NAME: CAM BUSCH
HOMETOWN: NEW YORK, NY
OCCUPATION: CLINICAL NURSE, BOARD-CERTIFIED ART THERAPIST, EXHIBITING ARTIST AND PHOTOGRAPHER, AND MASTER’S LEVEL COUNSELOR.
Art has a way of permeating every barrier-from social class to language to creed-to touch the hearts of people across the world. And, as no one knows better than Cam Busch, art can even bring healing and comfort to the sick. Busch, who endowed the memorial Health Care System Foundation’s Arts for Health Lecture Series, will celebrate its 14th successful year of enlightening the public on the importance of art therapy at the Art for Healing Gala held this month.
While I was on the Memorial Healthcare Foundation board, I had the idea of an Art for Healing Gala as a fundraiser. After that was embraced, I endowed the lecture series to go along with it as a serious commitment. I wanted it to serve not only as a legacy for all the arts that the wellness department started, but I also wanted awareness to increase in our community about the benefits of the arts in healthcare.
I’ve selected speakers throughout the years in different modalities like music therapy, art therapy, dance movement therapy, poetry and journaling. People who have attended these lectures really get to learn why this is helpful to people in general as well as those who are suffering in hospitals and their families. Being able to take a break from the ICU and be able to take a look at the art on the walls or have a harpist or saxophonist playing in the hospital or just to be able to sit in a place and relax and meditate in the healing gardens. These things are being done for patients, families and staff, and there’s research to show that this is effective even for vital signs and for being able to get out of the hospital sooner.
When I was 5 years old, I had bulbar polio. My parents were told if you were paralyzed below the waist you usually wore braces, and if you were paralyzed above the waist, like I was, usually you die. I was placed in isolation where I had a nurse who I called the ‘lone ranger’ because she wore a mask. She would bring me art supplies to color with, so that impressed me. So I don’t know if the good feelings I had about nurses and good feelings had about the art combined into me deciding that I wanted to be an artist and a nurse. I don’t know, but it certainly did fit. It helped me to be able to express my feelings in the art, and it helped a lot with creativity which I think has helped me all through my life.
I was born in New York. My father was a native New Yorker, a FBI man. My mother was from Bowling Green, Kentucky. She moved to New York to live with her brother and sister-in-law while she began a job on Wall Street as a secretary. My father lived two brownstones over and he saw this dark-haired Irish beauty. They started dating and got married right after he graduated law school and when he launched in the FBI. We moved all over the country. We were everywhere because in order to be promoted, you had to be willing to transfer. They had 17 moves in 25 years with the Bureau. But it was very interesting.
I moved here in ’77 and have been here ever since. I’ve seen Chattanooga change and blossom into what it is today. I love all of the cultural events that are available to everyone to participate whether it’s the outdoors or the Four Bridges Art Festival or Jazzfest or Wine Over Water.
In general I think we’ve come a long way with everyone understanding that the arts are a key in healing. Post 9/11, remember the children and their drawings of the planes going into the towers and how they would express things they couldn’t talk about? People are really coming around to seeing how music will help people come out of depressed states. I think it’s becoming part of the general understanding that it’s good for you. The arts are good for you.
Art is a universal language and communicator. It’s a way to also be part of a community where each person is unique and each person can express. I think Picasso said that ‘Everyone’s artwork is a self portrait.’ It validates our uniqueness. It’s certainly enhanced my life. I’m so glad I have it.
I love to mentor rising art therapists. For 12 years I was all alone and then I founded the Tennessee Art Therapy Association in 1993. I started in 1989 with art therapy, and I was the only one here in Chattanooga until the early 2000s. Now we have 10 art therapists in the city. I’m really proud of encouraging others and I love seeing what I’m seeing with the work they’re doing. I love seeing the new generation of art therapists flourish.
Cam Busch Endowed Arts for Healing Lecture Series and Gallery Party
Memorial Health Care System Foundation will host the 14th annual Cam Busch Endowed Arts for Health Lecture Series and Gallery Event on May 9 from 6-9 p.m. in the new Heart Center in the North Tower at Memorial. The lecture series will feature Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist, Robert Gupta, as well as a gallery party with hors d’oeuvres and a collection of works from local and regional artists. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit memorial.org/foundation or call 495-4438.