Arts Genre: Visual Arts – Collage
Target Audience: Oncology (Infusion Center) staff – collaborative collage-making on the unit; group workshops for up to 18 staffers at a time.
Name of Program: The Power of Collage
Location: Smith Center for Healing and the Arts’Artists In Residence program at the INOVA Schar Cancer Institute, Fairfax, VA
Program Goals:
- To identify personal thoughts, ideas and feelings about relieving stress in a safe and nonjudgmental environment
Outcome: Increased self-assurance in one’s own abilities and capacity for resilience]
- To engage in and share creative work with teammates that relieves tension and stress due to a challenging workplace
[Outcome: Greater empathy and cohesion within the team]
Program History:
The Artist first worked with patients, adapting her collage-making methodology over time to create a space in which patients feel relaxed, involved, and unafraid. Her approach: “There are no rules to collaging. You don’t need to be an artist to collage. Just trust your instincts and enjoy the fun of ripping paper and gluing things!” She recognized that her listening presence very often promoted a free-flow of feelings and helped patients relax. As a synchronous effort, the process of both the Artist and patient having fun with paper took away the pressure of the patient being observed (and perhaps judged).
In response to Smith Center’s goal to increase creative engagement opportunities for staff, and realizing how limited staff time is, the Artist developed a process by which she would reflect individualized staff responses to prompts in a group collage she would assemble on-site.
The Artist then returns to the work station to interpret their responses through words, images, colors, textures as a “collaborative collage.” The intent is to create a single collage that reflects the energy and feelings of each person who responded to the prompts. The content and context of each response was linked together visually, creating a sense of unity to the pieces and to the day. The Artist would then find each interviewee and show them the collage, and explain to each of them, her interpretation of their reported feelings and thoughts.
Given the positive response of staff to the above, the AIR manager offered an expanded opportunity for unit managers to introduce group collage-making sessions for staff at the beginning of regularly scheduled staff huddles.
Preparation and Set-up:
Collaborative collages on the Unit: A work station (table) is set-up in an open area in the infusion center where staff can watch and respond as the collage evolves. She had examples of prior collages to show staff, and asked 2-3 staffers, as available between tasks, if they would like to contribute to a collage that she would make. The Artist has an ever-growing collection of papers, images, and words that serves as the base for work with patients. For work with staff, the Artist added an adjunct collection of more heathcare-related words and images (ie: taking words from hospital brochures or stories about work in a hosptial; including images that show nurses and doctors at work, etc). The Artist also uses waterproof markers, glitter, colored pencils and crayons . The glue used with patient collage-making is also used on the unit and in workshops: Scotch Create permanent glue pens. Set-up time is usually quick—10 minutes to find a table to work at and unpack supplies.
Workshops: Based upon preliminary conversations with administrators and health care workers, the Artist selects a range of images and words associated with stress reduction, and arts materials and supplies. The Artist assembles in advance enough kits for each person that includes various papers, words and images, plus the base (mixed media cardstock, postcard-size) on which to work. The Team Leader recruits the participants and gives them permission to participate in the workshop (off the unit). Note: the optimal time for workshops is typically early morning when team huddles are generally scheduled. The Team Lead is strongly encouraged to attend and particapte by making a collage as well. Workshops are held around a large table (or several large tables) where each person can see and communicate with others and have access to all materials throughout the session.
Process:
Collaborative collages on the Unit: The process begins with three questions which are helpful for encouraging staff to participate: how are you feeling? what are you dreaming of; and, what are you worried about? The Artist observes staff at work to see who might be between tasks, approaches them and spends between 5-7 minutes asking the questions, listening to answers, and coaxing clarifications if needed. Actual assembly of the collage can evolve following a conversation with each individual, or waiting until responses are complete from all participating staffers. The completed collage typically takes about 90 minutes. Five to ten minutes should be reserved to share and converse with each of the participants about the manifestation of their input in the work – encouraging them to take a photo of it.
Workshops: The optimal time allotment for this activity is one-hour: 5 minutes for Artist to introduce the process and use of materials; 35 minutes to make the collage; 15-20 minutes for indidviduals to share about the genesis and meaning of their collage; and, a closing statement by the Team Leader affirming the value of the session as a hopefuly stress-reducing and team-building experience. Participants generally work in silence but are very collaborative in sharing materials with each other. The artist circulates and occasionally offers alternatives or pointers. The artist has been amazed at how each person approaches the task on an individual basis — some expanding their work outside the area – some creating 3D elements. The artist has noted that “NOBODY was afraid to experiment even though none of them had ever created a collage.”
Status and frequency of program:
Weekly collaborative collage-making with staff (and patients) on the unit; Staff workshops scheduled in response to opportunites presented by the AIR Manager to departmental administrators. The AIR Program goal is to provide a minimum of one-two staff collage workshops per month.
Impact:
Artists have found the sharing portion of the session to be important for the participants as they hear each other, repect each other’s stories; and feel a bond of support. It has been powerful to witness staff reactions as they shared their completed collages with each other. One tech, dealing with exhaustion due to staffing shortages, sat down, holding back tears as she said, “That is exactly how I feel… I didn’t think anyone could see.” A nurse whose desire to go somewhere warm, quiet and protected, integrated beach and underwater scenes with bright colors in her collage, clutched it to her chest and wanted to display it at the nurses’ station to share with others. She exclaimed: “Making this made me feel like I was doing something for myself. That I can always look at these colors and pictures and remember that I’m protected by beauty.”
One workshop included a team staff member who was departing the hospital in the near future so this was, in part, a way to do something fun and wish her a bon voyage. The person who was leaving made a collage that was all about change (including a spiral drawn as part of the piece. In her words: “I drew this spiral because it’s expanding, growing and so am I. It feels like I’m embracing change and going for good things in the future.” She intended to display her collage on her desk at her new workplace to remind her that growth is important.
From these experiences, the Artist realized, based upon staff responses that just SEEING a collage promotes a personal sense of visibility and affirmation. She also deduced that MAKING collages would be a more direct way for staffers to express their feelings and to share them through collages with their peers. This has proven to be the case. Very personal stories are shared by the collage-makers when they share their experiences of making the collages. Individuals share materials, laughter, and encouragement as they create. It is the laughter and the camaraderie that is cherished – and the the staff have asked for more collage-making opportunities.
Inova administrators and social workers participated in or otherwise observed the workshops, which led to an increase in the new year’s budget to expand this and other staff-focused AIR programming across Inova Schar’s cancer institute locations. Images and information about the collage-making workshops continue to be shared at regularly scheduled Inova Town Hall (virtual) meetings for all staff (generally attended in real-time by 700-800 staff plus recorded and viewed by others on demand).
Lead Artist: Turner Houston
Turner Houston is an Artist in Residence and facilitates collage workshops at the INOVA Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, Virginia. She is a collagist, painter, and photographer and blogs about creativity. She is currently finishing a memoir of loss. Turner had a long career as an art director and executive producer for organizations such as The National Geographic Society, Walt Disney Productions, and the Discovery Channel. She holds a BFA in Visual Communication from George Washington University, and an MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College.
Name of Program Lead/Coordinator: Tamara Wellons, Artist in Residence Manager, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts
Contact: [email protected]
Attachments: Photos of staff workshops; individual and collaborative collage examples
