Artist in Residence

The saddest part of the culmination of any research or creative project is realizing how many pieces will be left out of the final whole—whether for reasons of focus, relevancy, or space. Finding books that actually gave voice to the experiences of women in medicine was rare enough, so it is extra difficult to have to choose to elide some from the final work. And so, I’d like to offer a sampling of quotations from inspiring women physicians alongside some peeks into the pages of the books otherwise locked up in the glass cases of the museum library.

What follows is a transcript of an Artist’s Talk delivered by Carrie Olivia Adams, the Museum’s Spring 2017 Artist in Residence, on May 5, 2017.

As a preview for my upcoming artist talk on May 5th, I thought I’d explore the history of the College and Dr. Stevenson’s matriculation into the national medical community in greater detail.

I love the look I receive whenever I have the chance to tell someone that I am the current artist-in-residence at the International Museum of Surgical Science. It’s askance. It’s curious. It’s Huh? Though many are surprised at the existence of the Museum in our city (How esoteric! How macabre!), many more others wonder—But what is a poet supposed to do there? To this, I ask, but what does a poet do anywhere? I am a rummager, a researcher, an alley-cruising scrap-metal collector, an excavator, an archaeologist, a watchful spy, a page-turner, and a note-taker.