The Human Canvas: How art can transform the way we learn anatomy

This exhibition was a celebration of the innovative learning carried out by anatomy students through their engagement with anatomical body painting. The exhibition displayed work from 2010 onwards of anatomical body painting work, 16 body painting projects, completed by first year anatomy “student Teams” of model, artists and a photographer over 24 hours on campus where both students, staff and University officials could visit to witness the event. Students at CS have also participated in body painting as part of their weekly tutorials from 2021 onwards both face-to-face and online, and there are plans to carry out a body painting project in Albury in the near future. This work is part of the innovative approaches to teach anatomy that have resulted in an ALTC Teaching Award in 2011 and a CS Excellence Award in 2022 for the educator (Claudia Diaz). The anatomical body painting work has been publicised widely in Australia; in the Townsville Bulletin, The Cairns Post, The Age, The Australian, on radio and television and on the web in over 60 countries around the world and has received almost half a million views on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLluS-b2XE4).
Art can help students to understand scientific subjects like anatomy because anatomy is a very visual science and using innovative approaches to learn rather than traditional didactic ones, helps with mind-mapping that helps students to learn for life rather than just memorizing new information. Body painting is the most popular approach for learning surface anatomy and physical examination skills, it is highly engaging and has been shown to be beneficial for student learning by improving deep learning through improved long-term retention of knowledge. This exhibition allowed the researcher to share the work with the public and show them the benefit of the innovative approaches we have for learning and teaching at Charles Sturt University (CS). This Art exhibition was an important event that attracted promotion and publicity for CS regarding innovation and teaching excellence. It will be highly original for a scientific department (anatomy) to hold an art exhibition and this in itself attracted considerable attention. This work helps to prepare health science students for their future careers by placing an emphasis of learning anatomy on living people, which is what they will experience working with clients or patients, therefore, preparing them for their future careers. This exhibition was funded by the CSU Teaching Academy.