{"id":254,"date":"2025-11-04T07:39:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T12:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2025\/?page_id=254"},"modified":"2025-11-25T16:49:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T21:49:40","slug":"lim","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2025\/community\/lim\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vital Role of Creativity in Combating Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Above: Graduate student <strong>Jieun Lim<\/strong> (CFA\u201926) turned to art when she was diagnosed with cancer in college.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>How one art student and cancer survivor helps chemo patients find healing through self-expression<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As an artist, <strong>Jieun Lim<\/strong> (CFA\u201926) has lived many lives\u2014furniture designer, sculptor, photographer, puppeteer. But it was her experience as a cancer patient that imbued her art with a deeper purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Diagnosed with thyroid cancer just before college, Lim remembers the uncertainty, heaviness, and fear. But she also recalls the boredom\u2014particularly while waiting for a chemotherapy chair to open.<\/p>\n<p>Art became her lifeline. She switched majors\u2014from business to sculpture and photography\u2014and began exploring how pain could be transformed, not just endured.<\/p>\n<p>In remission for nearly a decade, Lim is now pursuing a master\u2019s in art education at Boston University, where she leads monthly crafting workshops for chemotherapy patients at Boston Medical Center. Her project, \u201cArt of Waiting,\u201d is part of BU\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/research-scholarship-community-engagement\/arts-lab\/\">Arts|Lab initiative<\/a>, a cross-campus effort exploring how art can transform medical experiences. In the chemo waiting room, Lim offers simple, hands-on activities like origami, finger puppets, and paper booklets to ease anxiety and pass the time. \u201cWe try to take the fear out of that vulnerable time by helping people do something using their hands,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>For Lim, art is more than a creative outlet. It\u2019s about empathy and giving back. \u201cNow, it is my turn to offer and share with others what I\u2019ve experienced through art during difficult times.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Above: Graduate student Jieun Lim (CFA\u201926) turned to art when she was diagnosed with cancer in college. How one art student and cancer survivor helps chemo patients find healing through self-expression As an artist, Jieun Lim (CFA\u201926) has lived many lives\u2014furniture designer, sculptor, photographer, puppeteer. But it was her experience as a cancer patient that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1859,"featured_media":0,"parent":74,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/no-sidebars.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1859"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637,"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/254\/revisions\/637"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.bu.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}