The Faculty of Medicine of Université de Montréal (UdeM) is joining forces with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) and Culture Trois-Rivières in an innovative project: training future doctors through works of art. Complementing their hands-on classroom work, these workshop visits at the Museum allow medical students to hone their communication and clinical observation skills.
This unique program consists of three workshop visits at the MMFA and is offered to some 350 first-year medical students from the university’s Montreal campus. A sister project – on which the MMFA has lent its expertise – has also been set up for 50 medical students from UdeM’s Mauricie campus, in collaboration with the Centre d’exposition Raymond-Lasnier in Trois-Rivières.
These immersive learning activities take place at the Museum, under the joint leadership of 50 professors of medicine and about 10 professional mediators from the MMFA. Based on the methodology of Visual Thinking Strategies, they combine workshops on the art of observing, interpretive exercises and reflection activities on three themes: Connecting With People, The Other Person’s Perspective and Ways of Life. The program fosters the development of active listening and empathy, and awakens them to diverse perspectives during group artwork observation activities.
The workshops conducted with Université de Montréal are part of the medical students’ mandatory training – a first in Canada. They are integrated into the Doctor’s professional identity course of the in medicine, launched it the fall of 2024. This course of studies, which incorporates a humanist approach, introduces content from emerging fields, such as the arts and humanities, in alignment with current social issues.
“This project has multiple objectives. We want our students to fine-tune their visual literacy, identify their personal biases and embrace a diversity of perspectives. These skills ─ searching for evidence, introspection, tolerance for ambiguity ─ are directly transferable to the medical profession and are part of patient management. In this way, art serves as a catalyst, and the Museum is a place well suited to develop these skills,” says Aspasia Karalis, Assistant Clinical Professor in UdeM’s Faculty of Medicine, and instigator of the project.
“The Museum offers a wonderful learning environment, complementary to classrooms and healthcare settings. Our workshops, designed around works from our rich collection, enable students to develop observation and communication skills that are essential to a sensitive and empathic medical practice. This project also strengthens the long-standing ties between the MMFA and stakeholders in education and health, and allows us to share our expertise with doctors-in-training: to be good listeners, pay attention to details, describe works based on observation, and call upon personal experiences. All these aptitudes that future doctors are practising at the Museum will benefit their future patients,” states Mélanie Deveault, Director of Learning and Community Engagement, and the Ariane Riou and Réal Plourde Chair for Art and Education in Service of the Community at the MMFA.
“For more than 50 years, the Centre d’exposition Raymond-Lasnier has been a bold and steadfast force for cultural development in Trois-Rivières. This community partnership is a nod to our standing as leaders in our milieu. It’s an opportunity to make a difference in our community. The visual arts team of Culture Trois-Rivières is proud to contribute to the training of future medical professionals with this educational innovation that demonstrates the importance of humanity and art,” adds Marie-Andrée Levasseur, Director of Visual Arts, Culture Trois-Rivières.
What can future doctors learn by observing works of art?
These workshops implement the Visual Thinking Strategies learning method, scientifically co-developed by American psychologist Abigail Housen and museologist Philip Yenawine, former director of education at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. This approach, which encourages small-group discussions, uses the observation of works of art to cultivate critical thinking, communication skills, and collaboration. It fosters open discussions and encourages participants to develop their capacity to analyze and interpret visual content. It is based on the three key questions: What is going on in this work? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can we find? The cultural mediator expertly facilitates these discussions. The doctor then completes the exercise by identifying how the process applies to medicine.
Aspasia Karalis explains: “Our approach is partly inspired by the work of Dr. Irwin Braverman of Yale University. This dermatologist noted that his students often performed incomplete observations of their patients. Deciding to address the issue with works of art rather than medical cases, he demonstrated – in a – that students were better able to observe and analyze clinical details. were also published in a paper on a Harvard Medical School course. Since then, the methodology of Visual Thinking Strategies has emerged as a , and has been integrated into .Ũĉ
The MMFA in the service of health
The MMFA is recognized internationally for its expertise in cultural mediation and research on the impact of art on health. For 25 years, it has been collaborating with organizations in community environments as well as in health and education, especially as part of its Sharing the Museum accessibility program. Drawing on research data and best practices, its activities help break isolation, create social connections between individuals and even improve their quality of life.
Since 2016, the MMFA has been offering students of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of McGill University aiming to develop their observation skills and explore the impact of their experiences in their interpretation process. The Museum also takes part in training students in the art therapy programs of Concordia University and Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, through training internships.
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