A multimedia exhibit by Scholar Paul Dieppe, MD, was a source of respite and inspiration for visitors and staff at Musgrove Park Hospital in Somerset, England in 2017.
As part of his Nova Institute-supported work, Dr. Dieppe explored the myriad ways that people experience healing. In the process, he collected numerous materials, primarily created by the public in response to the question: “What does healing mean to you?” The four-month exhibit, How Are You Healing?, assembled some of these drawings, photographs, sounds, nature elements, quotations, and other expressions along a well-trafficked corridor of the hospital.
Aimed at starting conversations about the nature of healing, the exhibit was well-received. Staff members paused to view it between appointments, and visitors remarked that the exhibit was a place of reprieve where they come to rest and reflect between visits with hospitalized family members.
Someone who works at the hospital said: “As a sufferer of bipolar (disorder) it is very difficult to keep my moods stable. Being a member of MPH staff, walking down the corridor regularly and seeing your ‘healing’ exhibition always helps and elevates my daily pain—best exhibition I have seen—so comforting.”
How Are You Healing? remained on display in Somerset until August 2017, when it traveled to Wales for the 2017 Green Man Festival of music and arts. It was featured as an experiential activity in Einstein’s Garden, an area of the festival whose offerings take their cue from science and nature. In 2018, the exhibit traveled to Baltimore for the International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health, and in 2019 it was on display at the University of Lapland, Finland.
