About Us

The Visual Arts in Healthcare Program was created in 2022 bringing together several pioneering Brigham & Women’s Art & Medicine programs. Started over 22 years ago with a single course at Harvard Medical School, Training the Eye: Improving the Art of Physical Diagnosis, the programs have since expanded to serve medical students, trainees, and healthcare providers in all specialties. Learn about our mission, vision, and goals for this innovative work.

Vision

To enrich the relationship between patients, families, and healthcare teams through essential visual arts-based curricula and professional development.

Mission

The Visual Arts in Healthcare Program at BWH develops and advances visual arts-based learning experiences to cultivate empathetic, resourceful, and collaborative healthcare teams to improve patient care.

Goals

Train healthcare teams using visual arts methods to:
- Build essential skills in humanistic healthcare, including empathy, teamwork, respect, and curiosity.
- Enhance critical thinking, diagnostic analysis, communication skills, and cultural understanding.
- Improve the lives of healthcare workers through opportunities for self-care, reflection, social connections, and creativity.
Advance the scholarship and research that validates the benefits of visual arts experiences for healthcare workers.
Strengthen the visual arts in healthcare locally and nationally as a center for thought leadership and sharing ideas.

VAH@BWH Leadership Bios

Brooke DiGiovanni Evans, Ed.M. is the Director and co-founder of the Visual Arts in Healthcare Program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and a lecturer with Harvard Medical School. In these roles she implements and oversees arts-based programming for clinicians, students, and staff at BWH and affiliated institutions. She manages research projects to document and understand the value of the visual arts in the wider medical community. Ms. DiGiovanni Evans has worked with clinicians locally and nationally for over ten years developing and leading arts-based programs in museums and online that focus on building skills to enhance patient care. Prior to working at BWH, Brooke worked at the Harvard Art Museums and the Peabody Essex Museum and most recently was the Head of Gallery Learning at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Brooke is a part time faculty member at Northeastern University and Boston University and on the Board of Directors for the National Organization for Arts in Health.

VAH@BWH Associate Faculty Members

Daniel Solomon, MD, is a clinician educator in the division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is the Morgan-Zinnser director for clinical learning in the Health Sciences and Technology track at Harvard Medical School where he directs the foundational clinical skills course for pre-clerkship medical students, and he is the Associate Program Director for the Mass General Brigham Infectious Diseases Fellowship.

Joel T. Katz, M.D., M.A.C.P., VAH Emeritus Director, is a former biomedical illustrator who has championed the use of visual arts to improve patient care and health professional education and well-being. Dr. Katz is a primary care physician, infectious diseases specialist, and Senior Vice President for Education at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Michael P.H. Stanley, MD is director of the neurocognitive division at Tufts Medical Center. In addition his clinical duties and scholarly work in the medical humanities, Dr. Stanley is a frequent contributor in the lay press and lecturer expounding on topics of medicine & society. For the Center, you may see him helping to guide a workshop, contribute to the blog, or engage in research activities.

Staci Eisenberg, MD, Assistant Program Director for Wellbeing within the BWH internal medicine residency and Director of the residency’s Humanistic Curriculum. She is also APD of the Harvard BWH/BCH Med-Peds Residency.

Dominique Harz, DMD, MDS, MMSc,
is an orthodontist with a keen interest in medical education. Engaged in both teaching and research, she focuses on exploring the applications of art museum-based methodologies in healthcare professions education.

Maria Yialamas, MD, Program Director of the internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is a national leader in developing programs – including arts-based programs – to support women as leaders in academic medicine.

VAH@BWH Research Fellows

Stephanie Cohen, MD, Poorvu Research Fellow, 2022-2024, is an artist and surgery resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. She earned her B.S. in Biochemistry from Tufts University and B.F.A. in Studio Art from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts prior to medical school

Maya Lakshmi Srinivasan, MD, Bonomi-Matty Visual Arts in Healthcare Scholar & Research Fellow 2024-2026, is an artist and general surgery resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She earned her B.A. in Mathematics & Studio Art from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, and earned her M.D. at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC. She is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI

VAH@BWH Collaborators

VAH Visiting Scholar

Christine Bentley, PhD is Professor of Art History at Missouri Southern State University. Christine teaches in the areas of Art History and Medical Humanities. Her research centers around the development of educational resources and teaching methodologies that highlight the beneficial use of art within medical curriculum

VAH Intern

Hannah Kim, MS is a research assistant in the BWH Psychiatry department. She is interested in women's health and equality as well as the intersection of the humanities and healthcare

Visual Arts Advisory Committee

Welcome to the Visual Arts in Healthcare Program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. I come to this position because of my deep interest in the relationship between art and medicine, and the longstanding conviction that art and medicine influence each other. Both disciplines benefit from that shared relationship.

The Visual Arts in Healthcare Program at BWH creates opportunities for physicians in training and healthcare staff to enhance their patient care abilities by building on their communication, observation, and teamwork skills through the lens of a work of art. Engaging with art also expands an understanding of the issues of diversity, cultural differences, and bias. Using a humanistic curriculum, we focus on challenging topics in medical practice such as death and dying, racial inequities, and self care.

The professional Advisory Committee meets on a regular basis to: advise and assist in expanding this work at BWH,, build connections with community and organizational partners, and advocate for developing best practices for arts in healthcare programming. Members of the Committee are true ambassadors for the VAH@BWH.

Many thanks for your interest and support of the Visual Arts in Healthcare Program at BWH. We are eager to continue moving forward in this exciting endeavor.

Jane B. Mayer

Committee Chair, MSW, Chair of the Art and Environment Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Gallery Instructor and Chair of the Steering Committee, Curators Circle for Conservation and Scientific Research, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Committee Members

Beth Balliro, Ph.D.

Chair of Education Department, MassArt
Jonah Blumenthal

Medical Student, Harvard Medical School
Jane deLima Thomas, MD

Associate Chair for Professional Development, Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care Institute Physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Elizabeth Gaufberg , MD, MPH

Founding Director of Center for Professional and Academic Development, Cambridge Health Alliance
Richard Haynes

Artist and Director of Admissions for Recruitment and Access at the University of New Hampshire. Artist website
Mary Anne Kenyon, DNP

Professional Development Manager, Center for Nursing Excellence, Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Nora McDonough Nurse Residency Program, Director
Truelian Lee

Harvard Medical School student
Lydia Lopoukhine

Art Advisor, Principal, LFA Art Management,
LLC
Silvina Mizrahi

Visual Artist, sculptor, painter, educator, trained in dance and theater. Artist website.
Nazanin Moghbeli, MD

Artist and Director of the Cardiac Care Unit at Einstein Medical Center and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College. Artist website.
Amy Poorvu

Gallery Instructor, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Barbara Reville, DNP, ANP

Faculty, Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care
Celeste Royce, MD

Clerkship Director, Director of Undergraduate Medical Education, OB/GYN Course Director, Transition to the PCE, Harvard Medical School, OB/GYN Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Fidencio Saldana, MD, MPH

Dean for Students, Harvard Medical School
David Silbersweig, MD

Chairman Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Frederick Tsai, MD, PhD,

Clinical Fellow, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute