UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine

08/08/2025

Each year, Arts in Medicine welcomes a stellar cohort of volunteers and students to assist with arts engagements and programming here at UF Health 🧡

Around 75% of these specially selected individuals are pursuing healthcare careers, with nearly half planning to become physicians or explore healthcare avenues in pre-medical studies! 🏥
Additionally, 15% are drawn to therapy disciplines including music, art, occupational, and physical therapy, while 5% plan to continue in Arts in Health practice 🎨🎶🩰

During their time with AIM, the cohort assists our program with extending the reach and impact of our mission: to transform the hospital experience for patients, visitors, caregivers, and staff and provide health and wellness through the arts within the community.

To do this, our volunteers and practicum students serve the hospital and Gainesville community by assisting AIM’s team of practitioners with a variety of creative engagements:

🎨 Assisting AIM visual artists with inpatient bedside referrals
🖌️ Supporting patients, care partners, and artists during visual art workshops in the hospital
🎶 Providing live music in the hospital atriums and tunnel
🩰 Assisting AIM dancers with facilitating movement workshops for individuals with a range of health conditions
👏 And much more!

AIM thanks all volunteers, past and present, pictured and not pictured, for their dedication and passion for furthering the arts in health here at UF Health and in the community! 💙

08/07/2025

Did you miss yesterday's new Shift Change episode? 😅📻

Have no fear! All past episodes can be played online anytime on our website:
artsinmedicine.ufhealth.org/past-episodes

07/31/2025

At Arts in Medicine, we believe healing includes honoring the caregivers who make it possible ✨🌸

To celebrate recent renovations at the UF Health Outpatient Dialysis clinic, AIM partnered with the Dialysis nursing staff to co-create artwork that reflects their compassion, strength, and the sense of calm they bring to their patients 🤗

During the creative process, the nurses shared what inspires them most: the resilience of soaring birds and the beauty of their favorite flowers—orchids and sunflowers. Visual artists Sarah Hinds and Leslie Tharp brought this vision to life in two sets of canvases, filled with rolling fields, swirling wind, and birds in flight.

The colors in the artwork draw from the newly updated space, using seafoam from the curtains in the sky and soft green in the leaves to create harmony with the art and the space.

Now displayed in the staff breakroom, these paintings serve as a daily reminder to the nurses and staff that their care is not only vital, but also deeply valued and celebrated 🧡💙

07/30/2025

07/29/2025

Kinsey Bogart is a superstar artist whose prolific painting practice allowed us to create an entire coloring book inspired by her body of artwork 🎨

Kinsey gathers her inspiration from the natural world, painting birds, sea creatures, rainbows, and more, often during her dialysis treatments here at UF Health. Her use of bold acrylic colors inspired the name of her coloring book, "My Vibrant Island", which Kinsey collaborated with AIM artists to create and publish. 💙

Discover Kinsey's artistic voice at the opening reception of the exhibit "Continuum: Collective Works from Arts in Medicine" at GFAA Gallery on Friday, August 29th from 7-10pm.

Learn more at the link below:
https://artsinmedicine.ufhealth.org/2025/06/05/continuum-collective-works-from-arts-in-medicine/

07/27/2025

We're celebrating the 1 Year Anniversary of the HeART Wall: A Love Letter to Gainesville, From Gainesville 🧡💙❤️💚💜💛🩷

Installed in July of 2024, the HeART Wall is made up of over 2,500 mosaic hearts made by the hands of the Gainesville community.

UF Health Shands AIM visual artist Sarah Hinds led the project from dream and design, to installation and unveiling. From November 2023 through May 2024, Sarah and AIM hosted over 100 local workshops in public schools, parks, and community centers that offered Gainesville residents of all ages and abilities a chance to create a heart-shaped mosaic tile 🤗

During the workshops, participants expressed not only excitement about leaving their mark on Gainesville, but a deep sense of connection with one another. Many felt that through creating art together, their spirits were lifted, and they were reminded of the resilient beauty of our shared community.

The hearts were later added to the HeART Wall, a 200-foot-long mosaic mural installed near Depot Park to create a beautiful symbol of the individual and collective that makes Gainesville unique 🫶

Did you make a heart tile for the HeART Wall? If so, what was your favorite part of the experience? Let us know in the comments! 🧡

View more photos and learn more about the HeART Wall at the link below:
https://artsinmedicine.ufhealth.org/programs/community-programs-2/visual-art/heartwall/

07/26/2025

Happy National Arts in Health Day! 🎉🎶🎨🎭🌼

Have the arts and creative expression impacted your mental and physical health and well-being?

Hear from community members, current and former patients, and more on how they've been changed by art offerings from our program:

🎨 “Art is my medicine.”
❤️‍🩹 “I have learned how important it is to use art as a medium to express all emotions, even pain.”
👩🏿‍🎨 “Mosaic... the art that clears the mind and opens up a world of imagination.”
🩺 “It's amazing how beneficial art can be for those suffering from any type of injury or illness.”
🎶 "Songwriting has helped me heal just as much as my nurses and doctor have."

Support Our Work 🎨
Consider donating to the Arts in Medicine General Fund to help the AIM team continue to offer transformative arts engagements 🎶

Use the link below to support our team of arts in health practitioners:
https://artsinmedicine.ufhealth.org/about/giving-to-aim-2/

07/25/2025

07/22/2025

What is the ideal song length? 🤔

We asked healthcare workers what they think for this week's episode of Shift Change Radio Hour and received some surprising answers!

Ways to listen:
📻 Wednesdays from 6-7am and 6-7pm on The Wombat: WMBT 90.1 FM
💻 Online at www.wmbt901.com during the play times listed above
🎧 On the AIM website (anytime): https://artsinmedicine.ufhealth.org/past-episodes/

Shift Change Radio Hour is Arts in Medicine's weekly hour-long radio program, providing mood boosting spotlights and song requests made by healthcare workers in the Gainesville area.
The show highlights special segments such as patient testimonials, exciting AIM announcements, and more.

07/21/2025

For adults in the disability community, reliable income and an accommodating work place can be difficult to find.

Thanks to plant-driven employment from GROW HUB, and art sales from the GROW HUB gift shop, GROW HUB crew members with disabilities know they have financial security, a community they can count on, and a weekly creative outlet guided by AIM artists.

Artmaking at GROW HUB goes further than the well-being benefits the crew receives from engaging creatively together -- profits from selling their handmade wares directly support each Grow Hub crew member.

Learn more about how artmaking is part of the GROW HUB culture at the link below:
https://www.alligator.org/article/2025/07/local-nonprofit-teaches-gardening-skills-to-adults-with-disabilities

07/16/2025

Can you believe that the HeART Wall: A Love Letter to Gainesville, From Gainesville was installed just one year ago? 😯

We might be biased, but we think it's still looking just as gorgeous as it did on July 27th, 2024, when we unveiled it with a ribbon cutting celebration 🧡

Explore the story of the HeART Wall at the link below:
https://artsinmedicine.ufhealth.org/programs/community-programs-2/visual-art/heartwall/

07/15/2025

Too hot to relax outdoors in your area? 😓
Let Shift Change Radio Hour transport you to a breezy picnic scene in your mind's eye with tomorrow's new episode 🍉

Ways to listen:
🐜 On the air, Wednesdays from 6-7am and 6-7pm, on The Wombat: WMBT 90.1 FM
🍓 Online at www.wmbt901.com during the play times listed above
🌳 On the AIM website: https://artsinmedicine.ufhealth.org/past-episodes/

Shift Change Radio Hour is Arts in Medicine's weekly hour-long radio program featuring song requests made by healthcare workers in the Gainesville area. The show also spotlights special segments such as patient testimonials, exciting AIM announcements, and more!

See you on the radio waves 😉🎶