Sunshine inside

“Carousels of Sunshine,” a motorized, lighted, musical work of art, was donated to the Clinical Center by artist Arthur A. Plant and his wife Theresa, of Columbia, Md. The carousel hangs in the phlebotomy waiting area, near the Admissions Desk, where it delights children and adults alike as they wait for their blood draws. This is the 12th carousel Plant has created and donated to hospitals over the past 7 years “because of my belief in the healing powers of music, art, and beauty,” he said. Over 50 people attended a reception last month in the Medical Board Room, where Plant received a certificate of appreciation for his donation.

Medicine for the Public artwork shines again in CC gallery

Words [ Sue Kendall ]

Like beautifully colored gems extracted from a dark cave, original illustrations created for the Clinical Center’s popular Medicine for the Public (MFP) lecture series have been pulled from storage, framed, and put on display in Gallery I.

The Medicine for the Public lecture series was created by the CC in 1977, and has been presented every fall since. Lectures on disease topics are presented by NIH scientists and are illustrated by original art that helps translate medical terminology into understandable concepts.”I was astonished at this wonderful collection of art that has been here all this time,” said Lillian Fitzgerald, of Fitzgerald Fine Arts, curator for the CC’s art galleries.

In the spirit of the new millennium, Fitzgerald wanted to pull together a collection of art that reflected NIH’s history. During discussions with Colleen Henrichsen, chief of CC Communications, which runs the lecture series, and Linda Brown, of the Medical Arts and Photography Branch (MAPB), Fitzgerald said the idea of displaying the MFP art quickly took shape because the pieces fulfilled several goals at once.

“The illustrations are appealing from an artistic perspective, and they reflect artistic styles over the past 20 years, but they also depict a history of NIH’s work,” she said. Lecture topics are selected each year on the basis of current research, new findings, and public interest.

With over 180 lectures in 23 years, there are an estimated 9000 visuals in storage. “We couldn’t sort through all of them, so I selected some that particularly appealed to me,” said Fitzgerald. Brown pointed out that “we could change the exhibit every month for 10 years and not run out of illustrations.”

Originally titled “Medicine for the Layman,” the series was developed as a means of reaching out to the general public with information on clinical research, and to make people aware of what NIH does and how it contributes to the public health of the nation.

“The challenge was to create a means of conveying complex medical and scientific information to nonscientists. This was achieved by creating understandable, recognizable, and sometimes humorous visual images to accompany the lecture,” said Henrichsen. As with any work of art, sometimes the images connected with the viewer, and sometimes not. But always the artistic quality remained high.

“When we selected artists for Medicine for the Public, we always looked at the quality of the art first,” said Ron Winterrowd, retired chief of MAPB. “Then we looked at which artists had the ability to work effectively with the doctors. And then, of course, they had to be able to meet the due date.”

After the lectures were over, many of the illustrations reappeared in a series of booklets developed from the talks. Although budget constraints have stopped development of illustrations for current MFP lectures, a new use for the art from past lectures is on the horizon.

“Lillian presented the idea of decorating selected areas of the new hospital with some of these illustrations,” said CC Director Dr. John Gallin. “We thought it would be an excellent new use for these interesting and beautiful images. Also, since the art is already owned by the Clinical Center, there’s a cost savings from not having to purchase new pieces.”

The MFP art will be on display through March 1 in Gallery I, which is along the diagonal hallway that leads from the North Lobby to the Center Lobby elevators.

The Clinical Center maintains three other galleries and three sculpture cases. Shows are changed six times a year.

“There is often an NIH or CC connection in the shows,” Fitzgerald said. “In addition to the MFP art, the current show has works by the wife of an NIH doctor and a CC nurse who was so inspired by the galleries that she returned to school to study art.” An exhibit last year showcased art by the mother of an NICHD doctor.

In addition to providing inspiration and enjoyment, the galleries benefit CC patients and their families. According to Crystal Parmele, art director for the CC galleries, “We ask that the artists make their works available for sale, with 20 percent of the price donated to the Patient Emergency Fund. Only in special instances are pieces not for sale.”

The MFP illustrations, however, represent one of those special instances. They will remain in the CC’s permanent collection.

 

Healing waters fountain now in courtyard

The fountain and statue Healing Waters, created by Azriel Awret and purchased by NIH in 1987, has been moved to the courtyard to the west of the Atrium. Its previous locations were the Lipsett Auditorum waiting area by the shark tank and at the base of the escalator between the first and second floors.

This bronze sculpture of a young woman drinking water from her cupped hands echoes the Biblical reference of drinking from the healing waters of Bethesda. In Aramaic, “beth hesda” means “house of mercy.”

According to tradition, an angel moved the waters and healed the sick at the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. As recorded in John 5:1-9, it was at the Pool of Bethesda that Jesus healed a lame man.

Artists Azriel and Irene Awret met at Belgium’s Mechelen Nazi transit camp. They married in 1944 and in the 1970s moved to Falls Church, Va. Their art includes murals at Montgomery County schools, Azriel’s sculptures at George Mason University and Strathmore, and Irene’s book, “They’ll Have to Catch Me First,” about her experience as a Holocaust survivor.

Azriel’s second work on the NIH campus is on the grounds of the Children’s Inn.

Mixing Art into the Science of Healing

Martha Jefferson Hospital, Charlottesville

Words [ Rick Piester ]

For most people, hospitals can be pretty scary places. As a patient or a patient’s family, you seldom feel in control. Most of the time, you are there because something is wrong. Hospital buildings are big, and many of them are confusing and easy to get lost in. Fluorescent lighting, monochromatic hallways and sterile exam and treatment rooms do not inspire relaxation or comfort.

Hospitals, though, have been working hard to reverse that image. They have become much more welcoming in recent years by paying attention to all the things that “humanize” a building — colors and surfaces, warmer lighting, less confusing building layout, better signage, and more.

The newly opened Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, for example, partnered with Wisconsin-based architectural firm Kahler Slater to design a new 540,000-square- foot hospital building within sight of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Hospital planners and designers incorporated an approach known as evidence-based design, based on a large and growing body of research that demonstrates how the physical environment can impact patient stress, patient and staff safety, the effectiveness of hospital staff, and the quality of care that is provided in a hospital.

Hospital planners, for example, capitalized on the rolling hills that surround Charlottesville by building the hospital into a hill, rather than on the hill. This preserves the natural environment and prevents the building from appearing overwhelmingly large as patients and visitors arrive. In addition, the surface treatments of the new building are materials familiar to Central Virginians, and large windows bring in natural light and views of the familiar countryside. It’s all designed to put people at ease and help them heal.

Important elements of the overall visual appeal of the new building are more than 700 pieces of art, specially selected over a two-year period by a hospital committee intent on finding pieces, largely by Charlottesville area artists, that would essentially become part of the healing environment.

Martha Hunter, Martha Jefferson’s director of outpatient care centers and guest services, was the art committee facilitator. She notes that the display of art throughout the building was incorporated in the early stages of building design. “Instead of adding art as something of an afterthought at the end of the process, we identified the specific spaces where art would be displayed early on,” she says. “That allowed us to provide for appropriate lighting, for the best backing on the walls for the art that would be displayed there, and it helped us avoid conflicts with utility fixtures, way-finding signage, and things of that nature. So art is part of the fabric of the building, part of the architecture.”

The Martha Jefferson committee was aided in its work by Lillian Fitzgerald, an Alexandria-based Curator who provides consulting services to healthcare organizations, including the National Institutes of Health.

She notes that the committee was delighted to learn that many of the local artists had lifelong
connections to Martha Jefferson Hospital. “Many area artists had been born there,” she says, “they and their families had been patients at the hospital and their babies had been born there. It is a very personal relationship between the artists and the hospital.”

For this reason, many of the artists — including those whose work is followed on a national scale — provided pieces as donations or at reduced fees. Such an artist is Charlottesville-area resident Sam Abell, a leading American photographer and frequent contributor to National Geographic magazine. He provided 13 of his images, that Hunter and Fitzgerald say “changed the collection” —one of which is a photograph of a fountain whose spray suggests a heart shape. It hangs outside a cardiac care waiting area.

The art is displayed mostly in public areas, examination and treatment rooms, and waiting areas, but individual patients rooms are not overlooked. In fact, the bathroom of each patient room includes a 12″ x 12″ tile created especially for the hospital’s art program.

“There’s not a more stressful time than when you are in a hospital,” Fitzgerald notes, “but the right kind of art can transport you. It is so much more than a simple distraction; it is the source of healing inspiration, and hope.”

Hospitals that incorporate art into a building’s design find that the work of local artists not only helps create a healing environment, but also makes their facilities a destination for people who love art. And it also honors the artists by showing how their work is a healing force, and a permanent part of the life of the community.

Both art and artist inspire at the Clinical Center

There is a large red dog on the Hatfield Center’s third floor, a blooming lily in the hallway outside radiology and boats floating in the travel office. Thankfully, the dog does not bark, the lily is bright and fresh every day and the boats take up little space-because each is a piece of artwork in the Clinical Center’s permanent collection of artwork. While these items are merely paintings and sculptures, their healing aspects can be as effective as the real thing.

With eight galleries featuring changing exhibits and a permanent collection of approximately 2,000 original works of art displayed throughout the CC building, the art program is a substantial undertaking. And when joined with the other programs currently offered, including a new summer concert series, the Clinical Center is rich with cultural immersion opportunities.

One of the exhibits currently on display is the artwork of Japanese artist and poet Tomihiro Hoshino. In 1972, Hoshino was working as a physical education teacher at a junior high school in Japan when he injured his neck in a gymnastic lesson and was left paralyzed from the neck down. During his nine years in the hospital, he learned to paint by holding a paintbrush between his teeth. It was this talent and his faith that gave Hoshino hope for the future. His beautiful watercolors of flowers are complemented by his accompanying poems, which give a glimpse into the challenges of his condition and his deep sense of joyful hope.

One watercolor’s accompanying poem reads, “They went through a dark long period under the ground. They sprouted at great risk to life. But blades of grass show us the most beautiful figure of their lives without a single word of such part.”

When Hoshino’s work came to the Clinical Center for display, it was originally intended only as a temporary exhibit. However, when he read the endless comments NIH visitors, patients and staff had written in the exhibit’s guest book [visit www.cc.nih.gov/ccc/ccnews/current/ to read some of the comments], he was extremely moved. “He was so impressed by how Americans responded to his art that he donated the entire exhibit to the Clinical Center,” says Lillian Fitzgerald who works in the CC office of facilities management.

Katrina Blair, the office manager for the lab of biochemical genetics at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, is a poetry therapist trainee and graduate student who found special meaning in Hoshino’s art. “His work speaks to all the senses,” she explains. “Poetry therapy is about your personal life journey. And a poem or piece of artwork can talk about trials and tribulations, but in the end, for it to be healing, it has to come back to hope. Every piece I picked from Hoshino’s exhibit spoke of hope. His work spoke very heavily of that.”

The Hoshino exhibit is now permanently displayed on the fifth floor of the Hatfield Center. Today, Fitzgerald and her colleague Crystal Parmele are keeping a close eye on the CC’s public spaces. In addition to displaying art, the duo is creatively and artistically addressing challenges posed by the building itself. For example, the curved walls of the P1 entrance lobby now display replicas of the elevator door reliefs from the old building.

Many of the works of art they select for rotating exhibits are works by local artists. “We concentrate on local artists’ work,” says Fitzgerald. “Even for our summer concert series we encourage NIH staff who play instruments or sing to perform. Many of them have such talent and such wonderful stories to tell, but they have never performed. Through projects like this, we can help in a gentle way.” By showcasing local talent, the CC Art Program helps new artists find their start, but it also cultivates important relationships with members of the external community.

In addition, many of the artists’ works go on to be part of NIH’s touring exhibits, which are displayed in such prominent locations as the United States Botanic Garden, the secretary of Health and Human Services’ reception area in Washington, D.C., and the Washington Cancer Center. The artworks on display in the Clinical Center galleries are available for purchase and 20 percent of the sale proceeds are donated to the Patient Emergency Fund. Prices can be obtain-ed from the Clinical Center hospitality stations as well as from the art program office.

“I am glad this is a public building,” says Parmele. “Because we can expose people to art and music who would otherwise not have the opportunity. In the same way, we do not want people to be intimidated by art. Many people have made their first purchase of an original work of art from the Clinical Center galleries.”
If you are interested in purchasing a piece of art currently on display in one of the Clinical Center’s galleries, contact Lillian Fitzgerald, curator, at (301) 594-5923, (703) 836-1231, or e-mail vog.hin.ccnull@dlaregztifl.

– Kathryn Boswell