Clinical Arts

The RISD Museum provides professional-development opportunities for premedical students, medical students, residents, and practicing attending physicians. In workshops and courses held at the museum, current and future physicians build skills in nuanced observation, mindful attention to individual thought patterns, and awareness of personal biases—skills which are directly applicable to clinical practice.

Led by interdisciplinary teams of museum educators and medical professionals, participants engage with works of art and design through close looking and discussion, as well as drawing and creative-writing exercises. Reflective, collegial conversation engages participants in actively connecting the sessions with their clinical work, and in considering ways to apply what they have learned to their professional practice.

The museum continues to build a robust collaboration with Brown University’s Alpert Medical School in this work, as well as with other educational institutions, and is proud to contribute to a state-wide commitment to Arts & Health work.

Clinical Arts sessions the RISD Museum has offered include:

  • Artful Medicine, ongoing accredited continuing medical education workshops for practicing physicians, co-facilitated with Jane Hesser MFA, MSW, LICSW

  • Integrated Clinic Arts Sessions, annual sessions for first year medical students of Alpert Medical School

  • Blame, Shame, and Mental Strain, a three-session workshop series for emergency medicine residents, physicians, and scribes, co-facilitated by Jordan Cohen, MD and Jay Baruch, MD

  • Creative Dimensions of Clinical Decision Making, a Brown University seminar course for premedical undergraduates, co-facilitated by Jay Baruch, MD

  • Clinical Arts Series, workshops integrated into the curriculum of the Alpert Medical School’s dermatology residency program, with the support of John Kawaoka, MD

  • The Weight of Pain, a workshop series for the Alpert Medical School’s emergency medicine physicians and residents, co-facilitated with Bonnie Marr, MD

  • Cops and Docs, annual evening sessions for police detectives and practicing physicians, co-facilitated by Fred Schiffman, MD

  • Single customized workshops for the Primary Care-Population Medicine program and the Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship program at Alpert Medical School, the Physical Therapy program at URI, and a variety of other partners.



To learn more or to request information about upcoming sessions, please contact the academic programs department.

From Museum to Bedside

The Need for Museum Educators In Medical Education
Clinical Arts Curator

The RISD Museum continues to build a robust collaboration with Brown University's Alpert Medical School, providing professional-development opportunities for premedical students, medical students, residents, and practicing attending physicians.