How the Arts in Medicine program transforms hospital care 

Someone steps off the elevator carrying the weight of an upcoming appointment. 

Their mind is racing. Their shoulders are tight. 

And then they hear it. 

A cello warming the hallway. 
A quartet sending shimmering chords through the lobby. 
An artist brushing soft color across a canvas near the entrance. 

Something shifts. 
They pause. 
They breathe. 

In a place defined by diagnoses and procedures, art creates space — space for steadiness, reflection and hope. 

An unexpected refuge before treatment

For patient Bonnie Pitman, that shift was unmistakable. 

She was preparing for hours-long IVIG infusions when she walked into the lobby of Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center and saw a Dallas Symphony Orchestra quartet playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. 

“The beautiful music filled the halls, and so many people gathered to enjoy it,” she remembered.  

In that moment, the lobby became more than a waiting space. It felt like an extension of the Meyerson Symphony Center — a reminder that beauty and medicine can coexist. 

For Bonnie and countless others, these encounters are not background music. They are grounding moments before difficult treatments. They are pauses in the middle of uncertainty. 

They are made possible through philanthropy. 

Donor support sustains the professional musicians and visual artists who bring music and creativity into Baylor University Medical Center’s (BUMC) public spaces each week — a reflection of a belief that healing should care for the whole person. 

A decade of creativity, compassion and care 

In 2015, the Arts in Medicine program began with a simple idea: what if the hospital experience could feel more welcoming, more human, more whole? 

What began in one building now shapes the daily experience across BUMC. 

Over the past decade, artists in residence have provided: 

• 3,000+ live performances 

• Nearly 10,000 hours of music and visual art 

• Thousands of quiet, restorative moments for patients, families and caregivers 

These performances lift spirits in waiting rooms, soften difficult conversations, and give physicians and nurses a moment to exhale in the middle of demanding shifts. 

The impact is often subtle, but deeply felt. 

A familiar melody steadies a nervous patient. 
A painting in progress sparks conversation between strangers. 
A violin’s notes linger long after the last chord fades. 

Thanks to donor support, art is not an occasional addition to the hospital experience — it is woven into it. 

Reshaping the emotional landscape of care 

Hospitals are places of extraordinary clinical expertise. They are also places of vulnerability. 

Arts in Medicine bridges those realities, and it exists because of philanthropy. 

From the beginning, donor support has sustained artists in residence who bring music and visual arts into public spaces across the campus. These performances are not funded through operating budgets. They are made possible by individuals and families who believe that healing should address the whole person.  

Philanthropy ensures that: 

• Professional musicians and visual artists are present throughout the week 

• Performances remain accessible to patients, visitors and staff 

• The program can grow in response to community needs 

The initial effort to make one building more welcoming has become a defining feature of the hospital experience. 

Ten years later, music and art continue because donors chose to make it part of care. 

For Bonnie, that choice made all the difference. 

As the quartet played, she found herself focusing not on the hours of infusion ahead, but on gratitude. 

“The lively music helped me focus on giving thanks to those who donate blood for my treatments and restore beauty to my heart,” Bonnie said. “I am reminded in real time that art heals.”