UF Health patients and visitors collaborate in art project with UF engineering professor

January 21, 2014

WHAT:                     

UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine is celebrating the collaborative artwork of UF engineering professor Elif Akcali with an exhibit and reception at UF Health Shands Cancer Hospital Thursday, Jan. 23.

The exhibit, “Messages,” features thousands of hand-folded paper cranes that are strung in formations of flight. Each crane carries messages of hope and healing contributed by UF Health patients and visitors. The exhibit is designed to “explore the human narratives constructed by people who share a particular common experience,” according to Akcali.

She integrates art and its interpretation into her engineering classes, offering her students a dynamic foundation for creative thinking. She serves as creative scholar-in-residence at the UF School of Theatre and Dance.

Akcali is featured this month in a UF Spotlight: ufl.edu/2014/01/06/art-sparks-creative-aspects-for-engineering-students/ and on the Arts in Medicine website at artsinmedicine.ufhealth.org.

WHEN:

5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23

WHO:                        

• Elif Akcali, featured artist and UF professor of engineering
• Cammy Abernathy, dean of the UF College of Engineering
• Lucinda Lavelli, dean of the UF College of Fine Arts
• Tina Mullen, director of the UF Health Shands Arts In Medicine program
• Jill Sonke, director of the UF Center for the Arts in Medicine

WHERE:

Marshall M. and Paula P. Criser, Jr. Cancer Resource Center, UF Health Shands Cancer Hospital, 1515 SW Archer Road, Room 1302, Gainesville

CONTACT:            

Open to the public. For more information, contact Kris Sullivan at 352-733-0880.

To protect the privacy of all our patients, we require all members of the media to be escorted by a communications staff member or representative when visiting our facilities.