NEW YORK—A photograph of a stone mansion half hidden in violet light decorates the February page of the 2002 Creative Center for Women With Cancer Novartis Desk Calendar. The photographer, Susan Markisz, writes in the calendar that "cancer, like photography, is both a positive and negative process, one that does not quite define me, but which demands interpretation."
"It’s a calendar of people," said Geraldine Herbert, director
and co-founder of the Creative Center for Women With Cancer. "I think what
it says it that the people who are diagnosed with cancer become so much more
when you look at this piece of art. They’re creative, expressive individuals—which
is really the basis of why we started the center."
The Center is 7 years old, and this is the fifth year the calendar has been published and sent to doctors and nurses across the country. The demand for it has increased: This year 125,000 calendars were distributed, calendars which have given 60 women artists an opportunity to show images of their artwork to people across the country and to present their statements.
In recent years, there have been many signs of growth at the Center, a nonprofit organization in Manhattan that helps women, men, and children with cancer improve the quality of their lives through creativity.
Its Hospital Artists-in Residence Program, begun 3 years ago as a pilot
program, has grown dramatically. The
program offers hospital patients opportunities to explore their creativity at
the bedside, in workshops, and in hospices and palliative care programs. Today
12 hospitals in the New York City area take part, and the artists work with
5,000 patients a year.
The growing demand for artists-in-residence has led to the creation of an institute to train them. This May, the first Creative Center National Institute, a week-long training program, will be held at the Center to prepare artists from across the country to become artists-in-residence. The Institute will offer internships at New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York University Hospital, and Lenox Hill Hospital, and will include seminars, workshops, and open studios led by a faculty of artists, physicians, nurses, and psychologists, with participation by the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and several New York art galleries.
The Center has also offered more programs since its move from a small office
into a spacious loft. Ms. Herbert said that being in the new space "has
enriched and expanded us." She said the move made it possible to have
exhibitions, more free workshops, and a coffee house on Friday nights where the
public can hear members play music or sing.
