The pieces are creative, inspiring, touching and tragic – a little boy sketched on a piece of cardboard blowing bubbles; a vase with an inspiring message to the Michigan State University community after the campus shootings.

Caregivers from across Lansing’s E.W. Sparrow Hospital, part of University of Michigan Health, are turning to art to flex their creative muscles and work through deeply emotional feelings stirred by tragedy and the pandemic.  

The hope is to help Sparrow employees discover and express feelings they may not have known were there or that couldn’t be easily verbalized.

“Art is an amazing way to process things that have happened to us in our lives and to be able to share in an outward way with others and then collaboratively connect with people,” said Sparrow Family Medicine physician Amy Odom, D.O..

The original idea came from Odom and her partner and colleague Amy Romain, director of Behavioral Health in Sparrow’s Family Medicine Residency program.

The goal was to use art as a mental health outlet for health care workers stressed by the pandemic, worker shortages, and the MSU shootings.

An artistic outlet

The initiative began last year in the wake of the pandemic, when many caregivers’ nerves were raw and Sparrow was looking for a way to assist their emotional health.

 “It has never been more necessary or timely to create space to honor our own and each other’s stories, and how we are healing and finding hope in our world. Engaging with the arts allows for reflection and enables connection and community with each other,” said Sparrow Health System President and CEO James Dover.

Sparrow recently held an exhibit called “Hope and Healing: Artistic Reflections on Moving Forward,” in which more than 50 caregivers submitted paintings, photography, poems, sculpture, graphic art, and works of art in numerous other mediums. The artwork was displayed for two weeks in the hospital lobby, where it elicited many thoughtful comments and kudos. Submissions were reviewed by a committee of caregivers.

“You’ll see here that art can come in a lot of different formats, whether it be physical, like paintings, some of its writing, fabric work, ceramics.  We have all kinds of things that are here and it's just really important to realize that many people use that as a way to process and reflect.”

Odom created a quilt wall hanging that depicts an MSU Spartan heart surrounded by fabric that represents the community.

“I think one of the things I really appreciate about this is we get to see each other as humans. We are all workers in this health care industry with lots of stressors and being able to see a piece of who we are outside of our role as a healthcare worker and allowing the community to see that as well. It helps us be able to connect to the community better and for others to see us as humans as well.”

“This is a really good example of there's so much more to know about each of us than our roles here. We're so familiar with each other in our professional roles. We have no idea what people's lives are like. What do they do? What are their passions outside of medicine? And this art gives us a little glimpse of that,” said Rebecca Roberts, an interior designer at the hospital.