We Believe...

in integrating the arts and humanities into the life of the Center, bringing the healing power of the arts to people who are suffering and to those who care for them. Programs are developed in partnership with local arts organization, and always with the involvement of Medical Center staff and patients.

...in the spirit of healing, and in Florence Nightingale's belief: "Little as we know about the way in which we are affected by form, by color and light, we do know this, they have an actual physical effect. Variety of form and brilliance of color in the objects presented to patients are actual means of recovery." (Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It is Not, 1888)

Our Goals

	To bring beauty to the healthcare environment by collecting and exhibiting the visual arts and by advocating for an aesthetic sensibility in the design of the physical surroundings.
	To touch the spirit by providing opportunities for the visual, performing, and literary arts to help us tap into deeper sources of strength and consolation.
	To celebrate community among the people who work and study in the Medical Center by creating opportunities for colleagues to exhibit their creative art, craft, and performing skills for each other and for the larger community.
	To honor the diversity of the Medical Center community by reflecting its many cultures in all Cultural Services program areas.
	To contribute to the Medical Center's international leadership role by developing a replicable program of partnership between the arts and healthcare.

Areas of Focus now include programs in

• Environmental Art
• Literary Arts
• Media Arts
• Performing Arts
• Visual Arts
• Arts that Celebrate the Community

Environmental Art

Art has become a part of the hospital landscape, both inside and out. Folk artist Clyde Jones' Critters amble up the hill to the pediatric playyard.
	Little villages of birdhouses   made by Appalachian crafts   people populate the inside of   the playyard.
Funds are now being sought for the Eye Center's Fragrance Garden, designed by a team of artists and horticulturists. The lines of paving follow the path of  the sun at different seasons.

Literary Arts

The Osler Literary Roundtable meets weekly to discuss poems and short stories. Many notable poets, writers, and scholars have come to read and talk about their works with the Roundtable, which is open to all. The sessions are led by our Poet in Residence, who also coordinates writing workshops for patients and caregivers. Poetry contests have harvested an eloquent variety of creative expression from all areas of the Medical Center community.

If I could bring you one thing from the garden...

I would bring you a goldfish,
put him in a bowl and let him swim
so Papa could watch.

I would bring you blossoms blowing
from the flowering trees, sprinkle
them in Papa's room and make it smell good.

I would bring the wind from the garden.

I would bring what you cannot bottle,
the feeling, the exhilaration.

Excerpt from a group poem written by oncology patients and their families in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens

Media Arts

A special television channel for patients showcases North Carolina's film and video artists  and focuses on the  cultural resources of the state. The  Hospital Auxiliary helps distribute  channel guides to patients.

Performing Arts

Dancers, opera singers, string quartets, bluegrass  bands, gospel choirs, and other strolling musicians visit patient units and public areas. Talented Medical Center employees are featured in the outdoor Summer Arts Festival.

	Art comes out of the galleries and into the hospital's busy corridors, to catch the  imagination of the thousands of  patients, visitors, and staff who pass by every day.
Some artworks that are especially easy to describe and to recognize are strategically placed as landmarks, to help people find their way around our expansive Medical Center.
	Patient Units in Duke Hospital are filled with original art. The artwork on pediatric units is placed at child's-eye level.
Visitors to the Eye Center's Touchable Art Gallery are invited to experience art through their fingertips.

Arts that Celebrate Community

	Our annual musical revue, starring university employees and their families, volunteers, students, and faculty, raises funds for charity. Professional  artistic and technical staff help make it a dazzling show.
The Arts and Crafts Festival is a  popular part of Employee Appreciation Week. Open to the entire Duke University community, participants compete for prizes and sell their work at this lively fair on the quad, with food and music all around.
	Special projects, such as an American Dance Festival workshop for staff in the Arthritis Program, give employees a chance to connect in a new way.

Our Life Span

Cultural Services was established in 1978 as a result of the interest and effort of Dr. James H. Semans, a Duke physician and active supporter of the arts.

Duke University Medical Center includes one of the highest-ranked hospitals in the nation, a major biomedical research enterprise, the largest group medical practice in the Southeast, and one of America's top medical schools.
Typically our patients are very sick. They are referred to Duke from all over the world with complex medical problems which have resisted diagnosis or treatment.

The People We Serve:

35,000 inpatients and their families each year
700,000 clinic visits each year
97,000 emergency room visits
13,000 staff and students
27% of patients come from Durham County
56% from other North Carolina counties
17% from out of state

We Receive Funding From

	Cultural Services was initiated with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
	Duke Medical Center now provides our primary source of funding.
	Grants and gifts support special projects.
	Income from Cultural Services' endowments fund some activities, including salary for the Writer-In-Residence.

"Your gift of music heals something in me that medicine and surgery don't touch. [It] slowly calmed a frightened part of me, this child of five in an adult of forty-eight."

"You were able to make the art a total experience through the stories and background on each piece and allowing each person to explore the art with touch. It is exciting for people who have lost vision to discover that we can still enjoy the arts."

"This is the best thing that happens all week! The Roundtable gets people from all over the Medical Center into really amazing discussions. We argue and laugh. It has created a kind of intimacy among people who'd never know each other otherwise.”

"There are no words to express to you what this means to the morale of the patients and staff and everyone."

We would love to hear from you

Cultural Services
Duke University Medical Center 3017
Durham, NC 27710
Phone: 919-684-2007
E-mail: carolyn.leith@mc.duke.edu

Acknowledgements:

This project received support from the North Carolina Arts Council,
an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the
National Endowment for the Arts.

We are also grateful for the support of the
Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and the Durham Arts Council.

Last Updated January 5th, 2002

Copyright 2001 - 2002, All rights reserved. NC Arts for Health Network