Hospitals can be dreary, unwelcoming places, filled with sniffling noses and sickness — but UNC’s art therapy organization, ArtHeels, aims to bring brightness into a patient’s day with both visual and performing art.
“We’re about patient care that involves paint brushes and clown noses,” explained ArtHeels president Katy Heubel. Whether the student volunteers dress up in clown costumes or do ukele raps, they are guaranteed to entertain the people they visit.
The ArtHeel volunteers bring their joy to the Children’s Hospital and the Cancer Hosptial, visting patient’s rooms and the waiting rooms. These interactions no only help the patient, but their families and the health care staff.
“Our purpose is to fill in the gaps, to use art to heal the things that medicines can’t, to make people forget where they are or how sick they feel,” Heubel said.
Besides volunteering at the hospital, ArtHeels also meets twice a month on campus to learn more about the growing field of art therapy and participate in activities involving art and helping people, like making cards for patients.
This is a good club for you if you are interested in art or healthcare, or if you just want to brighten someone’s day. If you want to join, you must go through an orientation and a training that will take place again next semester.
And don’t worry; you don’t have to be Picasso (although it doesn’t hurt) because the patients are the ones mostly doing the art anyway.
What do you think? Have a club you want us to check out? Let us know by commenting below!
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