A mural created by patients and staff hangs in the main lobby of the medical center. Stuart Leask—Allied Pix

This year's Faculty Outreach Award Winner Dr. Cheryl Dellasega has always in her work, as well as in her personal life, applied the arts to health and healing. And as the chair of the Arts, Healing and Humanities Committee of the Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine at the Penn State College of Medicine, she oversees a wide range of arts activities for a hospital's diverse audience.

"When I asked [Dr. Dellasega] to form an arts and healing committee for the Kienle Center, she did this immediately and made it a vehicle for outreach simultaneously with creatively addressing college needs," said Dr. David Hufford, chair of the Humanities Department at the College of Medicine.

According to second-year medical student and committee co-president Dana Kausmeyer, the committee's goal is to bring art, music, poetry and other forms of expression to the medical setting for patients to express themselves artistically, emotionally and holistically.

Activities range from arts projects to concerts to music therapy. An upcoming conference for nurses in June called Nurses Write explores using narrative for professional development and for stress relief.

Dellasega says that hospital visitors are enthusiastic about the arts events. She cites in particular one mother, with a chronically ill daughter, who called her to comment on a painting of meadows and flowers she saw hanging in the medical center.

"She said it was the first time she saw anything beautiful associated with a hospital," Dellasega reported.

Said Kausmeyer of Dellasega's work on the committee: "She interacts so well with children and adults alike."

For more information, see: http://www.hmc.psu.edu/humanities/kienle/.