THIRTY YEARS AGO, the UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine program, or AIM, transformed our health care environment by bringing the arts into the hospital setting. The programs — based in the visual, literary and performing arts — serve inpatients and outpatients of all ages, while also focusing on families, visitors and our health care workers.

AIM team members facilitate art activities, workshops and performances in all five of our Archer Road hospitals and numerous outpatient clinics, and our program is internationally known as one of the tops in the field of arts in health care.

And it all started in 1990 when the hospital administration and AIM creators laid the foundation for the artist in residence program, while the UF College of Medicine began a small exhibition program. The eventual union of these two initiatives led to the expansive program that exists today.