Pioneering fine art workshops, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), are helping plastic surgeons have a better understanding of the form of the human body.
 
Consultant plastic surgeons from major UK hospitals are working alongside academics at the University of Lincoln to develop drawing and modelling skills normally the preserve of Fine Art students, which they can then apply to breast and facial reconstruction.

The objective is to instil in surgeons the same aesthetic principles which underpin artists’ understanding of the form of the human body.

Michael Healey, Professor of Art and Design at the University, said: “Throughout history, the disciplines of art and medicine have been closely entwined, from the times of Aristotle and Hippocrates in ancient Greece, through to Galen and later Leonardo da Vinci in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

“With the great advances in medicine in the last century, there seems to have been a divergence between the two.”

The sessions have informed a major new research project, The Art of Reconstruction, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It will lead to journal articles, a dedicated website, videos, teaching materials and the establishment of an international network of surgeons, artists and academics with more training opportunities in the coming years.

Prof Healey, who is leading the research, added: “Through this research we hope to examine the intersection of art and science and evaluate whether art-based skills do have a valuable role to play within the operating theatre.”

The artwork produced by the plastic surgeons has revived the ancient relationship between art and medicine and has now gone on public display.

This new exhibition about the project opened to the public at the University of Lincoln this week and will run until Thursday 22 September.

The exhibition, which features drawings, models and a film produced by the workshop surgeons, is open Monday to Friday from 10am-4pm on the ground floor exhibition gallery of the Architecture building on the University of Lincoln’s main Brayford Pool campus. Admission is free and members of the public are welcome to visit.

For more information and updates on the Art of Reconstruction project, visit: http://artofreconstruction.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/project-updates/  

 
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EDITORIAL NOTES

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £100 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes hundreds of research awards ranging from individual fellowships to major collaborative projects as well as over 1,100 studentship awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.