Giving supports arts journey

Mary Beth Clough ’91 started to give to the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1994, just a few years after graduating with a BFA in Medical Illustration. After 30 years as a successful medical illustrator writing, editing and animating more than 1,000 health education scripts, Clough still makes it a priority to consistently give back to the college that helped shape her career.

Originally a Pre-Med student at John Carroll University, Clough found herself searching for an artistic outlet. Her dedication to find an intersection between art and science led her to CIA, where she learned how to use writing, research and art to make medical terminology and concepts more accessible.

“I wanted to continue helping people,” she says. “As a doctor, I would have helped people but I can still help people by teaching them about their bodies. Whether I’m teaching a doctor, a patient, an investor, a scientist or whoever, I feel like I’m still helping people learn. It’s just that perfect blend of science, art and education.”

Today, Clough is a Senior Medical Editor at Nucleus Medical Media in Kennesaw, Georgia, a medical animation company with a mission to improve health literacy for patients as well as pharmaceutical, biotechnology and education markets.

Her philanthropy over the years has been motivated by several factors.

“I want to support my field of medical illustration in terms of creating future excellent professionals and I like to support the school as a whole, which gave me a great foundation for this field,” Clough says. “And finally, supporting the arts in general. The arts always need support, so whatever I can do to help, I’d like to do.”

As a student, Clough was able to find internship and networking opportunities through CIA’s long-standing connections with Cleveland-based businesses. Her minor in Photography helped her get an internship with a plastic surgeon taking pictures of patients pre- and post-op. Later in college, she earned an internship as a medical illustrator at Mt. Sinai Hospital. She credits both of these opportunities as foundational building blocks for her career and believes they wouldn’t have been possible without the support and education CIA provided.

Clough also credits a lot of her success to her deep understanding of visual storytelling, proper execution and foundational, artistic values—all of which she says were instilled in her by CIA professors.

“It was challenging, but in a good way,” she says. “It made me think and pushed me. That’s another reason why I like to support CIA—because those instructors made a big impact on me and I know that in order to attract good instructors, you have to be able to pay them.”

Clough encourages her fellow alumni to support CIA for up-and-coming artists and designers.

“If you’ve had a productive career and you had a good experience at CIA, then it’s important to consider giving back to CIA to help future generations of professionals get the same kind of experience that we had.”