It’s a December afternoon at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina. Inside the Pancoe Education Center, adults quietly assemble in a classroom, unwinding scarves and setting aside jackets as they chat.
Surrounded by the trademark evidence of welcome creativity – a sink splashed with dozens of colors of acrylic paint, walls lined with colorful graphic portraits and cabinets brimming with supplies – their conversations turn to art. But there’s another common thread that runs through their discussions and unifies them.
All students present are cancer warriors – those who are currently undergoing cancer treatment or who have been through it in the past. They’re assembled here for Art Enhances Health, a six-week creative writing and visual art class made possible through a collaboration between the museum’s Lifelong Learning program and Novant Health Foundation.
Supportive care throughout your cancer journey.
Creating art that lasts in your heart
The class opens with a creative writing exercise led by instructor Lorraine Perry, an expressive arts therapist who’s been ingrained in the Wilmington community since 1980. Today, the topic is haiku. Fittingly, the afternoon is calm and gray, and a flock of Canada geese peacefully waddles by the studio’s large windows as Perry explains.
“In Japan, these poems are valued for their lightness, brevity, simplicity and openness, but at the same time, they have some real deep meaning that you don't even realize until you've composed it, and it appears,” she said. “I’m going to suggest a theme for today: creating art that lasts in your heart.”
As the students scribble in lines of 5/7/5 syllables, there’s an air of curiosity. Focusing on expression purely through sounds and syllables is a welcome departure from concentrating on medical terms and treatments, which may take place as often as five days a week for radiation treatments or chemotherapy infusions. Sometimes, Perry explains, students may miss a class because of a treatment. The class takes place at Pancoe rather than a hospital to allow students a mental departure from a clinical setting. Novant Health and the Cameron Art Museum share a vision for the support they provide.
“We want people to feel safe,” said Donna Moore, a teaching artist in the Wilmington region since 1981 who instructs the second half of the class, focused on visual arts. It’s OK to have an icky-feeling day because of intense treatments, she said. The class provides an outlet to express and release emotions without judging or censoring them.
The healing benefits of art
In addition to the benefit of friendships and camaraderie the students build during the course, there’s plenty of evidence that art therapy reduces anxiety and depression for cancer patients. Simply being around art can also help.
“We know that art can be healing,” said September Krueger, director of Lifelong Learning at the Cameron Art Museum. “This is a space that people can come into at any time to get the benefit of interacting with art.”
Students practice several different mediums of visual art and forms of creative writing and also visit the museum’s galleries to immerse themselves. A bonus: The museum is closed to the public on Mondays, allowing the classes to have the galleries to themselves. The small class sizes, with a maximum of 12 students, keep the experience personal and intimate.
Faye Sturgis is a Carolina Beach resident who has enrolled in the class several times. The people keep bringing her back.
“I love the instructors,” she said. “They take your mind off of all the negativity in the world.”
During the second half of the class, Moore demonstrates how to create monoprints using gel plates, ink pads and a variety of natural items from the grounds surrounding the museum, like longleaf pine needles, spruce sprigs and leaves. Every student creates five unique designs, printing them onto a bifold greeting card.
As Sturgis peels her notecard away from the inked printing plate, she reveals a beautifully vibrant blue and orange leaf print.
“My grandkids would love this!” she exclaims. There’s pure joy in the final product, but Sturgis says that for her, it’s really more about the process.
“This is time just for me,” she said. “It’s fulfilling.”
Art Enhances Health
- A six-week class at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina
- Mondays from 1-3 p.m.
- Upcoming 2025 dates are Feb. 2 to March 10; and April 7 to May 12
- Enrollment is free to cancer patients and survivors
- Includes a one-year membership to the Cameron Art Museum
- To enroll, ask your oncologist for a referral or:
Art Enhances Health was made possible by support from Novant Health Foundation.
The collective generosity of meaningful giving allows Novant Health to care for more patients across our footprint, provide new equipment, support team member development and assist community members.
If you’d like to join us in making a difference, visit SupportNovantHealth.org/Give-Where-You-Live to learn more.
