Fine art students from the University of North Florida are selected each year by Professor Louise Freshman Brown to take part in a groundbreaking intern partnership with Art with a Heart in Healthcare at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Nemours Children’s Clinic and the Ronald McDonald House in Jacksonville, Florida. While the children’s interactions with the interns are profound, the experiences of the students who work with the children are equally transformative.
Since 2012, Krista Lee Weller (former student of Louise Freshman Brown) has been documenting the participation of the art students as they work with critically ill children through Art with a Heart in Healthcare’s intern program. As a result, Weller and Freshman Brown are co-producing the film I CARRY YOUR HEART IN MY HEART: Transforming Art Students and Patients through Visual Art in Medicine. Working closely with Art with a Heart co-founder and program director Lori Guadagno and staff, Weller has had access to students interning for the first time as well as access to past interns who’s lives have taken profound and unexpected paths as a result of their experiences with this program.
I CARRY YOUR HEART IN MY HEART, currently in production, explores not only the work the students do with Art with a Heart, but also how being involved with the program changes them as artists and people. The film also explores how this experience, guided by Freshman Brown and Guadagno, sets the stage for interns to continue to utilize their creativity that powerfully impacts both the hospital setting and their communities.
LIGHTHORSE PRODUCTIONS 