember the feeling of being at Boston Medical Center and experiencing that vibrant life quality\u2013that awake-ness; that realness of artistry close to life.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–Corianna Moffatt<\/strong> (CFA’10,’19), Theatre Education alum and a 2018 ARTS | LAB Fellow\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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ABOUT ARTS | LAB<\/h5>
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Outreach is often the initial impulse for artists entering healthcare. Yet, ARTS | LAB is an invitation to go past the outreach mindset<\/strong>. Our decade of experience suggests that while outreach may facilitate encounter, it does not hold space for true transformation. Changing location does not imply actual change; committed awareness and presence open the gateway to a new field of understanding.<\/p>\n

Our approach is relational rather than performative<\/strong>\u2013it does not turn patients into audiences, the hospital into a stage, or artists into physicians. Artistry in healthcare defines the possibility of creatively relating to the actual needs emerging from clinical reality<\/strong>. In that way, we build productive relationships with healthcare without compromising the artistic integrity of new generations of artists.<\/p>\n

Playing at BMC public spaces is my favorite experience. Mainly because of ARTS | LAB approach to creating music that directly relates to space. It was very insightful, I learned a lot […] Having a space where I could take time and risks helped me develop and grow my expressiveness. I could not have done that exploration in the context and pressure of studio training.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–Anna Harris<\/strong> (CFA’22), Violin Performance alum<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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PROJECTS<\/h5>
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ARTS | LAB enjoys the responsibility of imagining new potentials for artistry in a fast-paced, changing society. Each one of our projects is a thoughtful response to a concrete need emerging from clinical reality \u2013 from addressing noise on a surgical unit to enlivening isolation in chemotherapy sessions.<\/p>\n

Relevance remains our primary artistic agenda<\/strong>. And in turn, artistry gains a rare clarity and maturity<\/strong>\u2013it leaves behind the noise of needing to prove or impress.<\/p>\n

Amidst hospital turmoil, artistry becomes a living standard<\/strong>. By means of presence, without effort, it communicates qualities of stillness, elegance, flow, beauty, trust, joy… It actualizes environments suitable for care and recovery\u2013a felt remembrance that transformation is natural; that things work out. Healthcare itself aspires to these qualities, and artists long to embody them beyond the superficial display of skill.<\/p>\n

Our curated arts\/health projects range from general art interventions<\/strong> in public hospital spaces (Arts Life Series), to innovative creative research programs facilitating individualized patient-artist collaborations<\/strong>\u2014remote live music connections for ICU patients, art-making experiences for those waiting in hospital, and photography as a pathway to restored worthiness in the daily lives of sickle cell patients.<\/p>\n

Did you ever imagine your artistry going that far? We do.<\/p>\n

ARTS | LAB gave me the opportunity to experience the impact of creativity and art in real time. It is very tangible and direct because you work creatively in a concrete environment. That is very unique, and it taught me a lot about what creative practice actually is.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–Dzidzor Azaglo<\/strong> (STH’25), Performance Art alum and a 2019 ARTS | LAB Fellow\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The opportunity to connect with community was so wonderful \u2013 the interactions with BMC patients; to see that what we do as artists has an impact on others. We are very lonely most of the time, and we forget how to engage. ARTS | LAB was my training to connect with others in a genuine and natural way.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–In\u00eas Andrade<\/strong> (CFA’18), Piano Performance alum and a 2020 ARTS | LAB Fellow\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n