PictureThis!

Since 2002, HCP has hosted this eight-week program at The Children’s Cancer Hospital at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. To ensure children are given the tools and resources they need in order to continue without interruption during treatment, M.D. Anderson with H.I.S.D provides academic services for patients in grades K-12. PictureThis! is an essential part of this pediatric education program. Reaching patients grades K-8 as part of the art curriculum, the activities taught by HCP meet the requirements of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), and go beyond basic art education to provide the children with a form of art therapy that helps them cope with their illness and bring cheer into their day. In addition the vital role PictureThis! plays in the art curriculum at The Children’s Cancer Hospital, HCP hosts a one-day workshop each summer at M.D. Anderson’s Camp A.O.K. (Anderson’s Older Kids), a summer camp for teenage patients in Magnolia, Texas.

PictureThis! also touches the lives of patients at Texas Children’s Hospital as part of their Arts In Medicine program. HCP outreach educators work with in-patient and out-patient children on short-term projects, often incorporating family members in the creative process. Most projects employ digital photography. The program at Texas Children’s Hospital is funded in part by the Clayton Dabney Foundation for Kids with Cancer.

Work created by the children of PictureThis! is shown in an annual exhibition at the HCP galleries. The children are given private tours of the exhibition, enabling them to see and experience their photographic work outside of the hospital in a gallery setting.