Center for the Arts receives $116,675 grant from the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo has received a grant of $116,675 from the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation Quality of Life Committee. The funds will benefit the center's Arts in Healthcare Program at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, now in its third year.

The program includes six professional Artists in Residence who bring their specialized art forms and skills to patients at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Their arts-based activities have proven to assist patients in expressing themselves, create opportunities for relaxation, and distract from stresses associated with diagnosis and treatment. Visitors, families and staff also benefit greatly from the program.

Thomas Burrows, executive director of the Center for the Arts said, "The University at Buffalo and Center for the Arts are honored to work in partnership with Roswell Park Cancer Institute on the initiative. From the beginning the institute has been supportive and has understood the potential to serve the hospital population in a uniquely positive way. We applaud their dedication to the quality of life of patients and families."

Cindy A. Eller, executive director of the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation, added that, "Our support for the Arts in Healthcare Program is a direct result of our community's tremendous generosity to helping cancer patients." Eller said the funds for the grant came from everyday contributions through donations and gifts to fundraisers like The Ride For Roswell, The Paint Box Project, Goin' Bald for Bucks and other activities.

To learn more about the Arts in Healthcare Program, go to http://www.buffalo.edu/UBT/UBT-archives/volume27number3/features/healingArts.php.

The mission of the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation is to maximize dollars available for Roswell Park Cancer Institute's most promising lifesaving research, treatment and prevention programs, while supporting the psychosocial needs of patients and families touched by cancer. Fundraising events and initiatives are carried out through a partnership between committed Roswell Park Alliance volunteers and foundation staff. One of the foundation's priority funding areas is Quality of Life programs benefiting patients and families. Quality of Life grants are determined by a committee made up of those closest to Roswell's patients -- nurses, physicians and representatives from other patient care and support areas.

The Arts in Healthcare initiative was established by the Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo in 2008 to bring the performing and visual arts into health care settings at Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo and Roswell Park Cancer Institute. This is the first comprehensive program of its kind in Western New York, and is made possible by the John R. Oishei Foundation, Seymour H. Knox Foundation and Bank of America Foundation. Support for the program at Roswell Park Cancer Institute comes from donations made to the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation. For more information, visit http://www.ubcfa.org.