Clinicians, patients, and survivors have contributed their artwork to the fourth annual Art is Medicine exhibit at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of UHealth – University of Miami Health System. The event launched on November 25 to coincide with Miami Art Week and features pieces from patients, survivors, caregivers, providers, staff, and artists.
This year’s theme, “The Power of the Palette,” highlights food as medicine. The main display includes a QR code that provides information about related research at Sylvester, such as studies on the gut microbiome, cell therapy, and nutrition. Artwork selected through a crowd-sourced competition surrounds these main pieces. All works are professionally printed and displayed in the Sylvester Gallery along with the artist’s name and their relationship to Sylvester.
Gerald Soff, M.D., chief of classical hematology at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of clinical medicine at UM Miller School of Medicine, has two photographs featured in the exhibit. Despite his modest assessment—“I have no artistic talent,” he says—Dr. Soff’s images depict a bald eagle and a grizzly bear photographed during a trip to Alaska. Desert Horse-Grant, chief transformation officer for Sylvester and curator for Art is Medicine, chose to juxtapose them in a tropical setting to emphasize national biodiversity.
Dr. Soff explained his approach: “I started taking pictures of things I would want to see if I were a patient. Illness can be horrible, but life is fundamentally beautiful, and that’s what I want to capture in my photos.”
Michael Rosen, a retired consultant currently receiving cancer treatment at Sylvester, also has work in the exhibit. His photograph “Great Blue Herons,” taken in Delray Beach’s Wakodahatchee Wetlands, reflects his interest in nature photography developed during years living in Israel.
“From a spiritual or religious standpoint, these are God’s beautiful creatures, and I think I’m very sensitive to their sheer beauty,” Rosen said.
He noted that time spent near nature during radiation treatment was “tremendously healing.” He hopes his photos encourage others to value natural beauty: “I hope my photos serve as an inspiration for people to get out into nature, to be thankful for being alive and being able to appreciate nature and God’s creation.”
Another contributor is Brittany Malo—a nurse diagnosed with Li-Fraumeni syndrome who submitted a photo of her friend Roxy Chaviano standing among redwoods. Malo said that experiencing nature after surviving breast cancer had deep meaning: “We saw a lot of trees that had been struck by lightning, but even though they caught fire, they’d been able to grow back. It was meaningful to be out there with the redwoods after all we’d been through as survivors.”
Malo added that her diagnosis made her more aware of beauty: “Because of my diagnosis, I feel like I literally stop and smell the roses more often and just slow down and enjoy.”
Horse-Grant summarized the purpose behind Art is Medicine: “Connecting with one another and ourselves, stress-reduction and finding beauty in life’s smallest moments is entirely the point of the gallery.”
