Facebook Instagram Linkedin
Donate to JHR

Author: William M. Perthes

William Perthes is an educator, author, and curator. Bill is the Bernard C. Watson Director of Adult Education at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. He has a background in philosophy and art history and is the author of “The Barnes Method” included in the recently published The Barnes: Then and Now. Much of Bill's work focuses on how experiences with works of art, both short and long term, can impact and inform fields as varied as business, medicine, law enforcement. and restorative justice. Bill is the curator of Faces of Resilience a traveling exhibition of original works of art created by currently and formerly incarcerated artists at the State Correctional Institute Phoenix. In addition, his scholarship has focused on American Modernism with a special concentration on the Abstract Expressionist painter Robert Motherwell. He is the former Director of Education for the Violette de Mazia Foundation.

Art, Well-being and Medicine at the Barnes Foundation

A key mission of the Barnes Foundation is the promotion of education through art appreciation. Its Art, Well-Being and Medicine program was created in 2017. Practitioners and patients alike experience the Barnes’ vast collection through seven guided exercises; the results can be profound. This article takes the reader into an encounter with art at the Barnes, and shows how the questions raised among colleagues can impact clinical perspectives.