Newswise — With the help of the Child Life Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 22 new pieces of art were revealed from 19 talented adolescent patients during the Teen Art Show. The artwork is on display in a hospital hallway that was transformed permanently into the Teen Art Gallery.
The gallery displays brightly colored, powerful photography, group projects, drawings, sculptures and poetry created exclusively by teen patients. Using paint, canvas and other media, young artists effectively communicate raw emotions that may otherwise be difficult to verbalize. The Teen Art Show—this year themed “My Journey”—is a formal gathering that displays various works from teen patients, some of whom were in attendance to reveal their own art to St. Jude staff, patients and their families.
“The art show gives teens another way to express themselves,” said Kelly Anderson, Child Life specialist at St. Jude. “Teenagers can have deep and often conflicting emotions, especially if they have cancer. Sharing their emotions in this fashion helps them get those feelings out there somehow. It allows patients to share feelings and experiences concerning their illness in an artistic fashion.”
For many adolescents and young adults, the middle ground between childhood and adulthood is rocky and confusing. For teens with cancer or other catastrophic diseases, the load can be exacerbated by hair loss, weight gain, isolation, questions about mortality and depression.
“When teens with cancer are admitted to a hospital, they lose the sense of freedom they were just learning how to gain,” Anderson said. “Their friends and family are worried and are checking on them more than usual. The autonomy is gone. They also look at themselves then and now, comparing how it used to be.”
As its name suggests, St. Jude is a children’s hospital, but its staff also diligently and passionately works to ensure that adolescent and young adult patients fit in as much as possible.
“Teens at St. Jude grow up quickly because of their experience as cancer patients. They see a bigger picture than what they would if they were not patients,” Anderson said. “We encourage our teens to share with us how they are feeling. We introduce them to other teens at St. Jude. They need to feel like someone is on their side.”
St. Jude Children’s Research HospitalSt. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering research and treatment of children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Ranked the No. 1 pediatric cancer hospital by Parents magazine and the No. 1 children’s cancer hospital by U.S. News & World Report, St. Jude is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and from around the world, serving as a trusted resource for physicians and researchers. St. Jude has developed research protocols that helped push overall survival rates for childhood cancer from less than 20 percent when the hospital opened to almost 80 percent today. St. Jude is the national coordinating center for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium and the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. In addition to pediatric cancer research, St. Jude is also a leader in sickle cell disease research and is a globally prominent research center for influenza.
Founded in 1962 by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world, publishing more research articles than any other pediatric cancer research center in the United States. St. Jude treats more than 5,700 patients each year and is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. St. Jude is financially supported by thousands of individual donors, organizations and corporations without which the hospital’s work would not be possible. In 2010, St. Jude was ranked the most trusted charity in the nation in a public survey conducted by Harris Interactive, a highly respected international polling and research firm. For more information, go to www.stjude.org.
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