Welcome back to campus everyone! After a year of being mostly at home with Zoom learning, it feels wonderful to be back on campus and see some familiar faces while also seeing some new faces in person for the first time. The Art in Medicine program has been gearing up for everyone’s return and would like to introduce you to a few of the exhibits that you’ll find in the Health Sciences Education Building (HSEB).
On the first floor of HSEB is the work of J. Fredric May. May is a photographer and filmmaker who was blinded by a stroke. The stroke left him with visual hallucinations which he channeled into the artwork on display in an exhibit entitled “Postcards from Eye See You.” We hope you take some time to view the large panels just installed on the elevator ban. Seen from afar, the faces really come together.
On the second floor of HSEB is a collaborative exhibit of the work of three photographers: Jon Linton, Olga Tsoudis, and Stephanos Antoniades. This black and white photography exhibit features photographs of downtown Phoenix buildings by Tsoudis and Antoniades, alongside powerful photos by Linton of some of the people who call the street home. The “Downtown Phoenix” exhibit showcases the public spaces in Phoenix and who uses these spaces (or doesn’t) and gives us an opportunity to talk about emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, and the impact the pandemic may have had on behaviors in public spaces.
On the third floor of HSEB is the exhibit “Humans of Tempe,” on loan from the Tempe History Museum. Loosely based on the Humans of New York idea, four photographers gathered short interviews and information portraits of random folks on the streets of Tempe. Each photo and caption provide a small glimpse into the psyche, problems, adventures, worries, and dreams of some of the people inhabiting our cities.
Keep an eye out for future exhibits to be installed soon on the fifth floor, as well as in the cafeteria. We hope you enjoy all of this new art on campus!
Cynthia Standley, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Bioethics and Medical Humanism at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix and the Director of the Art in Medicine program at the College. She is an accomplished medical educator with more than 25 years’ experience teaching physiology to both osteopathic and allopathic medical students. She founded the Art in Medicine program at the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix in 2014 and has partnered with the Phoenix Art Museum to provide arts education to students with the goal of improving patient care as well as student wellness. She has been funded by the Arizona Commission on the Arts for her Creativity in Elder Care program which teaches students how to use creative expression with elders and those with dementia to improve empathy and patient care. She is a certified Zentangle® Teacher, and teaches meditative pattern drawing to promote self-care and wellness. She is also certified through the QPR Institute to provide suicide awareness and prevention training. For her personal arts background, she is trained in botanical illustration and enjoys doing mixed media as well as other visual arts. She recently completed the Molly Blank Fund-ASU Gammage Teaching Artist program utilizing the Kennedy Center Arts Integration method.