Looking forward - 2006:

The Creative Center was awarded a two-year Lance Armstrong Foundation Community Grant for Still Life: A Documentary Photography Project for Cancer Survivors that will enable participants to learn the art and craft of digital photography while documenting their experience as survivors. Through classes and seminars with professional photographers and educators from the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, cancer survivors will develop their personal accounts of survivorship and it’s challenges. The resulting portfolios will be published in book form to help educate healthcare practitioners, policymakers, caregivers and the general public. A study guide, developed by cancer survivors, will be included. An exhibit of the work will be held at The Creative Center Gallery in late Spring 2006 and will travel to venues throughout the US.
Today, as the field of Arts in Healthcare rapidly develops, there is a great demand for educational resources and training materials. The Creative Center will continue its role as a dynamic contributor to the professional development of this field and publish a book, Artists in Healthcare, that will include training information, professional guidelines, artists’ logs, and sample art projects.

1994:

Adrienne Assail, an attorney and singer/songwriter, and Geraldine Herbert, a social worker in a bone marrow transplant unit, collaborated to develop their idea of a creative "home" for cancer patients and survivors. Initially using borrowed space, The Creative Center began as a series of free workshops in the visual, literary and performing arts offered to women with cancer.

1996:

The Center's first public exhibits of participant and professional artwork. Venues include the ABC-TV Gallery, The National Arts Club, and The World Financial Center, (curated by The Whitney Museum of American Art), as well as the Creative Center Gallery.

1997:

The Hospital Artist-In-Residence Program began at Lenox Hill Hospital- enlarging The Creative Center's mission, and bringing the opportunity to make art directly to the bedsides of cancer patients. This program now serves men, women and children in 14 New York area hospitals sites. Artists work on oncology, pediatric, bone marrow transplant and palliative care units, and in chemotherapy and radiation clinics.

2000:

The Creative Center moves to its present location, a loft where workshops and festivals and open studio flourish; it is the home of our gallery and it is a performance space for music, dance and improvisational troupes and readings from our literary groups.

2002:

The first Training Program for Hospital Artists-In-Residence sponsored by Bristol- Myers Squibb, in May 2002. Novartis Oncology sponsored the November 2002 Institute. This week-long training program prepares artists from around the world to work in hospital settings through seminars, workshops and hospital internships led by physicians, social workers, nurses, artists and art educators.

2004:

Celebrates 10th Year Anniversary

2005:

The Creative Center has continued its Training Institute, which has trained more than 60 artists from around the country and Canada who receive continued support and resources through The Creative Center Artists in Healthcare online Google group network and Training Program Newsletters.

Through a collaboration with Harvard Medical School, a course for medical students was developed called Training the Eye: Improving the Art of Physical Diagnosis. The ten session course includes didactic sessions at the medical school and observation practicums at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The Creative Center hosted the second annual Colloquium for Leaders in the Field of Arts in Healthcare. The four-day fully funded conference included seminars on the challenges and opportunities in the field and produced a White Paper on arts in healthcare.