On Thursday, September 21st, 2023, NOAH announced this year’s winners of the Cam Busch NOAH Arts in Health Awards at the annual conference. Recognizing individuals or organizations offering visual or performing arts programs supporting health care, educational, and community needs, the awards were presented at the Cleveland Play House in Playhouse Square.
About the NOAH Awards:
The awards are open to artists working in all media, or arts in health programs in community or clinical settings, who demonstrate an arts project or initiative in a health setting that has measurably improved the health or wellbeing of the intended population.
Four programs were recognized with 1st place awards and five received honorable mentions in the Arts Advancing Social Justice, Arts Building Resilience, Arts for Innovation, and Arts Transforming Environments categories. 1st place winners received $500 and free registration to NOAH’s annual conference. This year’s recipients are:
ARTS ADVANCING SOCIAL JUSTICE
1st Place Winner
Names of individuals involved:
Tamara Wellons
The Young Farmer’s Club of Ivor/Zuni
Gilfield Baptist Church
The Holloman Family Descendants
Music Video Project directed and edited by Patrick Lincoln
Director of Photography by Teddy Denton
Video Producer: Mike Stripe
ARTS BUILDING RESILIENCE
1st Place Winner
“Art Breaks: Artmaking Workshops Targeting Clinician Wellness”
Names of individuals involved:
Carrie Spitler, SCA Executive Director
Dan Kerr-Hobert, SCA Program Director
Jess Leonard-Gonzalez, SCA Program Manager
Andy Steedly, MSN, RN, CNL, (RUSH University Medical Center)
Honorable Mention
“The AdventHealth Orchestra”
Richard Hickham
The AdventHealth Orchestra
ARTS FOR INNOVATION
1st Place Winner
“Theatre Connect”
Theatre Connect
UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine
Read more about the program!
Names of individuals involved:
Camilo Reina Munoz, Director (prospective awardee)
Jeffrey Pufahl, Co-Founder & Director Emeritus
Dr. Hannah Bayne, Mental Health Supervisor
Savannah “Vee” Simmerly, Theatre Facilitator
Holland Hall, Mental Health Facilitator
Honorable Mention
“Art Pharmacy”
Names of individuals involved:
Chris Appleton
Adrienne Hundley
Latia Stokes
Honorable Mention
“The Anxiety Piece”
Names of individuals involved:
Dr. Bobby Kelly
Robin Marcotte
Amanda Whitworth
Dr. Leslie Pasternack
Cheryl B. Engelhardt
Honorable Mention
“The Remember Project”
Danette McCarthy
Read more about the project!
ARTS TRANSFORMING ENVIRONMENTS
1st Place Winner
“Arts in Medicine Program”
Names of individuals involved with project
Merly Alonso
Patty Gaona Hernandez
Ana Padron Martin
Evelyn Erwin
Honorable Mention
“Sing for Hope’s Healing Arts Program at the Javits Cancer Mass Vaccination Site”
Names of individuals involved with project
Monica Yunus and Camille Zamora, Sing for Hope Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors
Victoria Paterson, Sing for Hope Director of Community Arts
The Jacob Javits Center
The New York State Department of Health
A roster of professional musicians from New York’s top stages
2023 Jury
Cam Busch
Cam Busch is the owner of the Art Therapy Consults and Studio, Private Practice, Chattanooga, TN. Committed to the value of utilizing arts in healing and wellness with children, adults and geriatrics with physical and emotional challenges and life adjustment disorders.
Modern day pioneer and bridge builder for the arts and health among interdisciplinary organizations, including the creative arts therapies, the visual and performing arts and holistic nursing. Nominated for the highest award of the American Art Therapy Association, the Honorary Life Member. Received the Tennessee Art Therapy Association Distinguished Service Award and HLM.
Licensed, registered and board certified art therapist ( 28 years to present ). Supervisor and mentor to rising arts therapists and arts in healthcare practitioners.
Licensed, registered and board certified Psychiatric and Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist, retired 2015. ( 20 years practice ).
Exhibiting artist and photographer ( 50 years to present ). Extensive solo and group exhibitions, state, national and international, including the Washington National Cathedral, the1996 0lympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, and Russia, China, Ireland and Italy.
National Arts in Healthcare Consultant NEA/SAH Leadership Initiative Grant training recipient, 2001. Inaugural Creative Center for Women with Cancer, New York City Hospital Artist in Residence training recipient, 2002.
Benefactor of the arts in healthcare through ( 30 years to present ) elected voluntary board and committee service local, national and international. American Art Therapy Association, Inc., Tennessee Art Therapy Association, Inc., Society for the Arts in Healthcare, Global Alliance for Arts in Health, CHI Memorial Healthcare Foundation, Association for Visual Arts, AIM center, The Sophia Institute, Racial Justice Council, in Charleston, SC, Sculpture Fields at Montague Park, Arts Based Collaborative, University of TN at Chattanooga, National Advisory Freedom Sings USA, National Organization for Arts in Health ( NOAH ) founding member, Core Curriculum writer, Juror for the Hamilton Awards, inaugural steering committee for NOAH founding board of directors.
Created the Cam Busch Endowed Arts for Health Lecture Series for CHI Memorial Healthcare, Chattanooga, TN, now in its 21st year. Partners have included the Chattanooga Theatre Center, Hunter Museum of American Art, and the University of TN at Chattanooga. Founding member of the CHI Memorial Arts in Health Program (1996) and the Tennessee Art Therapy Association (1993).
Louise Shaw
Louise Shaw grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts, and has always been interested in art. When Shaw was in the seventh grade, she began attending art classes at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and she knew right away that she wanted to work in museums. “I made a career choice very early in my life, and I feel really blessed,” Louise says.
Louise earned a bachelor’s degree in English and Studio Art from Clark University, and then went on to get a master’s degree in museology, the profession of museum management and organization, from Syracuse University. Her first position was at the Atlanta History Center, where she learned about developing history-based exhibitions. She then served as executive director of the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center for 18 years. These experiences prepared her for a 20-year career as the CDC Museum’s curator. Louise says it took her a few years to fully comprehend CDC, but she thanks the late Dr. Sencer for helping her do so.
Lisa Simms-Booth
With deep roots in community activism and social justice, Lisa found herself unwittingly becoming a patient advocate when her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2003. Navigating her mother’s complex cancer journey drove her to commit to improving this experience for other families going through a similar path. Lisa channeled this sense of purpose in the leadership roles she played at the Milken Institute’s FasterCures center and at the Biden Cancer Initiative which focused on improving the cancer journey. Today, Lisa continues to advocate for cancer patients and their families as the executive director for the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, the only independent, non-profit organization providing holistic, innovative health services in Washington, DC. Founded in 1996, Smith Center’s mission is to develop and promote healing practices that explore physical, emotional, and mental wellness and lead to life-affirming changes for those affected by cancer. Smith Center’s work is based on a single profound idea: that everyone harbors the innate ability to heal, even in the face of life’s most serious challenges.
Lisa is a Pittsburgh native, a graduate of Michigan State University and currently resides in Silver Spring, MD.
Barbara Steinhaus
Barbara Steinhaus began her vocal training in Atlanta, Georgia, though a native of Madison, Wisconsin. She won honors, scholarships, and degrees: a BMusic from Georgia State University, a Music University of Illinois, and a DMA from the University of Georgia. Articles based on her doctoral thesis, “An Investigation of Marian Andersons’s Interpretation of Black Spiritual Art Songs in Selected Recording,” have been published in journals such as the NATS Journal of Singing. Highlights as a professional soprano include Steinhaus singing with Georgia Opera and Atlanta Opera Studio; in Francis Poulenc’s Gloria at Carnegie Hall, New York City in 1990; and in art song recitals such as Das Spanische Liederbuch (Wolf) with John Wustman at the piano. Currently she is the Department of Music Chair at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia, teaching Applied Voice, Vocal Pedagogy, and music history courses. She has students at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Syracuse University. In 2014, she went back to school earning a Graduate Certificate in Arts in Medicine from the University of Florida. Steinhaus is initiating new curriculum in this field serving both fine arts and health science majors, all the while maintaining a bedside musician practice at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center.
Jennifer Wilcox
Jennifer Wilcox is Principal and founder of Cotter/Wilcox, LLC, and has more than 20 years of experience in the association and non-profit communities. She has successfully led large-scale change management processes focused on technology implementation, new product development, leadership development, customer service and brand repositioning and management. She has taught membership development courses at the University of Maryland and facilitated retreats for associations and not-for-profit groups. Jennifer also serves as the Director of Education for The Center for Health Design.