"If You Believe, You Get First Choice" by Carol Brown Goldberg

Local artist Carol Brown Goldberg donated the painting pictured above titled "If You Believe, You Get First Choice," to the CC this February. It hangs on the seventh floor of the Hatfield building.

Artist Carol Brown Goldberg understands the importance of art in an environment dedicated to healing and medicine. “I think it is the most important place to put art,” she said.

Goldberg donated her painting “If You Believe, You Get First Choice” to the Clinical Center in February.

Goldberg’s decision was motivated by a chance meeting with the parent of a former CC patient, who approached her at an exhibit of Goldberg’s artwork in December. Goldberg recalls feeling moved as the woman spoke of the time she spent at the CC praying for her son who was battling cancer.

“She said she wished she had been able to see that painting,” Goldberg said, “that maybe it would have helped her and given her a sense of optimism.”

Goldberg herself spent a significant amount of time at the CC in 1979 when her son underwent successful open heart surgery here. After her recent coincidental encounter with a fellow mother and caregiver, she decided to donate the painting.

“I was profoundly inspired by that conversation,” she said. “We are both so fortunate that our sons are healthy. The NIH and art brought us together quite serendipitously.”

Goldberg has been exhibiting in Washington, DC since 1975. Her work has been inspired by science, the brain, and physics, and she has been exploring the relationship between art and science for many years in a variety of mediums.

Her painting “If You Believe, You Get First Choice” hangs in the Hatfield Building seventh floor bridge.