Welcome to the Georgetown Lombardi Arts & Humanities Program (AHP) newsletter. In this week's issue, musician-in-residence, Anthony Hyatt describes how innovation and collaboration with MGUH's Telehealth Technology Coordinators continues to ensure patients have access to music. Also, artist-in-residence, Jennifer Wilkin Penick, who headed up AHP's "Art for a Cause" project, shares what it was like to receive thousands of donated artworks for people affected by cancer.

How AHP Uses Technology to Deliver Music to Patients

Musician-in-residence Anthony Hyatt with MedStar Georgetown TTC staff members, Jennifer Dubon and Juana Mendoza.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, AHP artists and musicians used technology to continue their work providing arts engagement for patients and staff. Musician-in-residence Anthony Hyatt describes how he and other musicians performed virtually. It's a story of innovation and collaboration with support from the greater MGUH community.

Early in the pandemic, as you and the other artists sought to continue serving patients at MGUH, you had a particularly meaningful experience with a patient. Please describe it.

In June of 2020 we were doing the best that we could to connect with patients using the hospital’s landline telephones. One day I called the ICU. The nurse that answered said, “We've got a telehealth machine that's not being used right now. Would you be willing to use that instead?” I said, “Yes, of course.” So, she took the equipment into a patient’s room. The person on the other side of the screen was an African American COVID patient in his fifties or sixties – one of many who were terribly alone with their sickness. He was lying in bed and was on a ventilator. He appeared to be unresponsive when I spoke to him so I started to play my violin. After he heard the first notes of Gershwin’s “Summertime” he opened his eyes and looked at me. I finished the song and introduced myself. He couldn't speak because of the ventilator so I said, “I can see you. If you raise your hand, I will know that it means, ‘Yes.’” I asked, “Do you like the music? Would you like another song?” His hand went up. I played and sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Then I had an idea. I said, “if you leave your hand up and move it with the music, we’d be dancing together.” I backed away from the camera so that he could see me move as I played “The Florida Blues”. He responded by using his hand to rock a pillow back and forth across his legs. I was crying afterward when I asked whether he had enjoyed it and he raised his hand again.

Wow, how has the use of technology to deliver music to MGUH patients evolved from there?

Our AHP program innovated rapidly to create and disseminate videos, online classes etc. We artists turned our homes into broadcast studios. With help from MedStar’s Office of Innovation we resumed our partnership with the hospital’s Palliative Care Team. Onsite Telehealth Technology Coordinators found a way to affix a tablet computer to an IV pole which could be wheeled into a room to allow our interactions with the patients. Eventually external speakers with microphones were added to this setup. MedStar’s leaders noticed and supported the growth of the TTC team and their shifts to increasingly user-friendly equipment. Now the musicians have returned to doing in-person work in the hospital but we are not abandoning the use of technology to enhance our connection to the hospital’s community. It helps us to enhance our teamwork and relationships with patients, their families and the hospital’s other healthcare professionals.

What role do you think technology will play in the future in delivering music to healthcare settings?

It enhances our flexibility and ability to serve patients who might otherwise be inaccessible to us. Technology can allow us to develop continuing relationships with individuals as they move between healthcare facilities and their homes. Technological innovation also can help us to remove barriers between our community and our healthcare professionals so that in the future these first responders will not have to face the stress of a crisis alone. And we musicians are excited by possibilities that will be created in the new surgical and medical pavilion building that will be opening at MGUH. State of the art technology will be a feature of the individual patient rooms in this facility. I’m sure that this will allow us to showcase many exciting possibilities for the enhanced delivery of music in hospitals and other healthcare settings.

"Art for a Cause" Inspires Thousands Across the Globe to Make and Donate Collage Art

Art for a Cause exhibition in the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center

Beginning on May 12, 2023, AHP launched an exhibition titled, “Art for a Cause,” featuring over 3,000 pieces of 4”x 4” collage art that was displayed in the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and Georgetown University’s Lauinger Library through May 25. Artists from 29 countries and 41 U.S. states submitted pieces that are now being attached to blank greeting cards and donated to cancer patients, their families, caregivers, and hospital staff. Artist-in-residence, Jennifer Penick oversaw the project, which was timed to coincide with World Collage Day on May 13. We recently spoke with her about the project and what it was like to receive thousands (her latest count is 3,610) of artworks from artists across the globe.

What surprised you the most about the responses you received from artists during the “Art for a Cause” project?



I hadn’t expected that a call for collage art would appeal to community groups all over the world. I think that many artists connected with the idea of making art for cancer patients as a way of brightening someone’s day. Other people seemed to realize that even if they don’t consider themselves artists, they can sit down with a junk mail catalog, cut out little pictures, glue them down and create something that looks beautiful. And wouldn't it be sweet to send it to someone at a cancer center? But we also received boxes -- heavy boxes -- filled with artwork from community groups in Pennsylvania, senior citizens in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, retirees in Sweden, preschoolers, high school and university students. I was amazed at how it wasn’t just individuals making art for patients. Groups of people loved using the project as a social activity.

You said that some of the artists included letters or dedicated their artwork to loved ones. What did they say?

The most common response we saw was, “Thank you so much for allowing us to take part in this. It was such a great activity for our group.” We also heard from teachers who said things like, “We hope that this makes the patients as happy as making the collages made us.” Some people sent art because they or a loved one had the experience of seeing art in a hospital. Others said they had been in hospitals with no art. In both cases people acknowledged how much art affected their mood and memories of being in those spaces, so they were happy to contribute. People also shared heartbreaking stories. They dedicated their collages to siblings, parents, grandparents, children. I remember a line from someone who dedicated artwork to their sister, “who battled cancer until her little body could battle no more.” As a dedication, another artist made a collage using handmade paper by her mother, who had died 30 years ago. I knew that the patients would benefit from receiving art, but I hadn't really thought about how making the art was also a gift to people, such as loved ones and caregivers. It gave them a voice to express both their own heartache and their hope for others experiencing cancer. There was a real sense of solidarity.

How has this project inspired you to think about the intersection of arts in health and healthcare?



Before 2018, when I started working in the Lombardi Center, I hadn’t put a lot of thought into the intersection of art and healthcare. Since then, I have been exposed to an environment in which people express daily how art gives them a mental break from their concerns. Also, just growing older myself, I’ve had more people I love deal with cancer or illness. I certainly think more about mortality now than I ever did. Plus, the COVID-19 pandemic caused many people to feel more anxious and isolated. In response to that, a community of artists has grown up who see art making as a great way for people to feel less isolated and less stressed. Art is a stress reliever, whether you’re looking at it or making it.

The Georgetown Lombardi Arts & Humanities Program (AHP) promotes a holistic approach to healthcare for patients, caregivers, physicians, nurses, staff members, and students through the use of music, dance, expressive writing, and visual arts. These therapeutic modalities are normally provided throughout the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., and online through Eventbrite courses. The AHP is a program of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.