Orlando Health Watson Clinic Lakeland Highlands Hospital, Watson Clinic and the Watson Clinic Foundation are announcing that they are a sustaining partner of the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art in Lakeland.

“At the hospital, we know that one of the pillars of being healthy is enjoying the arts, whether it is fine art at the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College or facilitating our patients’ recovery through art therapy,” said Dawn Willis, Community Relations Manager at Orlando Health Watson Clinic Lakeland Highlands Hospital. “We are proud to uplift the community through the arts programming offered at the museum.”

Daryl Ward, executive director of the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College, said the museum’s sustaining partners are essential collaborators to ensuring arts access to everyone in the community.

“Art experiences play a pivotal role in the physical and mental health of a community, in addition to making a significant contribution to our local quality of life,” Ward said. “These partnerships not only support our exhibitions and programming but also provide operational resources for the Museum as well.”

“Much like Watson Clinic, the AGB Museum has built a lasting legacy by enriching lives throughout our community and beyond,” said Watson Clinic Chief Executive Officer Jason Hirsbrunner. “We’re proud to serve as a sustaining partner to this extraordinary institution that means so much to so many.”

Sustaining partners support the museum’s programming and initiatives, including:

• Serving more than 30,000 local and global visitors annually.
• Providing tours for over 4,500 fourth graders and hosting nine K-12th grade Student Art Exhibitions each year.
• Awarding Spring Break and Summer Art Camp Scholarships to disadvantaged youth, who could not enroll otherwise.
• Awarding Teen Art Class Scholarships to those students interested in pursuing art education outside of school who do not have the means to do so.
• Collaboratively offering masterwork and contemporary fine art exhibitions year-round.
• The purchase of necessary equipment and supplies to update their facilities.

“Through its sustaining partnership with AGB, we will help expand opportunities to connect arts, health and well-being across our community,” said the Watson Clinic Foundation Executive Director Kim Brunson. “Partnership programming will include support for a pilot program designed to connect patients with meaningful arts and cultural experiences, as part of a whole-person approach to health and well-being, as well as arts-based cancer support and survivorship programming.”

This partnership is being announced just in time for Arts & Health Week, a city-wide initiative led by the Watson Clinic Foundation’s Arts in Medicine program that celebrates the power of the arts to improve health and strengthen our community. This popular movement takes place from November 8 – 14 at various venues across Lakeland. Visit ArtsandHealthWeek.org for a schedule of events.