Art for Life
Health professionals turn their love of folk art into a creative fund-raiser

By Leigh Morgan
Art courtesy of Rodolfo Morales
August 26, 1999

When Gloria Reyes and Laura Harvey, RN, first met Mexican artist Rodolfo Morales in 1997, they hit upon an idea that would blossom into an ambitious Los Angeles fund-raiser nearly two years later.

Reyes and Harvey met Morales, renowned for his own work as well as his efforts to preserve the cultural heritage of his native Oaxaca, Mexico, in the small town of Ocotlán where he was helping to restore a church.

“He took us into parts of the church where no one else was allowed, including the rooftop,” said Reyes, division administrator of hematology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles. When Morales invited them to visit his home and studio, they went in a minute, she said.

Before meeting Morales, Reyes and Harvey were familiar with his dream-like portraits and landscapes that brim with color and are often populated by an assortment of floating, ambiguous faces.

“His work is mythical, religious, and calming,” said Harvey, a research nurse for the division of hematology at USC. She described Morales, in his mid-70s, as an incredibly kind and loving person as well as a master painter. “He is an unbelievable muralist. In Mexico, he’s considered a national treasure,” she said.

The bright idea

But according to Harvey, few people in the United States have heard of Morales. She and Reyes wanted to change that by introducing his paintings to Californians—particularly the Latin American population with whom Reyes and Harvey work regularly in both USC hospitals and L.A. county clinics. A fund-raiser seemed like the perfect opportunity to share outstanding Mexican folk art and boost medical research budgets at the same time.

Harvey and Reyes’s plan called for an art exhibit to fund HIV/AIDS and diabetes research since these are the most prevalent diseases afflicting the Latin American community, Harvey explained. “Latinas don’t see diseases such as osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s. What they do have is an insurgence of HIV in heterosexual women. And diabetes is seen more in the Latino population than in any other population,” she said.

Getting the project off the ground was a daunting task. “We met with USC development and they gave us a hundred hurdles to get over,” Harvey said. But when administrators saw that Reyes and Harvey had a viable plan (including a list of participating artists), a realistic budget, and sponsors, they immediately became involved in making the fund-raiser a reality.

Making it happen

Harvey recruited funding from several pharmaceutical companies. Reyes contacted media sources, including the Los Angeles Times and Spanish radio stations and newspapers. She also rallied for the participation of 14 other Mexican artists. A gallery in Oaxaca agreed to loan 27 pieces of art, and the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles arranged for the shipment of the art and took care of customs free of charge. Morales created five lithographs for the event, and an original painting that was auctioned to benefit the cause.

Dubbed “Art for Life,” the March fund-raiser included exhibits at Doheney library on USC’s main campus and the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles. The event drew more than 2,000 people, including hundreds of schoolchildren.

“We made the news on five channels and nine media representatives showed up,” Harvey said. At a final gala event, guests met the artists, and physicians spoke about how their research significantly impacts the Latino community in Los Angeles, she said.

Reyes and Harvey said they have yet to calculate earnings generated by the fund-raiser, but they expect the bulk of the money will come from signed lithographs, which cost $800 each. “We’re still selling lithographs and collecting donations,” Harvey said. They intend to sell 500 and have sold at least 45 so far.

Reyes said that bringing the project to life was enormously satisfying, though it did entail a lot of time and effort. “It was work. We continued our regular jobs and did this at night and on the weekends,” she said.

Harvey encourages other healthcare professionals who want to tackle their own fund-raising projects. “Go for it. It’s a wonderful thing to be involved in,” she said.