This week has been an incredible culmination of all of my hard work at Winship Cancer Institute. After spending several months tirelessly recruiting new artists to come to our Arts in Health Open House/Orientation event, it finally happened. This past Friday, I held the Arts in Health Open House event at Winship, where 25 artists and performers from the local Atlanta area came to learn more about our program. I gave them a description of the program, had current artist volunteers provide testimonies of their experiences in Arts in Health, took new volunteers on a tour of Winship, and held a time for those interested in registering as Winship artist volunteers to do so after a brief orientation.
The Open House/Orientation went perfectly (at least that’s what it seemed like to our guests). Of course, there were several moments of hectic craziness that were occurring behind the scenes, but the good thing is that those mis-haps were never made apparent to our invitees. I learned several important things while preparing for and managing this event. For starters, I probably tried to do one too many things at once. I had scheduled for an Arts in Health “Art Day” to occur at the exact same time as our Arts in Health Open House event. This Art Day had three different art stations set up on three different levels of Winship, including Fall Decoration crafts, jewelry making, and pour/drip painting with a new artist. I thought that taking the new potential artist volunteers on a tour of Winship while an Art Day was going on would be a great way to expose them to how they can get involved as artists at Winship. However. As much as I tried to delegate leadership during the Art Day event to other Winship volunteers (because I wouldn’t be actually present during the Art Day because I was at the open house), it did not pan out as I had expected. Several things with the Art Day went wrong, including having our artist volunteer not even show up to do his pour/drip painting with our patients that he was scheduled for. We also ran our of jewelry/bracelet string, so patients began just taking beads home without a chain. Again, however, none of the potential volunteers who were viewing the program for the first time new that any of this was going on, it just caused a lot of unnecessary stress for my boss and I (who was helping me out in every way possible).
BUT – after the Open House was over, I went to the Winship volunteers who had been at the Art Day stations while I was busy and asked them to give honest feedback on the Art Day. They said it went great and that so many patients expressed how much they enjoyed having the opportunity to do art while waiting for labs or after coming out of the infusion center. This made my heart soar. That is what having an Art Day is all about: making sure that patients have an opportunity to do something fun and creative while waiting on results or treatment that may not be so fun. Additionally, my boss, DaVida, was very proud of me and expressed her satisfaction with how both the events turned out. All in all, the day was great and we had about 20 new artists sign up to join our the Arts in Health program.
Arts in Health is growing every day, and I know that it will be one portion of Winship that will change the “patient experience” for many years to come.