Research through art — showcasing real experiences
At a glance
- MultiCare researchers are focused on improving the perinatal experience for bisexual women of color
- Research findings are being shared through written and visual art to spark conversation
- Committee hopes to educate, inspire and bring awareness to health care professionals and community
As soon as you get pregnant, people start touching you, asking personal questions and feeling entitled to information about you and your baby, says Caleste Hawthorne, (E/Em) THRIVE community steering committee member.
“We want to show that you are so much more than just a holder of a baby,” Hawthorne adds. “And how important that is.”
THRIVE hopes to share that message through “Birthing Justice, Birthing Joy: Centering Bisexual Women of Color’s Perinatal Healthcare Experiences” — an event that will showcase research findings through art.
THRIVE is a perinatal health research project conducted by the MultiCare Institute for Research & Innovation. The project focuses on expanding and improving health care professionals’ understanding of what bisexual women of color experience in the perinatal space, explains Deana Williams, PhD, MPH, an investigator at the Research Institute*.
“As a steering committee, we talked about what providers need to be aware of … understanding how families can look different and how those different family styles are treated when they go in to get care,” Hawthorne says. “We’ve heard people talk about how they’ve been completely dismissed or had a provider only talking to their white, male partner. Or, how when someone says they’re bisexual, the doctor automatically asks about their rate of sexually transmitted infections or drug use.”
There are so many more unheard stories, Hawthorne adds. The THRIVE team hopes to take all those stories and feedback to develop toolkits and recommendations for doctors and other health care providers.
The study also showcases the importance of including underrepresented groups in research, and how to do so with respect, Hawthorne adds.
“Bisexual women of color’s stories and experiences are invisible across most perinatal health research, and many participants shared that they didn’t feel listened to during their perinatal health care experiences,” Williams explains. “We hope this event provides a space for them to feel affirmed and seen.”
Why art?
Williams explains how art supports the team’s goal of disrupting traditional ideas.
“We wanted to be able to share the findings from our study in a creative way that engages people, is accessible and provides space for community building,” Williams says. “[Art] disrupts those traditional ideas around how we communicate research findings, allowing for more justice-based knowledge translation.”
Featuring poetry, paintings, sculptures and many other forms of artwork, the multimedia event will tell the stories of study participants.
The above poems were written by Williams using the real responses and words from research participants.
The research team will also share their findings in academic journals, presentations and written reports for health professionals to easily access, but Williams wants the event to be conversational and engaging, both professionally and with the community.
“Research is often disseminated in inequitable ways that don’t resonate with or reach the audience the work intends to benefit,” Williams explains. “I strongly believe that dissemination is not just about providing information on what we found — it can and should be a participatory process that supports dynamic community dialogue and health action.”
Audience members will also be invited to participate in an art activity at the event, which Williams hopes will inspire reflection and conversation.
Taking back control
Recognizing that not everyone responds well to information presented in academic journals or lectures, art was a unique way to ensure more people have access to the information, Hawthorne explains. Creative expression can also be a way to promote healing — a lot of the experiences and trauma that people carry with them were caused by others, Hawthorne explains, which can be hard to navigate.
“I hope people remember that we can’t really control what other people stick on us or how other people harm us, but our community can make steps toward healing,” Hawthorne adds. “I wanted to create a piece that you could touch and interact with … a piece in which people have the opportunity to heal others or themselves.”
Hawthorne created a tape casting in the silhouette of a pregnant person, including portions that appear as open wounds with words from the research showing through. Participants will be able to cover up the wounds as a form of healing, Hawthorne adds.
“Research is often disseminated in inequitable ways that don’t resonate with or reach the audience the work intends to benefit. I strongly believe that dissemination is not just about providing information on what we found — it can and should be a participatory process that supports dynamic community dialogue and health action.”
“I hope this piece will really help people regain that autonomy,” Hawthorne says. “It doesn’t fully heal or erase it, but I hope they remember they aren’t alone.”
For Hawthorne, the experience of creating the sculpture has also been an emotional journey.
“In trying to do this piece for other people I’ve been reliving my own experience, which was negative,” Hawthorne says. “After delivering my daughter through a C-section, my nurse consistently delayed my meds by hours. She just wouldn’t be there. That kept happening until my daughter’s hearing evaluation, when a Black nurse recognized that I, a Black patient, was experiencing similar situations as she had when she had given birth.”
But being able to use a pregnant sister-in-law to form a cast for the sculpture created a more positive experience for Hawthorne.
“Our daughters were running around, and we were just doing this positive thing together,” Hawthorne explains. “That was a very healing experience … that I’m hoping other people will feel as they heal their own wounds.”
*The MultiCare Institute for Research & Innovation closed in November 2025. However, MultiCare continues to conduct research at Pulse Heart Institute, MultiCare Cancer Institute and MultiCare Mary Bridge Children’s, among other areas within our organization. To learn more about clinical trial opportunities, talk to your provider or visit ClinicalTrials.gov.
