{"id":24351,"date":"2018-04-09T11:17:35","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T15:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=24351"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:54:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:54:47","slug":"art-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=24351","title":{"rendered":"Performance and workshop focus on why art matters in medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist
Artist Marina Tsaplina shares her performance “The Invisible Elephant Project,” which explores her relationship with Type 1 diabetes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What does art do<\/em> and why does it matter in medicine?<\/p>\n

Performance artist Marina Tsaplina, who has lived with Type 1 diabetes since she was 2, attempted to unpack that question at a recent event at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her nonprofit BETES Organization<\/a> uses the performing arts to help people with chronic illness form a \u201cflourishing relationship with their health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The April 5 puppetry performance and workshop, \u201cThe Invisible Elephant Project,\u201d was part of the course \u201cHealing in Literature and Ethnography.\u201d Funded through an interdisciplinary grant<\/a> from the College of Arts & Sciences, the course is being team-taught by Jane Thrailkill, Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Associate Professor of English, and Michele Rivkin-Fish<\/a>, associate professor of anthropology.<\/p>\n

\"From
From left, professors Michele Rivkin-Fish and Jane Thrailkill brought Tsaplina (center) to campus for their interdisciplinary course, “Healing in Literature and Ethnography.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tsaplina\u2019s performance was a response to the recent announcement by the American Association of Medical Colleges for the need for humanities and arts in medical education. At UNC, interest in medical humanities is thriving. Students can pursue an undergraduate Honors minor (and next fall an English major concentration), and an M.A.. concentration in literature, medicine and culture. Thrailkill and English colleague Jordynn Jack also co-founded the HHIVE Lab<\/a>, one of the first health humanities research labs in the country.<\/p>\n

Rivkin-Fish said they were sharing Tsaplina\u2019s work with students because they hoped to deepen conversations on campus about the socio-cultural dimensions of health and healing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarina raises profound questions about the experience of living with chronic illness, of encountering the medical profession and also\u00a0of being a medical professional,\u201d Rivkin-Fish said. \u201cShe is helping us find new ways of expressing the contradictions involved in these experiences. We were excited to have our students learn with her about how the arts can help us reimagine well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis event was a wonderful cross-disciplinary investigation of how we can rethink medical education and expand areas for medicine-related research to include the arts,\u201d Thrailkill added.<\/p>\n

After the performance, Tsaplina paired students up to talk about \u201cwhat you didn\u2019t <\/em>want to know,\u201d encouraging them to be active listeners.<\/p>\n

One student said: \u201cI didn\u2019t know how much mental chatter I had going on until I started really listening and making eye contact with my partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsaplina also shared the power of poetry, playing audio clips for the audience from a 1963 talk by James Baldwin called \u201cThe Artist\u2019s Struggle for Integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tsaplina's
Tsaplina’s nonprofit BETES Organization uses the performing arts to help people with chronic illness form a \u201cflourishing relationship with their health.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rhea Jaisinghani (a first-year student who hopes to pursue a biostatistics major and a minor in medicine, literature and culture) and Akhila Boyina (a junior psychology and neuroscience major who is pursuing minors in chemistry and neuroscience), said they embrace both their love of science and the arts. They are dancers for the UNC Southeast Asian dance team Chalkaa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a hard-science person until I got to college and realized how important it was to nurture the other side of me, too,\u201d Boyina said. \u201cI\u2019m now working on a study that takes a look at how dance could help diabetes patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amanda Graham, associate director of engagement for Carolina Performing Arts, said CPA is happy to support performances that deal with complex social and cultural issues through the arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt can be a great translator,\u201d she said. \u201cA program like this helps us to understand how something scientific is also a human endeavor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsaplina\u2019s visit was made possible with support from The Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the departments of social medicine, anthropology and English, HHIVE and Carolina Performing Arts.<\/em><\/p>\n

Story and photos by Kim Spurr<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Performance artist Marina Tsaplina, who has lived with Type 1 diabetes since she was 2, attempted to unpack the question — What does art do, and why does it matter in medicine? — at a recent event at UNC-Chapel Hill. 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