Bridging Visual Arts & Healthcare:

Impact, Innovation, Research

September 23-25, 2026

Hosts:

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute & Harvard Medical School

Symposium partners: 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston & MassArt Art Museum

Background:

Founded in 2022, the Visual Arts in Healthcare Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (VAH@BWH) is a national leader in the application of visual arts to train healthcare professionals. VAH@BWH’s mission is to develop and advance visual arts-based learning experiences to cultivate empathetic, resourceful, and collaborative healthcare teams to improve patient care. Our programs help build the core skills of the healthcare professional, including detailed observation and interpretation, active listening, metacognitive awareness, critical thinking, compassion, and effective bidirectional communication.

The VAH@BWH will host an international symposium, Bridging Visual Arts & Healthcare: Impact, Innovation, Research, in Boston on September 23-25, 2026 (Wednesday – Friday).  This symposium aims to build community between the visual arts and healthcare professions, educators, and artists.  Through an exchange of methodologies and emerging research, participants will share unique curricula and learn about the emerging evidence to improve healthcare professionals’ skills and effectiveness as well as positively impact patient outcomes.

Symposium Goals:

  1. Learn new methods to integrate visual arts-based methodologies into health care education to improve patient and provider experiences.

  2. Promote and discuss impactful research, evidence-based evaluation, and scholarship that will move the field forward.

  3. Foster a community of practice comprised of arts/humanities and health care educators at all levels and in all healthcare disclipines to build collaboration.

  4. Share knowledge, skills, resources, and tested practice-ready innovations in teaching.

Symposium Format:

  • Keynote speakers

  • Themed panel discussions and presentations

  • Hands-on workshops

  • Poster session

  • Art making and performances

  • Interactive museum sessions

  • Reception and networking opportunities

Request for Proposals:

The symposium committee welcomes proposals from healthcare professionals, art educators, arts and humanities scholars, and researchers, as well as students and trainees. The central focus of the symposium is to advance learning in a community of providers by effectively utilizing the visual arts to improve skills and effectiveness, teamwork, and patient outcomes in healthcare.

Proposal can be for: Poster sessions, Panel discussions (20 minutes) or Interactive museum demonstrations (1 hour)

Museum demonstrations should be highly interactive for participants, allowing them to get hands-on experience with an activity in the galleries. Most of these sessions will take place in the museum galleries, which do not allow wet media for conservation reasons. Paper and pencils can be used.

Panel discussions will address the following themes:

  • Interprofessional Collaborations & Teamwork. This session highlights the development and implementation of curricula designed to foster interprofessional collaboration and effective teamwork across healthcare disciplines.

  • Arts and Healthcare Collaborations. This session explores the essential components of successful collaboration between arts and healthcare organizations. Designed for professionals from both sectors, it offers strategies, real-world examples, and tools to build sustainable partnerships that enhance healthcare education through the arts.

  • Program Evaluation. This session provides an overview of effective program evaluation methods to assess the impact and outcomes of arts and health initiatives.  Presenters will share best practices through case studies.

  • Research Reports. This session features presentations of current research findings in the field of arts in health. Researchers will share insights, methodologies, and outcomes from recent studies exploring the impact of the arts in healthcare training and education.

  • Medical Signs and Symbols in Art Images. This session explores how medical themes have been represented within the visual arts throughout history.

  • Arts & Wellbeing. This session explores the design and implementation of curricula that integrate the arts to promote wellbeing in educational and clinical settings.

  • New & Innovative Programs. This session showcases cutting-edge programs at the intersection of arts and health. Presenters will highlight creative, forward-thinking initiatives that address emerging needs in healthcare education through the arts.

  • Funding & Sustainability. This session focuses on strategies for securing funding and building long-term sustainability for arts in health programs.

Please submit your proposal by September 15, 2025.

Application link

Symposium Registration: Opens Fall 2025

Conference Committee:

Brooke DiGiovanni Evans, EdM, co-chair (Mass General Brigham)

Christine Bentley, PhD, co-chair (Missouri Southern State University)

Staci Eisenberg, MD (Mass General Brigham)

Liz Gaufberg, MD (Harvard Medical School)

Joel Katz, MD, (Dana Farber Cancer Institute)

Kate Milazzo (Educator and Museum Education Consultant)

Barbara Reville, DNP (Dana Farber Cancer Institute, retired)

Corinne Zimmermann, MA, EdM. (Independent Consultant)