Fusion Lab

“Art does not just decorate our spaces—it sharpens our observation, deepens our empathy, restores our resilience, and reminds us of our shared humanity in medicine.”

In 2023, the Center for Health Humanities and Ethics’s (CHHE) launched FusionLab, an interdisciplinary innovation incubator with an initial focus on Arts for Health and Human Flourishing. The initiative brings together clinicians, artists, community partners, students, scholars, and scientists to:

• Bring the arts into health professions education and health care spaces
• Foster health and human flourishing
• Advance social justice through a disability justice framework
• Contribute new knowledge through research in these areas

November 2023: Inaugural Visit from Photographer Torrance York

The initiative’s inaugural event was a four-day visit from fine art photographer Torrance York, MFA. Diagnosed with Parkinson disease at age 50, York uses her photography to explore and make meaning of the diagnosis and its effects on her life and her connections with others.

During her visit, York presented three public events:

• A joint Medical Center Hour and Neurology Grand Rounds
• A community conversation at The Center at Belvedere
• A zine workshop at The Bridge Underground with Jess Walters, CHHE fellow-in-residence

She also met with students, trainees, and faculty in the Department of Neurology and at CHHE.

Summer 2024

For their Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP) projects, Hook Scholars Laura Liu and Louisa Post-Zweiker explored the Arts for Health and Human Flourishing theme. The result, Look+See: Bites of the Arts and Humanities, brings small works of art created by patients and clinicians into the everyday fabric of medical education.

Summer 2025: Social/Arts Prescribing Policy Resolution

In 2025, Hook Scholars Elianna Dunster, Zohar Ziff, and Tanvika Vegiraju combined their interest in patient advocacy with arts and social prescribing. Rather than writing a paper or building a standard lecture-based module, they led a group of medical students across Virginia on a policy resolution calling for the Medical Society of Virginia (MSV) “to support health institutions in the Commonwealth of Virginia in establishing social prescribing pilot programs and assessing their benefits, limitations, methods, and effectiveness.” The resolution passed by unanimous vote in November 2025.

This effort was accepted for presentation at the 2nd International Meeting of Arts Prescribing in Greece. Dr. Donna Chen and Hook Scholars Zohar Ziff and Elianna Dunster gave an oral presentation and presented two posters and connecting with many attendees internationally interested in working with their own professional organizations to do the same. View the full conference agenda

Hook Scholar Final Project: The Healer’s Note

Hook Scholar Ruja Parikh (SMD26) created “The Healer’s Note”, an album of six original songs that she wrote, recorded, and published online in the Virginia Journal of Medicine. As Parikh explains, “[The Healer’s Note] explores the clinical experiences, grief, moral distress, and professional development she faced as a student in healthcare and attempts to demonstrate the capacity of songwriting and musical composition as a practical mode of narrative medicine.  Each track is preceded by an explanation of the clinical encounter or experience that inspired it and followed by the lyrics to be read while listening.”

CHHE partnered with the Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) Visual Arts Department, to present ”Community Connections: Creative Pathways to Understanding.” This exhibition in the Dickinson Gallery at PVCC showcased diverse voices and perspectives with a multimedia collection of artworks made possible through the work of local organizations that offer creative access and artmaking spaces for all.  Participating organizations included The Arc of the Piedmont, Innisfree Village, On Our Own, Bennett’s Village, Empowered Players, Nettle Shirt Puppet Works, Fusion Lab, and The Recovery Model Art Project.

“This exhibition is about more than art—it’s about building bridges and fostering understanding through creativity,” said PVCC Chairperson of Visual and Performing Arts Fenella Belle. ”We’re thrilled to shine a spotlight on organizations that make art accessible to everyone, because when creativity is shared, communities thrive.”

The lead curators were Jess Walters, CHHE arts research fellow, and Daisy Dee, a 2025 UVA Studio Art graduate who completed an independent undergraduate research internship with CHHE in her final semester at UVA. Other members of the Curation Committee were Donna Chen, UVA CHHE; Fenella Belle, PVCC Chairperson of Visual and Performing Arts; and Sandra Bullins, Student Success Coach – Humanities, Fine Arts, and Social Sciences.

In March 2026, Jess Walters (they/them), who had served as a CHHE Arts Research Fellow, helped CHHE develop and launch a pilot Community Artist in Residence program through the FusionLab. As a Fellow and the inaugural Community Artist in Residence, Walters, a multimedia artist collaborates with people around UVAHealth to bring zine-making into their spaces, as part of a larger Graphic Medicine initiative.

Walters has collaborated with Dr. Monique DuFour to bring zine-making for reflective practice in connecting with one’s work into UVA Faculty Writing Workshops and was invited to conduct a zine workshop for UVA’s Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) Center Retreat.  Walters has collaborated with the Child Life Specialists to bring zine-kits to patients in the Children’s Hospital and has created educational zines for the Teen Clinic, the Fralin Art Museum, and advance care planning initiatives. They have conducted zine workshops for the Scholars Lab at Shannon Library, the Medical Student Disabilty Studies Club and is partnering with the UVA Health Sciences Library to introduce Graphic Medicine to UVAHealth including some joint offerings of zine workshops in the HSL Mill Space.

In July 2026, Walters, Monique DuFour, and Donna Chen presented at the annual conference of the International Graphic Medicine Consortium.

Read more: UVA Graphic Medicine Initiatives Featured at National Graphic Medicine Conference

Want to learn more about how comics are used in health care? Join CHHE community artist-in-residence Jess Walters, BCPA, to explore comics, graphic memoirs, zines, and other visual works, and discover the impact of engaging with and creating graphic medicine.

Participants will make their own mini-zine, and all supplies are provided. The workshop is hosted by the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library in collaboration with CHHE and can count toward SIM credit hours.

Location: Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, MILL (First Floor)