Conference Proceedings 2010 [pdf] - Art & Design Symposium ...

Abstract
Injustices in our society arise from our attitudes regarding the elderly, death, and dying. An interdisciplinary
service-learning project addresses these injustices by exposing students directly to an experience of aging,
death and dying. This story will share how an intersectoral collaborative was formed across a university and
among community partners to provide a learning forum. Students and community members explored art to
understand end of life care. The partnership used a humanistic approach to study of end of life care
incorporating the context of disease and illness. Community members, including students, faculty, leaders,
health professionals, and citizens, engaged in a variety of educational opportunities with artist Deidre Scherer.
Students served as docents for Scherer’s exhibit on the theme of death and dying. They provided resources for
grief counseling and were assigned selected readings and media viewing on end of life topics. Students
received training as end of life care volunteers and engaged in reflective hospice service learning.
The success of the pedagogical model initiated a request to develop a universal replicable format utilizing
available contextual experiences. The curriculum was modified to include geriatric services as well as hospice
care. The contextual resources for art were extended to conform to the current academic year’s schedule of
significant exhibits in the most professional venues available in the region. This presents the opportunity to
focus on an exploration of the art of several significant contemporary artists working with life forms from nature.
By extension, the process of aging and the process of dying are revealed as integral to the life cycle. Dying is
part of life, and the dimension of providing care for the elderly and dying is illuminated through the lens of the
artist.
Narrative
Goals and Objectives
The goals of this paper include an examination of a model for building community capacity for interprofessional
education addressing the issue of societal injustices regarding the aging and dying. The model was an
outgrowth of a community-campus collaboration that co-joined the disciplines of healthcare and fine art. The
story of how a community partnership was formed to provide an innovative approach to learning about end of
life care will be revealed. The model will demonstrate how art can be used as a unifying teaching and learning
strategy for end of life care that would help prepare students as future healthcare workers to be better
equipped to advocate for decisions regarding end of life care that offer support from public domains. Further, a
goal is to demonstrate the use of service learning as an intersectoral framework for establishing an interprofessional
community-campus learning partnership. The project demonstrates how students became
engaged in intensive community service through docent service and hospice and geriatric care.
Background
The work of fabric and thread artist Deidre Scherer was the initial inspiration that gave rise to the vision for a
collaborative venture that addressed the issue of how a society relates to death and dying and end of life care.
This vision became an extensive intersectoral collaboration of university and community members that
engendered a multifunctional framework of events and activities surrounding a two-part exhibit of Scherer’s
work, Surrounded by Family and Friends and The Last Year. The first part consisted of six full-scale images
depicting group scenes of dying individuals and their intergenerational and non-traditional families from
culturally diverse groups. The second of the dual exhibit, a series of drawings and fabric and thread works,
depicted a single individual in her last year of life. Scherer’s works are based on a strong foundation in
drawing. From preliminary drawings, Scherer selectively develops her sewn images through a unique process
that she describes as “drawing with scissors”. Layers of patterned fabric are built into amazingly realistic
images that are strengthened by the use of thread as a defining linear element.
The purpose of the project was to establish an interdisciplinary and community dialogue regarding the process
of dying and end of life care, and to promote cross-cultural discovery. It was hoped that participants would be
better informed citizens regarding the challenges surrounding families engaged in the dying process and would
be better equipped to advocate for decisions that offer support from public domains. It is this premise that
encompasses how we apply social justice, the equitable right of individuals to experience death in dignity,
surrounded by family and loved ones, and supported by policy that allows equitable access to services for
those families and individuals engaged in end of life care (Miller, 1999). During the opening week of the exhibit,
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