Creative Enquiry at the Art Symposium
An Art Symposium took place on February 21st, 2024, in the Barts Pathology Museum, organised to showcase arts and medicine collaborations across Queen Mary and other medical schools.
Surrounded by one of the largest collections of human pathological specimens in the country, it was the perfect place to demonstrate creative enquiry in practice!
At the centre of the museum floor, artwork and the reflections from previous Barts and the London Arts exhibitions and the Creative Enquiry Student Selected Component (SSC) were displayed. Nearby the Performing Medicine team also displayed arts in medical education work (pictured above).
SSC students Georgina Haffner (Year 5) and Freya Qureshi (Year 3) also discussed their experiences of engaging with creative enquiry. Georgina Haffner (Year 5) read her poem and talked about the intersection of her experiences of bereavement and counseling. Freya Qureshi (Year 3) talked about how sculpting enabled her to find the language and facility for written reflection (pictured below). Lastly, SSC student Aman Qamar (Year 2) performed a song that reflected her experiences with patients in her first clinical placements.
Works from the SSC can be seen here: https://www.creativeenquiry.co.uk/creative-arts-ssc-1.
Attendees were also invited to take part in several creative workshops, such as anatomical drawing with Lucy Lyon from Performing Medicine, cartooning ‘sparkling moments in healthcare’ with Dr Linda Miller, creative enquiry using postcards with Professor Louise Younie (pictured below), and narrative with Professor Graham Easton, where attendees imaginatively explored two of the museum exhibits.
We also heard from two renowned speakers: Giskin Day (Course Lead BSc in Medical Science with Humanities, Philosophy and Law, Imperial) and Flora Smyth Zahra (Clinical Snr Lecturer in Interdisciplinarity and Innovation, Dental Institute, Kings) both of whom are pioneering the field of arts and humanities in healthcare.
Initiatives like the Art Symposium are a great step in the journey to create more flourishing spaces in Higher Education campuses, reflect on students’ experiences through the arts and humanities, and connect with other educational practitioners who seek to bring change to their curricula. As a result of the Symposium there is greater resolve for working across fields at QMUL e.g. History of Medicine, Comparative Literature, as well as working across medical schools to engage in research, advocacy and practice, for arts and humanities in medicine.
