Mayo Clinic blends improv and visual arts to aid dementia care and patient wellbeing

Mayo Clinic’s Dolores Jean Lavins Center for Humanities in Medicine has appointed improv performer Tane Danger as its first artist in residence, where he runs games like “Loser Ball” to train caregivers in flexibility and attentive listening for dementia care. Angela Lunde of the clinic’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center explains that traditional communication often fails with patients whose cognition is altered, making improv’s “yes, and” approach valuable.

The program extends beyond theater, featuring the Arts at the Bedside initiative that lets patients such as heart-transplant recipient Meghan Sly create artwork, and a daily carillon recital performed by staff like nurse practitioner LaSonya Natividad. Staff members, including nurses Molly Beecher and Jeremiah Simmons, describe the music as therapeutic relief from workplace stress. Director Katie Van Buren notes that most funding comes from private donors and that studies link the arts to reduced pain, lower stress, and stronger emotional connections. The effort reflects Mayo’s long-standing mission, since the 1980s, to integrate humanities into clinical practice.