Curated with Care: Medical Students Brighten Local Health Clinic with Art

UC Irvine medical students Tatum Ego and Zoe Adams collaborate with the nonprofit Art for the Isolated to help beautify a free healthcare clinic for the underserved, creating a more welcoming space.

Warm earth tones and a nurturing touch. Billowing clouds reflected in a serene body of water. The grasp of a newborn baby’s tiny fingers.

These are just a few of the thought-provoking scenes now shared throughout Crescent Clinic, a free healthcare clinic in Fullerton, Calif., for underserved individuals. Staffed by a volunteer team of physicians, UC Irvine medical students and local undergraduate students, the clinic provides medical, vision and dental services to those most in need.

It now also provides a collection of original art and photography — a welcome distraction from the building’s otherwise barren white walls — as well as postcards with artwork and poetry, a small but tangible gift for patients. This visual offering is the result of a project spearheaded by Tatum Ego, a second-year medical student at UC Irvine and co-chair of Crescent Clinic.

“In a space where patients often feel lost, fearing that they won’t get the care they need, I want them to feel welcome,” says Ego.

Working closely with Zoe Adams, co-president and founder of UC Irvine’s Humanities Interest Group (HUMIG), and Joshua Watson, co-founder of the nonprofit Art for the Isolated, Ego curated a diverse set of pieces to comfort both patients and volunteers.

Curated with Care

During her first year of medical school, Ego volunteered at the clinic, and when the co-chairs asked for help brainstorming cost-free ways to beautify the space, she went a step further. The request became the foundation for her service-learning project, a required yearlong project in which UC Irvine School of Medicine students build skills in community assessment and engagement.

“Tatum reached out to me last year about potentially collaborating with HUMIG to bring art to Crescent Clinic,” says Adams, also a previous clinic volunteer and now a fourth-year medical student at UC Irvine. As a leader of HUMIG, an interest group affiliated with the Medical Humanities and Arts Program (MHAP), Adams was the perfect partner for the project.

Thoughtfully approaching the task, Ego and Adams started with surveys, offered in both English and Spanish, asking Crescent Clinic physicians, medical students and patients how they viewed the space. When asked if soothing, culturally relevant or local art would change how they perceive the space, many said it would make them significantly more comfortable.

Ego and Adams started collecting art from current and former UC Irvine medical students. Some artwork was previously published in Plexus, a journal serving as a creative outlet for students, residents, faculty and staff. One such piece was “Mirror,” by Clifford Danza, a first-year emergency medicine resident at Mass General Brigham and 2026 graduate of the UC Irvine School of Medicine. Other submissions, such as a piece by fourth-year medical student Emma Boyles, were designed specifically with this project in mind.

“When I heard about the opportunity to contribute art to the Crescent Clinic, I knew I wanted to create something that would foster a calming environment,” says Boyles, whose piece — which now greets visitors as they enter the clinic — features elements of sunlight, nature and nourishment, and human touch. “Medical appointments can often cause worry and anxiety, and I hoped that viewing my piece would help assuage some of those fears.”

Art Where It’s Needed Most

When learning about the project, Juliet McMullin, PhD, the MHAP director, put Adams in contact with Watson, a photographer and a photo educator. Watson is helping McMullin teach “Examine the Painting; Examine the Patient” this semester, a class for first- and second-year medical students.

As co-founder of Art for the Isolated, Watson prioritizes providing “art where it’s needed most.” The nonprofit organization curates exhibitions, installs permanent artwork, and brings gift-giving initiatives into hospitals, foster care centers and mutual aid spaces.

It was first launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a postcard project to deliver art and poetry to patients.

“We always want patients to be able to take something away with them, which motivated the postcard initiative,” says Watson. “Just like a baker breaking bread, or a florist giving flowers, it’s a gift.”

Watson was excited to collaborate with Ego and Adams, helping them select, print, frame and install the art at Crescent Clinic.

After careful consideration, they settled on 12 pieces in total, featuring donations from UC Irvine artists in the entryway and waiting room. Photography from Art for the Isolated, including a piece donated by Watson, appears in the hallway and patient rooms. (Some of the pieces are part of a generous three-year loan contract between Art for the Isolated and Crescent Clinic.)

“Great photography might feel mundane, but it can give you new eyes to go through your daily life,” explains Watson. “We do people a disservice when we paper over our anxiety about these spaces with very simplistic imagery that feels sterilizing or has a false sense of cheer.”

Ego, Adams and Watson highlight their goals near the collage of pieces framed together in the waiting room: “We hope that these pieces bring comfort, inspire reflection, and nurture the spirit during your experience here at Crescent Clinic.”

A More Welcoming Space

Volunteers working at the clinic on Sept. 24, 2026, were the first to experience the revised space.

“The new art has brought character to the clinic,” says Zaina Amin, who graduated from UC Riverside with a degree in biology and is taking a gap year before applying to medical school. “Healthcare settings can often be stressful, and these pieces will bring comfort to our patients and their families.”

Pria Chawla, a health sciences major at Chapman University, agrees. “Seeing the artwork immediately upon entering the clinic and continuing throughout the patient rooms makes the space feel warmer and more welcoming,” she says. “And the fact that patients can take a postcard with them extends that sense of connection beyond their visit, reflecting the care we love to provide for our patients.”

Ego and Adams are pleased with the feedback and look forward to conducting a more formal post-artwork survey.

“After we finished our installation, the energy shifted in the space,” says Adams. “It adds a lot more life and warmth, and I hope people see that and enjoy it.”

This project was funded by the UC Irvine Medical Humanities and Arts program and by Art for the Isolated. If you are interested in a similar collaboration, contact Ego at egot@hs.uci.edu and Adams at znadams@hs.uci.edu.

— Shani Murray