CAM staff spotlight: Bridget Madden

Bridget Madden is an Irish Dance performer, choreographer and teacher. She graduated from the University of Ulster (Northern Ireland) with a 1st class honors degree in contemporary dance and since then has performed in various dance shows in over 20 countries worldwide, including the Kremlin, Red Square in Moscow and the Royal Concert Hall, Tokyo. She has taught masterclasses in Irish Dance and Dance and movement in the USA, Czech Republic, Holland, Finland, Poland and Russia. She has produced Choreography for stage, Opera, Hospital wards and Film: winning the Reel Islington short film Award (London, UK) and 3rd place for the Grolsch International film festival for ‘Belfast Dance’, alongside NI Screen. Along with dance, Bridget also raises funds for various charities. Last year, Bridget ran the Disneyland Half marathon in Los Angeles, for the Arts Care Charity (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and she will visit Malawi in South Africa, working alongside ‘Homes for Habitat NI’, rebuilding communities in summer 2018. Bridget facilitated with Arts Care as a project Artist across the five Health and social care trusts in Northern Ireland, engaging a range of ward based patients, day centers and community groups through Dance and movement. She is extremely excited to be taking up a new position at the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine!

Bridget will be joining the UF Center for Arts in Medicine's staff as Program Assistant within our Rural Veterans Telehealth Creative Arts Therapies project, in partnership with the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center. This project is now a part of the National Endowment for the Arts's Creative Forces expansion program and is a partnership between the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health Service, the Center of Innovation on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (CINDRR), and the NEA. The project will develop a set of manuals and toolkits that detail best-practices for implementing Creative Arts Therapy Telehealth programs for Rural Veterans. 

We are so pleased to welcome Bridget to the Center for Arts in Medicine!