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ART AND
tered is vast and includes rare genetic disorders such as Treacher
Collins Syndrome, Alpert Syndrome, Pfeiffer Syndrome, Moebius
Syndrome, and so many others.
Fourteen young patients have participated thus far in the “Face to
Face” program. The children were paired with a professional artist
affiliated with Studio Incamminati. Each portrait, painted in oil,
was completed over multiple sittings (as many as 20). The children’s
parents, and sometime their siblings, accompanied the sitters to each
visit. The many hours that the artists, children, and their families
spent together aided in developing strong trusting relationships, a
necessary ingredient in capturing a intimate portrait.
The Results
The children, their families, and the artists agreed at the outset to by the professional artists affiliated with Studio Incamminati, these
undergo in-depth interviews about their experiences both prior to and
after the individual portraits were completed. Evaluations of these
multiple interviews clearly demonstrate the very positive impact that
the “Face to Face” portrait program had, not only on the patients, but
the families and the artists as well. Without exception, these children munity" to read more and to watch a short video further describing this
experienced superior overall psychosocial functioning. The most no-
table impact was observed in the arena of improved self-image, which
created an enhanced sense of empowerment in each child.
MEDICINE
The role of a portrait painter is not only to create a like image of
their sitter on the canvas, but to capture that person’s depth of char-
acter and the nuances of their psyche that combine to portray the
specific uniqueness of the individual. The artists uniformly found
the experience both moving and personally enriching.
Conclusion
In today’s society, physical appearance affects our daily lives in
countless ways. In particular, much of an individual is revealed and
communicated by the human face. At the outset, these children with
craniofacial anomalies cared for by the multispecialty team at the
Craniofacial Program at CHOP did not view themselves as “portrait
worthy.” Partly through the process of having their portraits painted
children have come to believe that the world can view them as people
of value. This merging of art and science has resulted in a healing
role in the lives of these remarkably strong and resilient patients.
Please visit www.studioincamminati.org and click on "In the Com-
program with interview of the children, their families, the physicians
and artists.
visit us at www.bcms.org 25