It’s been a busy 2014 so far for the Museum’s visual literacy programs.

Despite the cold spring, faculty, staff and students from the Faculty of Medicine came to the Museum for Spark Your Creativity, a visual literacy workshop as part of Wellness Week 2014. We were also happy to have groups of undergrads from the School of Nursing in for short visual literacy workshops at the end of March.

In April, I participated in the Art and Wellness panel discussion at the Canadian Museums Association Conference, Intention, Innovation and Invention: The Future of Museums. From there, I visited the Canadian Art Gallery Educators Symposium to present a case study: The Art of Medicine: Arts-Based Training for McMaster University Medical Residents at the McMaster Museum of Art.

June saw an invitation to do a workshop, Visual Literacy and the Long Look, as part of Social Work and the Arts Clinical Day. On Friday, we welcomed McMaster’s Public Health and Preventative Medicine Residents for a workshop at the Museum as well.

As you may know, in 2010, we began a partnership with McMaster’s Department of Family Medicine to develop a visual literacy course The Art of Seeing (now The Art of Medicine) for their Residents to build skills of observations, communication and empathy by learning to look at art.

I’m happy to say, interest in the program keeps growing.

Nicole Knibb, Education Coordinator, McMaster Museum of Art