Illuminations is a rotating art exhibit housed at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. The work of South Asian artists, Sunanda Sahay, Dr. Kabir Chuttani along with fourteen others will be part of the October 2010 - January 2011 session of the Exhibit. The exhibit is intended to offer enlightment and encouragement to patients, families, staff and friends as they receive care, provide care, or accompany loved ones.

"I am so honored that my work is displayed here. The work this hospital does is so important and to know that my art is supporting their work is wonderful indeed," said Sunanda Sahay whose Madhubani paintings were on display.

For Dr. Kabir Chuttani, the mission of his art is charity. Dr. Chuttani, who is a practicing Neurologist,  is also a photographer par excellence. "In the past I used to sell my photographs and donate the proceeds to charity.  Now I just give my work to people and ask them to donate to their favorite charity." A variety of artistic styles on a varied set of mediums were on display.

Stefanie Ryan, MA Art Therapy,Program Manager, Illuminations spoke to Lokvani about the exhibit.

What motivated you to work on this exhibit?

In addition to being the program manager for Illuminations, I am also a clinically trained expressive arts therapist and licensed mental health counselor; so personally and professionally, I have always found creating artwork and viewing artwork to be an effective coping strategy and an integral component to one's healing process.  While I have been with the program for the past four years, the Illuminations program actually began in 2001 as an effort to improve the clinical experience of patients, families and staff in our Cancer Center, supporting our belief that the environment in which care is delivered aids healing.

All Art displayed was of highest quality. How did you find artists of such caliber? How where they selected?

Our artists are recruited in a number of ways. We place a classified ad in the bi-monthly magazine "Art New England" and frequently get requests for application information via this avenue. Additionally word of mouth from artists referring their colleagues to participate is also a great way we generate participation. Artwork is selected by a committee of diverse hospital staff (social workers, practice managers, a doctor from our breast center, administrative professionals, previous artists) who meet once a month to review incoming applications. Applications are reviewed with the following questions in mind...What is portrayed in the piece at hand? How do “we" the committee react to the piece? How do we anticipate “patients” will react? Do the piece(s) embody the mission of Illuminations (uplifting, inspiring, visually stimulating and interesting)? Will inclusion of these piece(s) support the growth of the program, as well as the variety of mediums, which are displayed? Though Illuminations accepts artists at all levels of experience, do the piece(s) at hand represent the level of quality, which the Cancer Center strives for in all of its programs? In addition to reviewing applications on a monthly basis, members of our committee also attend open art studios, art-walks, other gallery openings, etc. on their own time, sharing information about our program and recruiting potential new artists.

How do your patients receive art from other cultures?

The Massachusetts General Hospital in general, not even specific to the Cancer Center, is a large academic medical facility with staff and students from a variety of cultural backgrounds, and serves patients and their families from all over the world. It only seems appropriate then to include artwork from a variety of different cultures to not only inspire and open patients, their families and staff to new visual experiences, but  to also adequately reflect the many diverse populations the Cancer Center serves.

What do you think has been the biggest gain of this idea?

I believe the biggest gain of the program is that the MGH Cancer Center recognizes and believes that treating the patient, includes treating the whole person, body, mind and spirit, not just the presenting illness and in turn our patients benefit from the perspective, whether it be through experiencing the visually healing artwork on display in Illuminations or being able to incorporate additional complementary therapies into their treatment, such as art and music therapy, acupuncture and massage. 
 

A beautiful exhibit well worth a visit.  For more information checkout,

http://www.massgeneral.org/cancer/Illuminations/

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