This collection contains the collected materials of the Department of Arts & Health at Duke. The bulk of the material spans 1978 to 2009 and consists of funding and grant reports, subject files, research project files, articles, publications, clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, slides, video tapes, audio cassette tapes, artwork, artifacts, personal gift requests and records, performance programs, notes, correspondence, and administrative materials. Major subjects include funding and grant sources, arts and healthcare as a discipline, cultural arts programming undertaken at Duke Hospital, the venipuncture research project, and the "Duke Employee Shows." Materials range in date from 1939 to 2014.
The Department of Arts & Health at Duke was established in 1978 as the Cultural Services Program. Founded by James H. Semans, MD, and Wayne Rundles, MD, with initial support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, the program's goal was to explore the roles that the arts and humanities might play in a hospital environment and the healing process. The program began with sponsoring the performing arts at the hospital through monthly musical performances in the Duke Hospital cafeteria. It soon grew to offer a variety of visual, performing, and literary arts programs. Such projects included the installation of visual art exhibits, the acquisition of artwork for patients' rooms, the implementation of a literary program for journaling and poetry, the creation of a hospital television channel with arts and cultural programs, and the development of a circulation lending library of books and music on tape, among many others.
Under the leadership of Janice Palmer, who served as director from the founding until 1999, the Arts & Health Department stood as a leader in the international arts and healthcare movement. It was instrumental in organizing the first convocation of hospital arts programs in 1989, which led to the creation of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare.
This collection is organized into the following series and accession: Records, 1939-2013; Scrapbooks, Photographs, and Clippings, 1979-2014; Slides, 1979-2000; Video Tapes, 1978-2006; Audio Cassette Tapes, 1961-2002; Artwork and Artifacts, 1978-1999, "Gathering in the Stories" Exhibition, 2006; Accession A2016.047, 1967-2014; Accession A2018.058, 1980-2011.
Material within this collection has been organized by accession reflecting the fact that the collection has been acquired in increments over time. Researchers should note that material within each accession overlaps with/or relates to material found in other accessions. In order to locate all relevant material within this collection, researchers will need to consult each accession described in the Series Scope and Contents section.
Researchers should also note that similar material can be arranged differently in each accession, depending on how the material was organized when it was received by the DUMCA.
