Programs
Visual Arts in Healthcare programs at Brigham & Women’s Hospital are each unique, depending on the educational and clinical goals of the group participating. Programs are led by art educators with extensive experience in facilitating discussions. Co-facilitators from the healthcare group are encouraged to partner with the art educator to lead the sessions. A variety of arts-based activities will be designed for the session that include opportunities for group discussion, personal reflection, and creativity. These activities take place in local museums, hospital meeting spaces or via zoom.
If you are interested in developing and booking a program, please complete this short program request form. We’ll be in touch with you soon and look forward to working with you!
What do the arts bring to medicine?
Program Examples
Resident Humanistic Curriculum
Integrated Teaching Unit Teambuilding
Training the Eye
Palliative Care Interprofessional Workshops
Testimonials
“As a resident, I was fortunate enough to participate in the BWH Integrated Teaching Unit (ITU) experiences at the MFA several years ago. As a chief resident, I’ve been fortunate enough to join these experiences on the ITU again, and these experiences still live up to the goal of bringing art and humanism to medicine. Our museum experiences have certainly brought my ITU teams together over the years, and we function as a better unit because of our experiences. In addition, through the amazing BWH Visual Arts program, we have been able to bring humanism to other aspects of our residency including our Junior Humanistic Curriculum, which makes for a fun-filled and reflective day for the junior residents. Overall, the BWH Visual Arts program adds so much to the residency experience and has helped me reflect upon what it means to be a doctor.”
— Daniel Pipilas, MD
Chief Medical Resident, Academic Year 2021-2022, BWH Internal Medicine Residency
“Our fellows participated in an afternoon workshop at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and it was wonderful! Brooke took fellows through a series of exercises including self-reflection, identifying artworks reflecting particular ideas, journaling, and group discussion. The workshop occurred at the end of the academic year so the exercises centered on themes such as personal growth and leadership. Fellows were able to reflect with more depth and intuition than if they had done similar exercises outside the museum setting. We are so lucky to have this kind of experience as a resource to teach our trainees ideas and skills they would not otherwise not have access to!”
— Jane deLima Thomas, MD
Associate Director, Harvard Interprofessional Palliative Care Fellowship Program
Harvard Medical School, Continuing Medical Education
Training our Eyes, Minds and Hearts: Visual Thinking Strategies for Health Care Professionals
This course, the first of its kind for CME, trains health care professionals at all levels to facilitate and apply Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) techniques and mindsets in classrooms, meetings, clinics, and hospitals. Learning and applying VTS strengthens humanistic and analytic competencies and can transform medical education, patient care, teamwork, equity, and professional growth. Virtual sessions run from September - February. The course is taught by Joel Katz, MD, Dabney Hailey, MA, and Corinne Zimmermann, MA MEd, with special guest speakers.
Information and a detailed course schedule can be found here.
Art Museum-based Health Professions Education Fellowship
The Art Museum-based Health Professions Education Fellowship, in partnership with the Visual Arts In Healthcare Program at BWH, prepares participants to be leaders in art-museum based health professions education (MBE-HP). Fellows develop pedagogical skills in MBE-HP and learn innovative ways to use art and the art museum to advance health professions educational goals, skills and attitudes. A cornerstone of the Fellowship is the development of a museum-based health professions educational project. The Fellowship includes two 3-day in person immersive experiences in Boston area art museums, and project development is supported by structured monthly virtual meetings and coaching from course directors and graduates of previous cohorts. Fellows become part of a community that is deeply sustaining both professionally and personally. To learn about our 2024-2025 Fellows, visit our Fellowship page.
In-person course dates for the 2025/2026 cohort will be October 17–19, 2025 and April 10-12, 2026 in Boston. The deadline to apply is March 1, 2025. For more information and to apply, please visit the Harvard Macy Institute.
MassArt Art Museum