CHARLESTON SC.- To anyone who has experienced the process of physical and emotional healing, it would be shocking to hear it called “art.” An often painful journey, healing takes time, work and most of all, support. Yet in Charleston, S.C., the Gibbes Museum of Art and Roper St. Francis Hospital have partnered to bring both support and art to aid the hospital’s patients with the program The Art of Healing.

Through conversations, panel discussions and hands-on workshops hosted by the Gibbes Museum, as well as a Lending Collection at Roper St. Francis that provides works of art to patients, The Art of Healing has become a necessity for many working toward emotional and physical healing. Past panels include a discussion on the Emanuel AME Church shooting led by local artists, Gibbes board members and Assistant U.S. Attorney Emmanuel Ferguson. The program has even included a workshop dedicated to helping patients learn to appreciate their healing bodies via the art of dance and movement.

The year 2016 will mark a new series of events for the program, starting February 2 with “The Power of Words,” a conversation led by local poets, including South Carolina Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth, which focuses on the healing power of literary arts. On March 15, The Art of Healing will host a workshop entitled “Embrace the Fall” that will incorporate scientifically proven mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques to calm and heal patients suffering from both physical and emotional ailments. In addition, the Lending Collection at Roper St. Francis will offer long-term patients a choice from 25 beautiful works of local art to hang in their hospital rooms.

The Art of Healing is expanding its reach each year, and 2016 will bring more opportunities for patients to find healing in the beauty of art. The program could serve as a platform to expand such healing strategies nationally.