Art exhibit at University of Miami Sylvester bridges North and South America

Karen Estrada, a survivor of acute myeloid leukemia, used visual art to communicate with her two boys while undergoing a bone marrow transplant at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Because Estrada’s treatment required isolation, and her young children could not yet read and write, she sought out other creative vessels to foster closeness between them.

“In those darkest days, I searched for ways to stay connected to my children. Art became our language, our bridge,” Estrada said on Nov. 25, at the opening of the art exhibit organized by the cancer center that is part of the University of Miami Health System. 

Along with visual art, she and her boys and husband painted rocks, cups, and even plates, sometimes simultaneously over FaceTime. 

“Each design became a way to let them know I was thinking of them, sharing my love, and staying strong for them,” Estrada said. “My small 20×20 hospital room, where my doctors worked tirelessly to save my life, became my sanctuary, my art studio. It wasn’t just a place of treatment—it was where I transformed.”

During her treatment, while they were apart, Estrada’s boys carried around a small toy horse named “Toby,” a symbol of their mother and a reminder of their shared love for horses. Moved by this little horse, and the image of Estrada talking to her children through FaceTime, one of the boy’s kindergarten teachers painted a portrait of Estrada, titled Toby Rebirth.

“At the time, I was at my weakest, as chemotherapy wasn’t working. The painting you’re seeing now is her creation—a reflection of resilience and hope during one of the most difficult moments of my life,” Estrada said. 

“Toby Rebirth” is now on display in perpetuity at Sylvester, along with other art pieces. The exhibit is displayed on the first-floor atrium of the Sylvester main building in Miami.

“The whole purpose of the exhibit is centered around hope and the feeling of care,” said Desert Horse-Grant, Sylvester’s chief transformation officer and the curator of the exhibit. “We don’t want people to be lonely. They’re here to be cared for. The reason we work here is to support them. The exhibit really is centered around the community.”

The new exhibit, the third iteration of the Art is Medicine project, is titled “Bridge to Bahia.” The stimulus for the art challenge is the diversity of Miami, and each of the pieces relate to the concept of bridging cultures. More than half of Miami-Dade County’s population are immigrants from Cuba, Central and South America, and this cultural diversity is reflected by Sylvester’s diversity in faculty and clinicians. 

The exhibit’s title alludes to the Brazilian state of Bahia, the epicenter of Afro-Brazilian culture and the birthplace of samba and capoeira.

“Bahia is a really interesting place. Nearly 80% of the population identifies as Black or mixed race. So, it’s just an interesting region in Brazil,” Horse-Grant, said. “And I think it just mimics the multiculturalism of Miami.”

Sylvester’s head of medical oncology is from Brazil, and the cancer center has a large presence of Brazilian physicians and nurses, as well as many non-Brazilians who are doing research in Brazilian institutions, Stephen D. Nimer, Sylvester’s director and professor of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology, the Oscar de La Renta Endowed Chair in Cancer Research and executive dean for research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said to The Cancer Letter.

“We successfully renewed our NCI designation, which in part reflects our expertise over the years in engaging our diverse community,” Nimer said. “We are the only U.S cancer center that translates our informed consent forms into both Spanish and Haitian Creole. And we also have a large Brazilian population.”

“This reaches an important constituency,” Nimer said.

The Bahia exhibit prominently features professional photos of the Everglades and Brazil, from New York-based photographer Dar Riser, as well as visual art and photography that was submitted primarily by Sylvester faculty, hospital staff, and patients. 

There were over 100 submissions in all this year, and a panel of judges within and outside the visual arts community chose 25 to permanently frame and display, with the rest displayed on video monitors in the gallery, and exhibited in digital picture books at other Sylvester locations. Along with Riser’s airy and vivid photography, nine of the works are by faculty, seven by patient/survivors, two by University of Miami students, and one patient family member. 

The exhibit is accompanied by a QR code that allows viewers to link to information highlighting the research work being done in Brazil, by medical researchers Denise Pereira, Gilberto Lopes, and Wael El-Rifai. 

My small 20×20 hospital room, where my doctors worked tirelessly to save my life, became my sanctuary, my art studio. It wasn’t just a place of treatment—it was where I transformed.

Karen Estrada

Three years ago, Sylvester’s first exhibit, titled “Patient Journey,” received over 200 submissions via crowdsourcing, which included using QR codes placed in clinics and hospitals. Many of the submissions were curated in a digital show, and 17 were framed.

In year two, the exhibit was called “Science and Safari,” and emphasized the intersection between science and art, featuring photography from Namibia, and highlighting the research of Sylvester’s Sophia George.

The response to all three iterations of “Art is Medicine” has been overwhelmingly positive, said Horse-Grant. 

“They want more art,” Horse-Grant said. “I think people have found themselves getting to know their doctors more. I mean, imagine your radiation oncologist sharing a painting, and you getting to experience it. Or, conversely, your patient or their caregiver.”

Consider “Girl in Velvet,” an oil painting by a Sylvester radiation oncologist Benjamin Spieler, featuring one of his patients, a young woman diagnosed with a devastating cancer. She received chemoradiation, had a complete response to treatment, and subsequently got married, said Spieler. 

“Art has been a lifelong hobby for me,” Spieler said to The Cancer Letter. There was a time when he considered pursuing a career in visual arts, but ultimately chose medicine, he said. 

“I view radiation oncology as a kind of art form,” said Spieler. “We create sculptures out of energy and place these sculptures within our patients to cure cancer.” 

Another painting, “Tribal Rhythm,” was contributed by Sandrah Chalmers, a self-taught artist from Haiti, and research associate for the cancer center. 

Said Chalmers of her portrait:

The previous two exhibits remain permanently in the cancer center. 

“This is super important to us at Sylvester,” Nimer said. “This is something that we’ve been trying to do to benefit our patients, to benefit our caregivers, faculty, and staff–to bring everyone together around art and to demonstrate the important power of art for our patients in terms of their healing.”

It’s also an opportunity for Sylvester staff to share their talents outside of medicine. 

“It’s also a way to get insight into the patient’s journey,” he said, “to provide hope, and shape the experience for patients.”

The whole purpose of the exhibit is centered around hope and the feeling of care.

Desert Horse-Grant

Research has shown that art therapy significantly reduces depression and anxiety during cancer treatment, and improves quality of life. Images of nature can reduce stress and improve mood, restore mental energy and enhance problem-solving skills.

“We have beautiful examples of people needing another form of expression,” said Horse-Grant. “This is seemingly hitting the mark, with a city that values culture, art, and science.”

Sylvester has a large survivorship program, said Nimer, and the center works hard to emphasize returning to a sense of normalcy, using food, art therapy, music therapy, dog therapy, that are all incorporated into patient care as treatment options, he said. 

“I think everybody can enjoy the art and, and get out of it what they want, but it’s part of a holistic healing approach,” Nimer said. 

Therapeutic intent is present as well. Sylvester’s art therapist comes to the exhibit openings to discuss the role of art in stress.

Part of the inspiration behind this art challenge was the concept of a “bucket list,” said Horse-Grant. “Patients wishing they could escape, be somewhere else with their days. So, photography really connected us with nature.”

Horse-Grant conducted a crowdsourcing community survey asking patients and the community what they wanted to see most at the cancer center, what felt most healing to them. 

I view radiation oncology as a kind of art form. We create sculptures out of energy and place these sculptures within our patients to cure cancer.

Benjamin Spieler 

“And in our art survey, nature came out to be number one,” she said. “So, we’ve been focused on photography for that reason.”

“[The exhibit] is really a microcosm of Miami,” Horse-Grant said. 

“We keep getting submissions,” she said. “I’m just so pleased that we were able to create this for the public. And to create a sense of community amongst ourselves and amongst our visitors.”

A personal highlight for Horse-Grant is a piece called “Our Umbrella,” two juxtaposed photographs by Riser: in the right photo, two individuals, shown from the back, walk in the rain with their arms around each other, sharing a pink umbrella, with the sun coming out. The left photo of the pair is one of a rainbow.

“I just felt like it spoke to being there for each other. I think that piece is really special, it’s like a pop of pink in the middle of our blue.”