A PRESCRIPTION FOR HEALING

Hundreds of paintings, sculptures photographs, quilts, computer-generated art, jewelry and other crafts created by physicians, medical students, patients and UMDNJ staff and friends are on display at the Spring Arts festival on UMDNJ's Newark campus. Members of the UMDNJ-Board of Concerned Citizens, the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network, Newark Police Department, Newark Museum and Newark Arts Council are also participating.

The keynote speaker for the event, Naj Wikoff, is director of the Healing and the Arts Program of the C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Other festival activities included a performance by pianist and second-year medical student Nathaniel Yangco, a talent show in the UMDNJ-University Hospital cafeteria and a UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) Faculty Organization concert with members of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Also featured was an interactive event by Changing Images Art Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization that sponsors the creation of murals in health care institutions.

"Medicine is an art as much as it is a science. This festival features art created not only by the hands of professional healers, but also by those who use their artistic talents to help heal themselves and those around them," says festival director Ernesto A. Amaranto, MD, a professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Student Mental Health Services at NJMS, who is an artist himself.

An eye-catching and for many, heart-stopping, exhibit is Lila's Breast, a series of sculptures of women's torsos post-mastectomy. Creator/producer of the exhibit, Ann Hutton, says, "In celebration of wholeness and well-being, we have created 42 sculptures of single-breasted women. Each woman who modeled for a sculpture has replaced her absent breast with something that holds personal meaning for her – a symbol, a memory, a hope." The sculptor is Bill Giacalone.

Healthstate, UMDNJ's magazine, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a display of favorite covers and photographs from issues dating back to 1982.