Yixue Ma MA
PhD candidate
E-mail: yixue.ma@rug.nl
Area(s) of interest: Art History, History & Philosophy of Science and Technology, History of Medicine
Cohort/Start PhD: 2024-2025
Curate to Care: Visual Arts in Hospitals
University of Groningen
Promoter: Cor Wagenaar (RuG); second supervisor: Barend van Heusden (RuG)
Duration: 1 January 2024—31 January 2027
My research focuses on visual art collections and their curation in hospitals, a relatively neglected field in academic research and practice. The project starts with analyzing (1) How hospitals curate art, and what do the art collections have in common. This includes investigations into the curatorial strategies and selected artworks. From there, it investigates (2) What do they tell us about the generally believed (social) functions of hospitals and medicine, and concepts of “health”, “healthcare”, and “art”? Based on (1) and (2), it explores (3) How can hospital art curation contribute to a more equal and culturally diverse and democratic healthcare environment & system? The research is built on: 1) theoretical and historical research into art and medicine; 2) case studies in seven Dutch academic hospitals; 3) field work in other hospitals in the Netherlands and other countries.
My research provides an alternative, humanistic point of view to examine and challenge the normative concepts of (social) functions of hospitals, healthcare, and art. Art has oftentimes been a marginalized part in hospitals, which, in turn, makes it an honest and rich information source. Studying hospital art collections can, therefore, generate new knowledge and theories in healthcare, art, and hospital design while questioning the old ones.