The Arts in Care Project is an evolving and collaborative space dedicated to the holistic growth of care workers, broadly defined, through arts education and creativity training. There is an ever-present need for care providers to work to humanize not just the people that they care for, but themselves as well, in order to connect on a more holistic level to their patients, clients, or cared for.
What Do We Do?
We provide education for both clinical and humanities institutions in the use of the creative arts in fostering a more holistic approach to the physical and mental well-being of people performing care labor in any capacity.
We aim to bring the power of creativity to the carer through tailored virtual or in-person lectures, seminars, and workshops. From a class visit to a panel, we will consult with your program or individual instructors on how to best add the element of creativity to self-care, engagement, and well-being.
We are also interested in the power of the arts to communicate and make accessible to the general audience the kinds of scientific and professional knowledge that can be actionable in everyday life to improve health and wellbeing.
Who Are We?
Rocío Pichon-Rivière, PhD
Rocío Pichon-Rivière is a scholar, educator, and author of essays and comics. Currently, she is the Director of Medical and Health Humanities at UC Riverside, School of Medicine and is conducting research on the healing potential of comics workshops regarding professional stress in healthcare and education. She holds a PhD in Latin American literature from New York University and a BA (licenciatura) in philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires. She writes about queer theory, comics, vernacular phenomenology, medical humanities, and restorative justice. She has taught at NYU, Pratt Institute, and the University of California-Riverside.
Elias Poland, RN-BSN
Elias Poland is an interdisciplinary artist whose work deals with themes of tactility, work ethic, transsexuality, and pain. He holds a dual BS degree in urban studies and printmaking from New School University and a BSN degree from SUNY Downstate Medical Center. He works as an emergency room nurse in Brooklyn, NY, specializing in critical care/trauma and manages Artists For Reparations. His areas of expertise include moral injury and compassion fatigue, contemporary art history, the AIDS crisis, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to New York City.
Antía Itzel Gómez, PhD
Antía Itzel Gómez holds a BA in Spanish from Pomona College, PhD in literature from New York University, and an MD from SUNY Downstate University. Her dissertation explores alcoholism, diabetes, and narco-trafficking in queer Mexican and Chicana cultural production. She is currently a psychiatry resident at the University of San Francisco. Antía’s interest in becoming a physician emerged from her personal experiences as a transgender Latina and her work in the medical humanities.