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The Georgetown Lombardi
Arts & Humanities Program

August 2nd, 2022  |  Vol. LXXV
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Welcome to the Georgetown Lombardi Arts & Humanities Program (AHP) newsletter. In this week's newsletter we are pleased to offer a tribute to acclaimed D.C. artist, Sam Gilliam. We are also excited to introduce two of the AHP's newest team members and to highlight a recent video featuring AHP musician-in-residence, Karen Ashbrook.
A Tribute to Artist, Sam Gilliam
Sam Gilliam guiding the installation of Frieze, 2017. Photo credit: Julia Langley
Sam Gilliam: In Memoriam

When internationally renowned painter, Sam Gilliam passed away in June at the age of 88, he left behind an outsized legacy. Gilliam was a pioneering abstract painter, best known for freeing his canvases from the frame and draping them from the ceilings, or pinning them to the walls, instead. As a painter who came of age during the turbulence of the 1960’s and 70’s, Gilliam’s radical approach to art and abstraction set him apart. He was the first Black artist to represent the United States in the 1972 Venice Biennale. Gilliam, and his work, continue to serve as a source of civic pride for his adopted city of Washington, DC.

 

For the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center atrium, Gilliam created a permanent installation called, Frieze. Consisting of 11 colored monotypes, Frieze is a unique work of art.  Gilliam worked with master printmaker, Susan J. Goldman to realize the work of art. At the opening reception for Frieze, Goldman told the crowd that “Sam is a national treasure.”

 

Julia Langley, Faculty Director of the Georgetown Lombardi Arts and Humanities Program served as the Cancer Center’s art consultant for the project.  “One of my favorite days at work,” she says, “was the day Sam came to arrange the 11 colored squares that make up Frieze.  Sam directed Susan Goldman, her daughter, Isi and me as we moved the sequence of each individual monotype until he was satisfied with the way the colors looked next to each other. I remember Anthony Imamura, an Arts and Humanities Program Advisory Committee Member who happened to be in the atrium that day say that watching the process of installing Frieze “was like watching Sam build a rainbow.” 

 

Sam Gilliam will be greatly missed.

Sam Gilliam. Frieze. Monotypes. 2017. Printed by Susan J. Goldman Lily Press® LLC. Photo credit: Greg Staley

Welcoming our New
Team Members
Josephine Millard and Abigail Perelman Join the AHP
We are excited to introduce Abigail Perelman and Josephine Millard, two of the AHP's newest team members. Below, each of them shares a bit about their backgrounds and their new roles.

Josephine Millard:

Could you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in the field of arts and humanities in health and medicine?

I was always interested in science. The concept of furthering human knowledge is very exciting to me. I did my undergraduate in biology at the University of Washington. There, I worked at Seattle Children's Research Institute for 2 years. Then I got my master’s in bioinformatics, which is basically coding for biology. I graduated from Georgetown University’s program this May.
 
My family has always encouraged artistic expression. This led me to explore the arts via ballet and piano for 10 years. Recently, I haven’t focused on the arts explicitly, but they have implicitly always been in my life through my passion for music, exploring the beauty in nature, and creative scientific communication.
 
I’m very interested in mental health and the therapeutic aspect of healing, including non-pharmaceutical alternatives. That’s a large reason that I'm doing this work. It's exciting to be involved in research exploring this aspect of the human experience.

Could you tell us more about your role with AHP?
I’m a researcher with Dr. Jagmeet Kanwal's Neurophysiology and Behavior Lab here at Georgetown University. Through this study, we are hoping to understand more about how listening to music affects electrical activity in ICU patients’ brains while they are recovering. I will be involved in the data collection and analysis parts of this study.
 
Is there an inspiring quote or idea that you would like to share with others?
My main mantra is “work hard, be brave.” It comes from a creator and movie maker named Casey Neistat. When I first heard it, I really liked the simplicity of it. Those two things are essential for achieving your goals and your dreams. I think having dreams in itself is a brave act.

Abigail Perelman:

Could you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in the field of arts and humanities in health and medicine?

I graduated from Brown University last spring. But I'm from the DC area, so working with AHP has been a really nice opportunity to be back. At Brown, I studied cognitive neuroscience. I’m very interested in the aging brain.
 
I’m also a dancer. I joke that I've been dancing since those “Mommy and Me” classes when I could barely walk. I was co-director for two dance groups in college.
 
One of the groups was part of the DAPpers program, which stands for “Dance for All People.” It’s directed by Rachel Balaban, who has been a big mentor for me. They offer dance classes for people with Parkinson’s Disease and aging bodies and were motivated by David Leventhal’s Dance for PD.

Could you tell us more about your role with AHP?
I am the program manager for the AHP. My position involves bringing art and movement breaks to hospital doctors, nurses, and other staff, and we're working to return to indoor programming for staff and patients alike. I will also be helping out with research on the benefits of music in the ICU, and supporting classes for medical school students offered by AHP Director, Julia Langley.
 
In addition to my work as program manager, I have been monitoring AHP classes. I love how each teacher can add their own creative spin on an activity based on their personality and their training. It just makes everything so interesting.
 
Is there an inspiring quote or idea that you would like to share with others?
While working with the DAPpers, we did a joint performance that included older adults, college students, who are dancers in my group, and high school students from Central Falls, R.I. We all learned a piece of repertory and performed it together. It was incredible.
 
I was partnered up with Lois, a 92-year-old, who started coming to the classes after she fell and hurt her hip. I’m trying to embody some of Lois' energy in my life. She loves dancing, she takes memoir classes, and she has a busier social life than I do. I’m trying to put some of that energy into the things I love. Just dive right in.
New Video Featuring AHP's
Karen Ashbrook 
Ashbrook received a Folklife Apprenticeship grant to work with Chao Tian, a master’s-level trained Chinese dulcimer player.
AHP musician-in-residence Karen Ashbrook was recently featured in a video by the Maryland State Arts Council. We had a chance to speak with her about this honor.
 
Could you tell us more about how the video came about?
Chao Tian has been my folk music apprentice for the past year. The Maryland State Arts Council has a program called Maryland Traditions, and it awards grant money to masters who work with an apprentice. Our grant was for her to learn about American hammer dulcimer repertoire and traditions. Chao is a professional, master's-level trained Chinese dulcimer player. She is an amazingly creative musician currently working with all kinds of people in different musical traditions, including improv. She also works with movement artists.
 
Chao and I will continue working together. We will be performing on August 27th at the National Folk Festival in Salisbury, Md.
 
How does this grant inform your work with AHP?
My specialty at the hospital is traditional folk songs and lullabies from all over the world, which I play on the hammer dulcimer. I lived overseas for five years, three years in Asia and two years in Europe, so I have a sense of those cultures. I also proactively continue to add familiar music from different countries to my repertoire for both patients and staff in the hospitals where I work.
 
I became certified as a therapeutic musician through the Music For Healing and Transition Program, which gave me the training to use my music to promote comfort and healing through all levels of illness and actively dying.
 
Music is a way of communicating with people and bridging differences. It means so much to people from other countries when they hear music from their homeland. It gives them a chance to be recognized and a degree of comfort.
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The Georgetown Lombardi Arts & Humanities Program (AHP) promotes a holistic approach to healthcare for patients, caregivers, physicians, nurses, staff members, and students through the use of music, dance, expressive writing, and visual arts. These therapeutic modalities are normally provided throughout the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., and are now shared virtually. The AHP is a program of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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