Activating Empathy Through Art in Cancer Communities

Area of Science:

• Medical Humanities
• Arts in Health
• Social Practice Art

Background:

• The Aesthetics of Health (AOH) course at UT Austin aimed to deepen art students' understanding of cancer's impact beyond the medical.
• The course explored cancer's social, emotional, financial, and spiritual dimensions, influencing student artwork, empathy, and audience connection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of an undergraduate visual art course on students' awareness of cancer's effects.
• To assess the course's influence on student empathy and artistic expression.

Main Methods:

• Utilized diverse pedagogical methods: art, illness narrative, community engagement, and personal storytelling from cancer patients and survivors.
• Student-artists created public art projects integrating health and activism.
• Assessed empathy using the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (pre/post) and collected qualitative feedback via interviews.

Main Results:

• Average empathy scores increased from 52.46 to 55.38.
• Student-artists and cancer storytellers reported positive experiences.
• The social practice approach fostered new ideas and relationships among students.

Conclusions:

• The AOH course successfully used a social practice approach to enhance student empathy and artistic exploration.
• The AOH framework shows potential for increasing empathy in educational, clinical, and artistic settings.
• Further research with larger samples is recommended to validate findings and explore applications for burnout and moral distress.