Nurturing creativity at the bedside
When a child's day revolves around seemingly endless visits from doctors and nurses, as well as mysterious — and sometimes frightening — medical procedures and tests, it's hard for them to feel like normal kids.
At Children's Memorial Hospital, a number of programs have been created through the Family Services department to provide patients and their families with arts experiences that are designed to help them cope with being hospitalized, learn something new or simply have a good time. Art therapists and music therapists work on multidisciplinary teams as a part of the child life team, while other arts opportunities can be found in outpatient settings and the Janice and Kimberly Brown Family Life Center.
Snow City Arts offers hospitalized patients with an interest in visual arts, music and writing additional opportunities to stretch their creative skills. The program, which is currently available to inpatients on three floors of the hospital, is totally supported through philanthropy. Since it was established at the hospital in April 2005, the arts education organization has worked with more than 800 Children's Memorial patients.
One of the keys to the Snow City Arts approach is one-on-one instruction from “artists-in-residence,” who are all working artists, musicians and writers. Musically-inclined patients can learn to write a song, play an instrument and record their compositions. In creative writing workshops, kids can compose their own short stories and poems as well as study literature. There are numerous possibilities in the visual arts workshops, ranging from painting and sculpting to drawing, computer art, photography and filmmaking. Some of the films created by patients have been shown on the hospital's Skylight TV closed-circuit television channel, which is supported by Kohl's Department Stores, among others.
“Sometimes the artwork takes the form of self-expression about a child's own experiences at the hospital, and sometimes it's about how they view the world, says Victoria Storm, manager of the hospital's Child Life program. “Most importantly, the kids really love it.”
Visual artist Sadia Uqaili works with patients two days a week. “For children, the beeping of the medical equipment, the doctors in their white coats and being in a confined space are not natural,” she says. “So it's lovely to see that dissolve into the background when a patient creates and, in essence, changes his or her environment.”
Snow City Arts worked with patients to create superhero identities with custom theme songs.
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While the focus of Snow City Arts is on one-on-one instruction, Uqaili says there are a variety of projects that incorporate the work of several patients. For example, children may create their own mosaic panels, which will eventually be combined into one large mosaic. Uqali says that the artists-in-residents weave an educational component into the workshops. For example, children are provided with cultural and historical backgrounds on the projects they choose.
“It's important for children to know that despite their illnesses or physical limitations, it's a fantastic feeling to create a finished piece of artwork, maybe even something they might not be able to do at home or in school,” says Uqaili.
Children's Memorial's Family Services department is funded through donations from Children's Memorial Guild; The Fun Fund, established in memory of James P. Langdon; the Gus Foundation; Mr. and Mrs. Richard T. Hough; Kids Fight Cancer; K.I.D.S.S. for Kids; Northwest Suburban Guild; the Robbie Fund; the Wish List Auxiliary; The Founders' Board of Children's Memorial Hospital; and Kerry and Sarah Wood, among others.
For more information on the Snow City Arts Foundation, call 773.880.4093 or visit www.snowcityarts.com.