Art à la Carte, South Health Campus
granted, there’s not much the average person struggling with illness or injury can do to customize hospital food, wait times or other challenging aspects of health care. Thanks, however, to the efforts of one Debbie Baylin—tireless crusader for bringing light to dark places— and her team of equally devoted volunteers, one can dramatically improve one’s outlook from the hospital bed.
Baylin is the executive director of Art à La Carte (artalacarte.org), a local non-profit that offers artful calm to anxious folks in waiting rooms and in palliative and other types of care. She was inspired to start the art-for-patients program after two friends/mentors who were devoted to helping people live with cancer died from the disease.
“When I visited my friend (Patty Hronek) as she was dying, it struck me that, although she could no longer make choices about much in her life, she could have a say in what she wanted to look at in her room.” Baylin brought in a selection of fine-art photography for her friend to choose from—pictures of a farm-scape, a Paris cafe, a young girl. “Patty saw all these things that brought back good memories—images that wove the stories of her life together. That night, for the first time in a long time, she slept through the night.” Two dozen years later, Baylin’s healing-through-art project is thriving.
Art à la Carte’s Bedside Program involves a pair of volunteers wheeling carts of reproduction art down hospital corridors, and stopping to ask patients if they’re interested in choosing a piece to be displayed at the foot of their bed. “We’re bringing the beauty and joy of art into a sterile, sometimes frightening environment, but, really, it’s about starting a conversation,” Baylin says. “The power of that exchange—of the reception and depth of engagement that takes place—is staggering.”
The Create While You Wait Program, which debuted at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in 2014, likewise offers opportunities for unexpected moments of delight in waiting rooms. Beads, yarn, paintbrushes and canvas give patients awaiting treatment, and their families, a constructive mental break. “We see the mood in waiting rooms entirely change,” says Baylin.
Last month, Art à La Carte was forced to cancel its annual fundraiser due to a dearth of ticket sales. The organization has long counted on the event for crucial infrastructure funds. Ever optimistic, Baylin and crew (who have, since 1994, made 83,266 hospital visits) are plowing ahead, recently adding to their roster three new units, including adolescent mental health, neuro rehab and orthopedic services at the Foothills and South Health Campus. “The demand is huge,” says Baylin. “We’re not putting pretty pictures in rooms. We’re connecting souls.”