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Provides professional arts performances that contribute to the quality of life of people in care. It is the largest performance arts organisation in Canada dedicated exclusively to people in healthcare. Health Arts Society presents performance events in health care sites as ARTSWAY
Health Arts Society (HAS) is an emerging force in the field of arts in health care in BC. It is driven by the central idea that people in care, especially in long-term isolation, are in need of intellectual stimulation. Presently much remains to be done to improve quality of life programs.
Many individuals and organisations share this perception, particularly within health care authorities. Substantial progress can be made only by galvanising efforts of care providers, foundations, patient families, government agencies, and people who share the central idea and are willing to provide material support. Although the word “partner” can be an imprecise term, we use it here to describe and to honour those who participate in the projects of Health Arts Society in various ways.
Health Authorities
Health Arts Society provides services to patients in care of several of the large health authorities in BC. These authorities administer some sites directly and others are contracted societies or for profit entities. Each has shown a significant support for the objectives of HAS and we consider them partners in values.
Several administered and contracted sites of the following health authorities are served by HAS.
The contract provisions with authorities and the contributions made by them cover only a portion of the costs of the work of HAS. However over 80% of all HAS revenues are paid to performing artists. This is a very high proportion of artist fees to total revenues in relation to other arts presenting organisations in the country. Of course this is to some extent a factor of lower costs incurred inherent in the form of presentation but the organisation takes pride in managing its affairs economically.
Health Foundations
Health Foundations have a special interest in supporting project that conform to the core values of the health authorities they serve, and they administer gift funds dedicated to specific sites. The following have made significant contributions from allocated and unallocated funds. We offer our thanks to them and to donors to their gift accounts.
Donations
Many very generous contributors have joined the work of Health Arts Society. Among these are the following. They have provided funding for development of the Society’s campaigns, special capital projects such as the ArtsWay Piano Challenge and for sustaining and building the ArtsWay events.
Registered Charity # 81014 0749 RR0001
The Society is developing a $3,000,000 endowment, the proceeds of which will make a major contribution to the society’s administration costs.
Communications
Health Arts Society is grateful for the support of Kirk & Co. for their contribution of communications services
Partners at Large
The following organisations have provided valuable support to projects of HAS
Performers are at the heart of the Society’s project, providing thousands of hours of highly trained expertise, talent and imagination. A complete list of artists is found on the Artist’s Honor Roll. We are grateful for the generous spirit with which they offer their work to audiences isolated in care.
The Society recognises the efforts of people in health care to welcome and nurture the work of the Society. Staff and leaders are under pressures of time and budget and add to heavy workloads to make time to expand the work of the sites to accommodate new programs. It is widely recognised that public health authorities have very limited mandated and funded quality of life programs and budgets provided directly by the Province are presently insufficient to create them. Part of the project of the Society is to bring about change in this respect and in this it has the wholehearted support of health care professionals at every level. The dedicated people with whom the Society has worked, both in management and at the sites, are among our most important partners in extending the range of services provided in public health care. The objective of the Society is to work toward improvements in the publicly owned health care sector to ensure that it remains the provider of choice for as many British Columbians as possible. Only by making life in long-term care as nourishing as possible will people lose their fear of spending long, and probably their last years in institutional residences.
Patients
It has become commonplace for patients in care to be described as “clients,” as if to describe them as such makes it appear that they have significant control over their environments and choices. In fact institutional life is highly regulated to accommodate broad denominators of staffing and services, which of course is the outcome of the need to manage costs. HAS is dedicated to as far as possible reaching toward individuals as dignified by opinions, tastes and idiosyncrasies. We have already learned from patients. We were able to provide the late Frank Doyle with the opportunity to hear his own compositions, both at the site where he lived and in a public concert at the Chan. We have heard people singing words in German and Spanish to songs without vocals and we have brought classical artists to people who had been avid concertgoers. With the guidance of staff we have made of patients our partners as audience. Every performer recognises the audience as a partner in the live event. No less then are audiences in care and we look forward to an ever more fruitful relationship with them as we develop our project in their interests.
