Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry

Hospice care, offering physical, emotional, and spiritual assistance to terminally ill people and their families, is the subject of a unique photographic exhibit opening at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum on May 20 and running through August 13, 2000. Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry was organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in collaboration with the National Hospice Foundation.

The exhibition includes commissioned works by five outstanding American photographers--Jim Goldberg, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, Jack Radcliffe, and Kathy Vargas--and a documentary film produced and directed by renowned filmmakers Susan Froemke and Deborah Dickson with Albert Saysles for Home Box Office (HBO). Each project documents individual perspectives on the emotional and collaborative experience of living and working in hospice environments throughout the country. Exploring the hospice movement by immersing artists in the world of patients, families, and health care providers, the exhibition is intended to create a broad public understanding of hospice experiences, benefits, and goals. Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry conveys the power with which art is able to reveal a facet of life that may not be part of our experience.

The Corcoran worked closely with the National Hospice Foundation to develop the exhibition, whose mission is to expand America's vision for end-of-life-care. The Weisman has been working with a planning committee for the past year, comprised of members of the Minnesota hospice and health care community affiliated with the following organizations: Allina End of Life Project, Allina Hospice and Palliative Care, Fairview Foundation, Fairview Hospice, HealthEast Foundation, HealthEast Hospice, HealthPartners, Methodist Hospital Hospice and HealthSystem Minnesota, MN Coalition for Death Education and Support, Minnesota Hospice Organization, Minnesota Medical Association, North Hospice, pARTS Photographic Arts, Pathways: A Health Crisis Resource Center, Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater, Rice Hospice, U of MN Art Department, U of MN Center for Bioethics, U of MN Center for Spirituality and Healing, and U of MN School of Nursing.

A significant educational program will accompany the exhibition, including interpretive information about the art and artists and general information on local hospice programs. A comprehensive schedule of public programs including artists' talks, lectures, discussions, readings, and performances can be found in the events section of this web page.

A special component of the education program is the hospice docent program. Professional and volunteer caregivers from local hospice organizations will work with museum personnel to guide visitors through the exhibition. Hospice volunteers will be on hand to respond to questions and issues raised by the exhibition.

In addition, the Weisman has commissioned St. Paul artist Sandra Menefee Taylor to create an installation piece which gives visitors the opportunity to respond to the exhibition. "We've all experienced loss of some sort, and many of us have unsaid words from these situations," explains Taylor. Her work will allow the viewer to perform their own private act of absolution. Taylor is an installation artist who has been working in the realm of death and healing and self-affirmation since the loss of her husband five years ago.

The Hospice Movement
In an era when humane and affordable health care, mental health concerns, public education, and family unity are difficult issues to resolve at a national level, hospice is a concept that sympathetically brings people together in a nurturing environment, primarily in patients' own homes. Its goal is to intelligently and compassionately manage the pain and loss of terminal illness.

Hospices primarily care for patients in their homes. Although cancer patients make up the majority of people in a typical hospice program, hospices also care for people with AIDS, Alzheimer's, and other diseases. In the last decade, hospice care has grown from a little-known alternative to a major movement in health care that serves more than 500,000 people each year. In 1974 there was one functional hospice program in the United States; today there are over 2,500. Minnesota has 84 hospice programs that serve over 9,000 patients annually.