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Healing is embedded in each segment of the Medical College of Georgia’s tripartite mission: educating healers, researching tools for healing and serving those in need of healing.

Since the 1950s, a group of volunteers has been working to offer healing through song, painting, sculpture, dance and other forms of art.

The group now known as the MCG Arts Council has evolved over the years with the institution. In 2002, MCG Health, Inc., the nonprofit corporation that manages MCG’s clinical facilities, established the Healing Arts Program. Coordinated through the Volunteer Services Department, the program provides music and participatory arts to patients via the time and talents of nearly 50 artists a year.

For instance, an artist helps children make clay sculptures while waiting for a doctor’s appointment. For adults, there’s a harpist or quartet performing during a blood transfusion. Massage therapists provide chair massages for patients’ families to ease stress.

Luanne Schafner paints a giraffe as part of a jungle motif mural in the Pediatric Emergency Department. (MCG file photo) “The Healing Arts Program is designed to support our patient- and family-centered philosophy by enhancing the healing environment,” said Janet Howser, manager of Volunteer Services and the Healing Arts Program. “We offer a wide variety of services such as pet therapy, musicians in patient care areas and visual-arts displays in the MCG Medical Center and the Children’s Medical Center.”

Arts activities campuswide are consolidated under the MCG Arts Council. The group’s membership is drawn from MCG, MCG Health System and community arts programs and organizations. Monthly meetings are often held at member organizations’ home bases.

“One of our goals is to enhance the MCG environment for patients, their families, visitors, health care personnel and students through the visual and performing arts,” said Bill Andrews, chair of the MCG Arts Council and assistant professor of medical illustration. “We’ve developed subcommittees for performing arts, exhibitions, acquisitions, healing arts public relations and museum development and special collections.”

A major strength of the council is its partnerships with local museums and arts groups. MCG First Lady Lana Rahn initiated a program with the Broad Street Artists group to rotate displays in the historic Twin Gables, home of MCG’s first family. Over 50 regional artists display their work annually in Twin Gables and in the Greenblatt Library. Works from an additional 20 artists rotate monthly through three MCG Health System locations. Artists in residence at MCG Health System have provided numerous murals in the Children’s Medical Center, “which help soothe and distract children during appointments or while waiting,” said Mrs. Howser.

Medical student Gie Na Yu plays the violin during one of the Arts Council's performances. Since 2003, the council’s Performing Arts Subcomittee has sponsored community-building activities on campus. Over a dozen noon concerts, where MCG faculty, staff and students sing, dance, recite poetry and play the piano, have been held in the Large Auditorium. The series, Performing Live: Noon Arts Conference, draws hundreds from the MCG community together for lunch and a respite from the physical and emotional demands of providing health care.

“The focus of these concerts is really to bring people from all five schools together with music,” said Dr. Kathleen McKie. “By taking a little time out of the day to relax and see our colleagues in a different setting, we recharge ourselves. So these concerts have a tremendous impact on unifying the five schools and strengthening the healing powers of individuals. It’s hard to care for others without first caring for yourself.”

An essential ingredient in the concerts, says Dr. McKie, is music from MCG Chorus, which invites the audience to sing along. The dozen members began rehearsing weekly in the Large Auditorium in 2001. They have performed at approximately 10 institutional events each year, from the President’s Club dinner to the Martin Luther King Memorial Convocation. They also perform at community events and for the MCG Retirees Association, said Jason Maynard MCG chorus director.

“The members really enjoy the link they have with the community they are singing for,” said Mr. Maynard, who also directs music at Augusta’s Covenant Presbyterian Church. “At the MCG Retirees’ Christmas Luncheon, there was a great connection and you could tell that it was really important for the retirees to have us be a part of their celebration. Whether members are alumni, staff or students, they have a special relationship to MCG through the chorus, which is a neat thing.”

The council hosted two fundraisers in 2004 – a parking space raffle and a formal dinner. Nearly 200 gathered for Ebony and Ivory, an evening of performances by faculty, staff, spouses and students. The events, plus gifts from campus organizations, businesses and individuals, helped raise money for a Boston Steinway piano. A plaque honoring donors was unveiled Feb. 22 during a noon performance.

“All the funds for this instrument were raised entirely from donations,” said Mr. Andrews.

Dr. Kathleen McKie and President and Mrs. Daniel W. Rahn inspect the new piano. (Photo Wesley Hobbs) “We were particularly pleased to provide the Steinway for our students and housestaff, many of whom are accomplished pianists but who are unable to bring their instrument with them during their years in medical training. You can’t just bring along a piano like you can a woodwind or string instrument. Having a quality instrument available to them enables them to maintain their musical talent while acquiring their skills as health care providers.”

“The time and talents of so many people made the idea of the piano come to fruition,” said Mrs. Rahn. “The outpouring of energy to celebrate the performing arts at MCG was overwhelming – spouses, students, retirees and the Augusta community all contributed to make Ebony and Ivory an elegant evening. It’s exciting to think we have really set in motion something this community was so eager to embrace.”

A fall fundraiser will help the council continue its mission. To make a donation or for more information, contact Mr. Andrews at bandrews@mcg.edu or visit www.mcg.edu/artscouncil.

--Ellen Gladden

Building on a Strong Tradition

Dedication to the healing arts has a long and proud tradition at MCG.

In 1947, a student and faculty partnership called the Arts Series Committee was formed to present “entertainment seen in theatres and on stages at such renowned art centers as New York and Paris,” according to the student newspaper, the Cadaver. A January 1957 article explained the group was composed of four student representatives and five faculty representatives. The group’s financial ledger from 1954-72 documents rental fees for local auditoriums to bring films and plays to the MCG community.

Rossini’s Barber of Seville was performed by the National Grass Roots Opera Company in 1957. A Hungarian string quartet and a dance/drama group from New York came to the Lawton B. Evans auditorium in 1960. Films such as Cyrano de Bergerac and other “films not commercially shown in Augusta” were played in the MCG Auditorium in the 1960s.

“Documents show the committee played films on campus, but a majority of the live performances were held at local auditoriums,” said Lisa Westrick, MCG archivist.

The Art Series Committee was funded in part by a $2 subscription fee within student activities fees. Most of the funds came from “subscriptions of faculty, wives, students and other interested people in Augusta and the surrounding area.” A 1968 Cadaver article notes $1,478 of the total $20,580 MCG Student Activities Fees budget supported the Art Series Committee.

In 1988, a new group of arts-minded volunteers stepped forward to bring the arts to MCG patients and their families. Many of the approximately 10-member Arts in the Hospital Committee were spouses of faculty members, said Luann Tedesco, wife of MCG President Emeritus Francis J. Tedesco.

“We were just a small volunteer group who wanted to bring art into the hospital,” she said. “A lot was being written, even at that time, about the importance of art in healing. The impetus for our group was really Judy Avrett, an artist who was director of volunteer services for the hospital. She brought us together with the idea to bring not only artists but other interested volunteers from the community to campus.”

The committee brought traveling exhibits to campus – a collection of original artwork by Lamar Dodd, head the University of Georgia Art Department from 1939-72, the Southern Watercolor Society traveling exhibit and a Black History Month display of local African-American art. Various projects commemorated World AIDS Day Dec.1. Other events included a faculty and staff art exhibit and monthly outdoor performances titled “The Brown Bag Lunch Series.” The committee’s efforts also brought permanent pieces to MCG’s collection.

“One year, we sponsored an art exhibit from Harlem Hospital in New York. It was part of a violence prevention program that opened art to patients and youth in the neighborhood around the hospital. A work from that exhibit titled Jamaica Spring currently hangs in the lobby of the Ambulatory Care Center.”

Funding for many of the committee’s programs came the entry fees of artists who competed to have their work displayed in the hospital.

“I thought we did some pretty exciting things for such a small group,” said Mrs. Tedesco.

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August 16, 2005