AIM Together Florida to connect performing arts and hospital communities throughout state
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida Performing Arts (UFPA) and Shands Arts in Medicine have formed a groundbreaking partnership to bring world-class performing artists from UFPA’s season into the healthcare setting, providing rich, high-level performances and interactive arts events to individuals whose circumstances allow them little or no access to the arts.
Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as a pilot program in 2004-05, AIM Together brought several artists into the hospital for short-term residencies, including members of the Soweto Gospel Choir, who performed in three hospital units during their January 2005 North American premiere in Gainesville.
“With the initiative of AIM Together starting here in Gainesville, we have a rich resource to provide our touring artists with a new, challenging experience that they find nowhere else,” says Elizabeth Auer, assistant director of UFPA. “We’ve used professional artists from the United States, Peru, Africa, Australia and India who have taken their new skills back to their homes and are integrating these practices into their daily activities.”
The program was so successful that a new initiative, AIM Together Florida, is being funded by the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs to expand the program into five additional Florida partnerships:
- University of North Florida and the Mayo Clinic (Jacksonville)
- Florida State University and Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (Tallahassee)
- City of Orlando and Florida Hospital (Orlando)
- Miami Performing Arts Center and University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital (Miami)
- Ruth Eckert Hall and the Moffitt Cancer Center (Clearwater/Tampa Bay)
Through a Challenge Grant, these newly seeded partnerships will be funded for three short residencies including three performance events each, between August 2006 and May 2007. Some performances may be interactive, and all will be professionally photographed and carefully evaluated. A full-day training workshop for the partners from each city will be conducted at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in August 2006.
With the support of the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, the Southern Arts Federation, the University of Florida Medical Guild, and another grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Gainesville’s AIM Together program will expand to a full nine-residency season at Shands. These performances, along with activities at the six partnership sites, will make a total of 72 AIM Together performances throughout the state in 2006-07.