Aleax Olivera joined Center Stage Arts in Health as Coordinator of Artistic Improvement. She has a background in television broadcasting and she worked for a number of years in broadcast news. Additionally, she has worked with local theatres as the front of house manager and can be occasionally found on the stage.

Center Stage pressed pause on Live Music in the Lobbies to reduce exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic.  In 2021, we welcomed back music on the piano and other instruments safe for the hospital setting such as harp, guitar, dulcimer, keyboard, and hand pans.  We look forward to bringing back voice and woodwinds when we are safely able to do so!

After being diagnosed with Rett Syndrome at the age of three, a rare neurological disorder that impairs her ability to speak and move, Emily has explored various ways to express her creativity and stay involved in the community. She has been involved with the “Patient as Teachers” program at Penn State College of Medicine since 2010, where she taught first-year medical students about her life with a chronic illness. Using Tobii, an eye-tracking communication device, Emily controls a cursor with her eye movements to convey her thoughts and to paint dynamic abstract pieces. She is now using her artwork to raise awareness about Rett Syndrome, by selling her paintings to raise funds for research for the Rett Syndrome Research Trust.

An exhibition by Emily Steinberg, M.F.A., Michael J. Green, M.D., and William Doan, Ph.D., Sept, 20 – Nov. 30, 2021

Masking is a complex act with as many histories as there are cultures. Mask traditions cover the gamut of human belief systems and practices from the mystical to the practical and from the political to the personal. COVID-19 has created yet another complex series of masking practices that vary across the globe. The three artists presenting work in this exhibit have their own distinct responses to “masking.” But they also share a common approach – combining images and text in the tradition of “Graphic Medicine” and “Visual Narratives” to make what are broadly called “comics.” This exhibit not only reflects the outcomes of their collaboration but also the process – which involved many Zoom meetings and conversations to help them build solidarity despite working alone.