Workshops at the museum to train tomorrow’s doctors

From left to right: Kate Walker, Programs Officer, MMFA; Mélanie Deveault, Director of Learning and Community Engagement, and the Ariane Riou and Réal Plourde Chair for Art and Education in Service of the Community at the MMFA; Aspasia Karalis, Assistant Clinical Professor in UdeM’s Faculty of Medicine; and Stephen Legari, Educational Programs Officer – Art Therapy, MMFA.

Credit: Michael Patten

“This project has multiple objectives. We want our students to fine-tune their visual literacy, identify their personal biases and embrace a diversity of perspectives. These skills ─ searching for evidence, introspection, tolerance for ambiguity ─ are directly transferable to the medical profession and are part of patient management. In this way, art serves as a catalyst, and the Museum is a place well suited to develop these skills,” says Aspasia Karalis, Assistant Clinical Professor in UdeM’s Faculty of Medicine, and instigator of the project.

“The Museum offers a wonderful learning environment, complementary to classrooms and healthcare settings. Our workshops, designed around works from our rich collection, enable students to develop observation and communication skills that are essential to a sensitive and empathic medical practice. This project also strengthens the long-standing ties between the MMFA and stakeholders in education and health, and allows us to share our expertise with doctors-in-training: to be good listeners, pay attention to details, describe works based on observation, and call upon personal experiences. All these aptitudes that future doctors are practising at the Museum will benefit their future patients,” states Mélanie Deveault, Director of Learning and Community Engagement, and the Ariane Riou and Réal Plourde Chair for Art and Education in Service of the Community at the MMFA.

“For more than 50 years, the Centre d’exposition Raymond-Lasnier has been a bold and steadfast force for cultural development in Trois-Rivières. This community partnership is a nod to our standing as leaders in our milieu. It’s an opportunity to make a difference in our community. The visual arts team of Culture Trois-Rivières is proud to contribute to the training of future medical professionals with this educational innovation that demonstrates the importance of humanity and art,” adds Marie-Andrée Levasseur, Director of Visual Arts, Culture Trois-Rivières.

What can future doctors learn by observing works of art?

Université de Montréal medical students in training at the MMFA.

Credit: Michael Patten

These workshops implement the Visual Thinking Strategies learning method, scientifically co-developed by American psychologist Abigail Housen and museologist Philip Yenawine, former director of education at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. This approach, which encourages small-group discussions, uses the observation of works of art to cultivate critical thinking, communication skills, and collaboration. It fosters open discussions and encourages participants to develop their capacity to analyze and interpret visual content. It is based on the three key questions: What is going on in this work? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can we find? The cultural mediator expertly facilitates these discussions. The doctor then completes the exercise by identifying how the process applies to medicine.

Aspasia Karalis explains: “Our approach is partly inspired by the work of Dr. Irwin Braverman of Yale University. This dermatologist noted that his students often performed incomplete observations of their patients. Deciding to address the issue with works of art rather than medical cases, he demonstrated – in a study – that students were better able to observe and analyze clinical details. Similar findings were also published in a paper on a Harvard Medical School course. Since then, the methodology of Visual Thinking Strategies has emerged as a valuable pedagogical approach, and has been integrated into several medical education programs.”