For some, hospice care is an option that provides more for terminally ill loved ones than a family is capable. For others, hospice is inherently frightening and seen as an emotional severing from the sick. 
Jamey Boudreaux is the executive director of the Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. As a member of this group, Boudreaux works to gather and apply information from hospice centers in Louisiana and Mississippi to improve care and resources for the terminally ill.
In 2013, Boudreaux and the LMHPCO launched an initiative for hospice centers in Louisiana and Mississippi. This plan looked to join local artists with community hospice centers in the hopes of creating art. 
“We issued a challenge … asking them to go out into their local communities and find an artist that they could work with,” Boudreaux said. “They could become part of their team — shadowing the doctors, the nurses, the social workers, the chaplains and the volunteers.”
With the knowledge of working and living in hospice, these artists were then asked to create new works from their experiences. Last July, the organization unveiled the fruits of their labor. Forty artists brought pieces to a jury at the annual LMHPCO conference. Seventeen works were chosen to be a part of a public art collection concerning hospice, titled “Art of Hospice.” The works that make up the collection are of varying mediums and subjects within hospice care.  
Ranging from pottery and glass to paint, works from “Art of Hospice” show artists’ particular attention to hands, whether in prayer or in aid. Other pieces give a visual representation of mortality. 
Boudreaux stressed the importance of care and compassion for the sick. Artist Laura LaHaye’s print, “Ending the Journey with Dignity,” depicts an elderly couple walking into the distance, surrounded by compasses facing all directions. Other works like Wes Koon’s “Surrounded by the Spirit” hold a religious theme captured in a sculpture that mimics the intertwined snakes of the Blue Shield emblem.
The collection has been on an exhibition circuit for several months, starting in Lafayette and moving to Alexandria and Lake Charles. Baton Rouge is the next stop for “Art of Hospice.” Each presentation is accompanied by educational seminars for hospice workers who attend. Following the exhibition’s time in Baton Rouge, it will move on to locations in southern Louisiana and parts of Mississippi.
“[The exhibit] stays in each community for two to three weeks,” Boudreaux said. “During that time, we do a lot of educational programming in that community. We have programs for physicians, nurses and social workers. All so that they can learn more about pain and symptom management or advanced care planning.”
Along with these programs, hospice workers are encouraged to attend with the incentive of continuing education. All attending social workers, chaplains and other employees receive credits for their continuing education. 
One of the 17 pieces in “Art of Hospice” is a quilt made by convicts of Louisiana State Penitentiary. Donated by the penitentiary, the quilt will act as a welcoming sign to attendees as well as an art entry.
Baton Rouge’s hosting of “Art of Hospice” will be presented at the Old State Capitol. Boudreaux expects both hospice care workers and the general public to come to the opening of the exhibit. The collection opens  today at 5:30 p.m. 
You can reach Gerald Ducote on Twitter @geraldducoteTDR.

Gallery • 8 Photos

Emily Brauner

"The Art of Hopsice" exhibit opened doors on Jan. 20, 2015, at the Old State Capitol on North Blvd. The exhibit features volunteer artists with work inspired by hospice professionals and their patients.