During the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of curators and
clinicians from the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Slought
Foundation, and Penn Medicine started the Rx/Museum project with the goal of
creating an online medical humanities experience to support healthcare
providers. The project championed the role of art in the training and wellbeing
of clinicians, and aimed to foster connection, reflection, and humanistic
learning during a time of immense trauma and isolation. Rx/Museum began as a series
of essays that were originally emailed on a weekly basis from July 2020 to June
2021. These 52 essays were later published together in a book.
The Rx/Museum book features a foreword and afterword by the
editors describing the philosophy of the project and explaining the importance
of art in medical education, along with the 52 essays published in
chronological order. Each essay focuses on an individual artwork including
paintings, photographs, and film stills. The essays are structured in a uniform
manner, starting with a thematic quote, followed by a description of the
artwork that provides an historical context and highlights visual features,
then a print of the artwork, and finally a series of reflections which connect
the artwork with issues in healthcare.