Art and medicine: UB medical students’ Lighthouse Free Clinic to showcase watercolors depicting its youngest patients

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic doesn’t usually host art openings. It’s a nonprofit, drop-in clinic where University at Buffalo medical students provide free, routine health care and preventive services to uninsured patients on Buffalo’s East Side.

But on Saturday, Sept. 20, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., the Lighthouse Clinic will host an opening of watercolor paintings, the work of local artist Kaaren Metcalf, who wanted to capture the faces of children being treated at the clinic.

The event is free and open to the public at the UBMD Jefferson Family Medicine Clinic, where the Lighthouse Clinic is located, at 1315 Jefferson Avenue, Buffalo.

The artist’s husband, Harry Metcalf, MD, is an alumnus, former faculty member and administrator of the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, who has long volunteered at the clinic, supervising the work of UB medical students.

Over three years, Kaaren Metcalf worked from photographs of the children with permission from parents and guardians, to develop a body of work reflecting the beauty and expressiveness of the childrens’ faces.

The opening this Saturday will feature UB medical students who volunteer at the clinic, providing health and medical information as well as face painting and a nonthreatening “meet the doctor” opportunity for children.

The clinic is run entirely by students at the UB medical school under supervision by volunteer physicians. The clinic provides free medical care to Buffalo’s East Side, designated a “medically underserved community,” by the federal government. It has been operating since 2001, and was the idea of a few young UB medical students who wanted to do more for the local community.

“We’re different from clinics at other medical schools because we’re entirely student run,” says Jacob Castiglia, a 2nd year medical student at UB and a student manager at the Lighthouse Clinic.