Danforth Art, located in Framingham, Massachusetts, demonstrates a continued commitment to providing access to art through its curatorial and educational efforts as the organization nears its fortieth anniversary in 2015. With a permanent collection focusing on American art from the eighteenth century to present day, the museum presents a robust series of rotating exhibitions each year. The studio art school offers over 400 classes annually, for preschoolers through adults, novices to professional artists. Danforth Art positions itself as a distinct institution, dedicated to allowing visitors and students to connect with and experience art through a range of opportunities. The equal commitment to both museum and studio art programming fosters opportunities for interdepartmental collaboration and encourages diverse explorations of topics for a variety of audiences. Art and healing programming at Danforth Art is perhaps the most illustrative example of this.

Danforth Art’s curatorial programming began exploring the relationship between visual art and healing in 2005 with the Diagnostic Arts exhibition, featuring artists who created work using non-traditional materials such as X-rays, MRI films, and brain scans, investigating issues related to physical and mental health, and reflections of their personal experiences with illnesses.

Since that first exhibition, Danforth Art has considered the overarching theme of Art and Healing as a way to unite multiple exhibitions simultaneously. This project debuted in September 2011 with five exhibitions and was used as a theme again this past spring when six concurrent exhibitions explored issues related to art and healing. Artists exhibiting under this umbrella have either used art as a healing mechanism for their own illness or as a means to document the illness of others, using a wide variety of media including paintings, drawings, photography, prints, and video. During these exhibition series, public programming also considered healing as it relates to the artistic experience, and included visits by artists to discuss their work and its relationship to illness as well as panel discussions pairing healthcare professionals alongside artists.

As part of the spring 2014 Art and Healing exhibition series, Danforth Art presented a retrospective of Boston Expressionist painter Jon Imber. In addition to displaying artworks representative of the spectrum of Imber’s career, Jon Imber: Carry On included a gallery wall devoted to the artist’s latest work, created after his 2012 diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Determined to continue painting, Imber persevered through his illness, modifying the physical aspects of his practice so that he could continue working on his passion. Unfortunately Jon Imber passed away during the run of this exhibition. Following the artist’s passing, Danforth Art’s galleries became a place for mourning and healing; an unplanned and somber, yet very fitting, connection to the intentions of the Art and Healing series.

Beyond the Curatorial realm, Danforth Art’s Art and Healing programming expanded to include increased access for audience segments affected by serious illnesses following the 2011 Art and Healing exhibitions. Through partnerships with area health care providers and agencies, Danforth Art now offers Art and Healing scholarships for studio art classes as well as free memberships, museum admission, and docent-led museum tours for qualifying individuals and groups. This programming reflects Danforth Art’s belief in the intrinsic healing power of art – both in looking at and creating art.

A recent scholarship recipient said of her experience:

“I’m so grateful for the Art and Healing scholarship I was granted. I was able to take a painting class while I was undergoing my chemotherapy treatment. This gave me something wonderful to look forward [to] each week during a very difficult time. This class brought me joy and carried me through the entire week. I’ve always found the classes at the Danforth to be therapeutic, but especially so during my illness.”

Other students have echoed these sentiments, noting that their time creating art in studio art classes at Danforth Art is the time in which they have not felt defined by their illnesses. Some students create art about their illness, and one painting student compared the physicality of each brushstroke to “zapping” her cancer.

In spring 2013 the Continuing Connections group from Framingham’s Callahan Senior Center visited Danforth Art for a docent-led museum tour through the Art and Healing program. Organized by staff social workers, the Continuing Connections group is comprised of adults with early onset or early stage Alzheimer’s disease and their carepartners.

The group’s tour included discussions of four artworks with a focus on careful looking and making personal connections. An abstract landscape sparked a lively response from one of the group members, as he recalled the many musical sounds that he attributed to the scene. At the conclusion of the tour, the group’s staff liaison shared with Danforth Art staff that this particular group member rarely speaks, and how delighted she was to hear him respond eagerly to the painting. She also revealed that this group member, who has early stage Alzheimer’s, played the trumpet for many years and music continues to be an important part of his life and a way he accesses memories.

The Continuing Connections group’s first visit to Danforth Art sparked a conversation between staff members and codified into a more formal relationship beginning in the fall of 2013. The group now visits Danforth Art quarterly, each time working with the same Danforth Art Docents, who lead participatory, discussion-based tours incorporating principles and methods outlined in the Museum of Modern Art’s The MoMA Alzheimer’s Project: Guide for Museums.[1]  

The partnership with Continuing Connections has extended to include visits by Danforth Art studio art faculty to facilitate hands-on projects with the group at their meeting site. The partnership with Continuing Connections illustrates how Art and Healing programming enables Danforth Art to provide more specialized audience engagement.

Join the author along with her colleagues Pat Walker and Jessica Roscio for “Look, Experience, Create: Art & Healing at Danforth Art” at the NEMA Conference on Wednesday, November 19, at 1:45 pm.