For the past few years, it has become a tradition for the ASA Art Exhibit to have a theme. The theme offers entrants the opportunity to show work in a grouping unique to that year’s exhibit in addition to the customary art categories. The theme serves as a distinctive feature of each display. In the past, the Committee on Art Exhibits has selected themes appropriate to the meeting city; for example, “Down by the Riverside” for New Orleans, Louisiana, “Fountains of Youth” and “Fun in the Sun” for Orlando, Florida, “Deep in the Heart” for Dallas, Texas, and “Flower Power” for San Francisco, California.

The theme for the exhibit at the ASA 2004 Annual Meeting is “Desert Light” and is inspired by the geographic surroundings of this year’s meeting city, Las Vegas, Nevada. It is our hope that the harsh yet overtly serene beauty of the desert will inspire a wonderful variety of “theme” entries this year. Of course we could have chosen something more in keeping with the city itself; gambling, seduction, temptation and others were all possibilities, but instead, the overwhelming (and less controversial) choice of the committee is “Desert Light.”

But I digress. This is the 37th annual Art Exhibit, and exactly like the 36 before, it is a wonderful opportunity for ASA members and their families to show the creative, artistic side that rarely pops up in the comparatively mundane world of medicine. The display has become an oasis, a place for attendees to escape from the hectic rat race of scientific sessions, refresher courses, visits with exhibitors, committee meetings and the like. This year the show offers even another escape … from the enticements presented by our host city.

In addition to entries in the theme, the display will include the traditional categories: painting in oil, acrylics, watercolors, tempera and gouache; traditional and digital photography in both color and black and white; graphic works on paper, including drawings, prints and pastels; sculpture and crafts, including needlework, weaving, pottery, stained glass, jewelry, construction and metal work; the popular junior exhibit (for those under the age of 18); and literature. We also will accept “walk-in” art, with the exception of literature, as long as it arrives at the site of the exhibit prior to 9 a.m. on Saturday, October 23. (Though the idea of an additional category, ice sculpture, seemed tempting, we feel that the warm desert climate does not permit a meeting-long display of such work.)

We are again fortunate to have found three excellent judges who will review all entries.

The art judges for this year are Nancy Deaner and Mary Warner. Ms. Deaner is manager of the City of Las Vegas Cultural Affairs Office and is well known in the Las Vegas art community. Ms. Warner is a professor of art at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. She received her B.S. and M.S. at the University of California-Sacramento, and her work has been featured in shows and galleries the world over.

John Casey, Henry Hoyns Professor of English at the University of Virginia, will judge the entries in the literature category. Mr. Casey was educated at Harvard College, Harvard Law School and the University of Iowa. He is best known as the author of Spartina, a novel about a Rhode Island fisherman, for which he won a National Book Award in 1989. According to the New York Times, his book is “possibly the best American novel … since the Old Man and the Sea, maybe even Moby Dick.” In addition to his skills as a creative writer, Mr. Casey is an avid oarsman.

Finally as chair of this year’s committee, I ask you to submit a suggestion for the theme of the 2005 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, to me at <wpa@virginia.edu> prior to October 27, 2004. The committee will consider all input and thanks you in advance for your interest.

The Committee on Art Exhibits hopes that you will include the Art Exhibit in your list of must-do activities at the 2004 Annual Meeting.

William P. Arnold III, M.D., is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Virginia.