Penn MINHUET is a community service student group at the University of Pennsylvania that brings live performances from Penn’s music and arts community into West Philadelphia’s nursing homes and hospitals. Our organization’s main focus is to construct meaningful and positive relationships between Penn students and the elderly or ill with the power of music and the arts.
Patients staying in nursing homes and hospitals have enough to worry about without having to also stave off loneliness, displacement, and isolation. Current research demonstrates live music meets some of the many needs of patients by providing not only sources of diversion and entertainment, but also feelings of texture, time, and place, situations that are shown to be beneficial therapeutically. The unique aspects of live performances provides both patients and performers a chance to interact so patients can become actively involved and stimulated by the performance.
Anxious family and friends of patients often welcome a source of diversion to share with their loved ones and music is a perfect choice. Physicians and hospital staff may also require time for enjoyment and repose in their highly stressful schedules. Penn MINHUET actively meets these specific requirements of our health care community by organizing groups of Penn student musicians to perform live music in nursing homes, hospital wards, and at the bedsides of comatose or terminally ill patients. To further our outreach, our organization functions to link diverse musical/arts groups on campus and other establishments in West Philadelphia by arranging for guest performances to benefit patients. While we do not expect to cure physical illnesses of patients, we do try to facilitate the natural healing process.
MINHUET volunteers are given complete freedom in their performances and have the ability to select specific pieces or acts to showcase, which in turn will be coordinated with any requests of the healthcare facilities that we serve. Volunteers can choose whether to perform solo repertoire or form ensembles/chamber groups that Penn MINHUET can assemble upon request. Both solo and group performances will be scheduled individually with our healthcare partners to provide members and patients with flexibility.
Spring and Summer 2021 Initiatives:
-In the midst of the COVID-19 Crisis, we are aiming to actively support our West Philadelphia healthcare community by coordinating with local nursing homes and hospitals to perform digitally as to minimize the health risks for both patients and performers alike.
-Germination Project: We aim to introduce and cultivate music and the arts to younger family members of patients during visits through demonstrations and lessons. This will ideally function as a method to reconnect displaced patients and their families and instill a new passion for the arts in the youth.