Beyond the Classroom: Students Learn the Power of Healing in Unique Setting

Students from the School of Medicine are showing off an unexpected talent this month. Their artwork will be featured in an exhibit, “Art Saves Lives: Featuring the Artwork of Medical Students as Instructed by Artists Age 65 and Older,” until May 27 at the Lott Gallery at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts.

Art Saves Lives allows medical students to interact with seniors who have used arts, culture and entertainment to create and sustain lives of activity and passion. The seniors teach the medical students how to create art in their area of expertise.

Second year medical students were given the opportunity to work on the Art Saves Lives exhibit as their required community project in the Early Clinical Experience and as part of the Aging Block in their medical curriculum. Twenty-two medical students along with three senior artists, Ann McDonald, Nancy Melton and Sue Weninger, participated producing photography, jewelry, collage and mixed media.

Fiona Prabhu, M.D., an associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, said the Office of Geriatric Programs and the School of Medicine saw this project as an important experience for both students and seniors.

“The purpose of the project was to involve medical students with the senior-aged artists to improve their awareness of the valuable role that active seniors have in the community and to share that awareness with the community as a whole,” Prabhu said.

Andrew Dentino, M.D., the Bernhard T. Mittemeyer Endowed Chair in Geriatric Medicine at the School of Medicine, added, “This project not only brings different generations together, but it brings together the arts and the science communities of Lubbock. This brings healing far beyond the medical school classroom for the students and for the senior artist.”

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