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We are pleased to welcome Noni Ford, the latest addition to our AHP team. Below, she shares a little about her background and new role with us.
Could you tell us about your background and how you became interested in the field of arts and humanities in health and medicine?
I grew up in Maryland and was immersed in the local arts community from a young age. During undergrad and upon graduation, I pursued costume design but found myself thriving in an administrative position as Administrative Assistant at the Goddard School of Silver Spring. I pursued opportunities in arts organizations, working at Children's Chorus of Washington, in Washington, DC and at Joe's Movement Emporium in Mt. Rainier, Maryland. I then decided to merge my love for the arts with my administrative skillset into a master's degree and attended Columbia University, Teachers College where I majored in Arts Administration. During my time at Columbia University, I served as a Research Assistant for a study called Healthful Narratives: Black Women and Gender Expansive Citizens Creating and Performing Art and Cultural Work in Service of Good Health, conducted by Shanae Burch, PHD. This research study enlightened me to the possibilities of connecting health and wellness with the arts. I graduated last spring and have returned to the DMV, being fortunate enough to obtain roles directly connected to my degree and my passions. After serving as Director of Advancement at local arts nonprofit BloomBars in Washington, DC, I have been given the honor to bring my talents to Georgetown University. During my brief time at the AHP, I’ve already experienced the amazing benefits that the arts have on patients, staff and community members.
Could you tell us more about your role with AHP?
As Program Manager of the AHP, I provide administrative support in the development, implementation, and marketing of the Arts and Humanities Program. Since starting in January, I have taken the time to get to know our artists-in-residence, attend and moderate artists' Zoom workshops, plan and handle the logistics for events, and create exciting graphics for our upcoming programs. We have a lot of exciting events planned this year so please stay tuned!
Is there an inspiring quote or idea that you would like to share with others?
I am a big fan of the "Art for Arts Sake" or ars gratia artist in Latin. This quote from Edgar Allen Poe really captures the essence of Art for Art's Sake:
"We have taken it into our heads that to write a poem simply for the poem's sake ... and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in the true poetic dignity and force:– but the simple fact is that would we but permit ourselves to look into our own souls we should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified, more supremely noble, than this very poem, this poem per se, this poem which is a poem and nothing more, this poem written solely for the poem's sake."- Edgar Allen Poe, "The Poetic Principle" (1850)
Art tends to be an overlooked and undervalued career field. As a result, it can become laden with the obligation to have moral value or be used to serve a greater purpose. Although art definitely has tangible benefits such as bolstering economies, increasing tourism, promoting health and wellness, and creating aesthetic value, art can and should be allowed to exist outside of what gains we can “get out of it”. The tangible benefits of the arts also does not always translate into valuing and respecting artists. Artists should have the freedom to pursue the arts like any other career path, receiving the social and financial support that any other worker in other fields is provided. On the flip side of Art for Art's Sake is the concept that the average person doesn't need to have a rhyme or reason for creating their art, it can just be for the joy of art making.
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