I keep going back and re-reading chapter 7 of the book Putting Patients First. There are a lot of gems buried in there. For example on page 120 Ulrich and Gilpin write:
"The decisive criterion for health care art is whether it improves patient outcomes, not whether it receives praise from art critics and artists or approaches museum standards for quality."
What an ambitious goal that is! To have art be part of the healing process. They are not just talking good intentions here, they are talking proving the healing with research, just like you would study the effect of a new drug or a new surgical procedure.
What a radical way to judge quality! They are prosing that the best criteria for picking art to go in hospitals is not the traditional way of relying on the taste of experts. Instead they ask us to impartially look at research data. Let the numbers pick the art.
Chapter 7 then goes on to describe some of the general characteristics that go into healing art.
It is hard for me to accept this idea, picking art by numbers and formula, but I am letting it influence the art I am creating.
Henry, I just finished reading this chapter upon your recommendation. I agree completely with what the authors are saying because of my experience of caring for my mother while she was in the hospital for almost three months. It is true that inappropriate art really can disturb not only patients, but also family members. I urge all people responsible for placing art in hospitals to read that chapter! Another quote is: "...The research discussed in this chapter implies that visual artwork in health care facilities is no mere luxury or unimportant embellishment. To the contrary, findings increasingly support the notion that the evidence-based selection of emotionally appropriate art contributes an important environmental dimension to patient care - one that lessens patient stress and improves other medical outcomes." This supports my idea that art can help even in hospitals in third world countries as we discussed earlier on your blog!
Posted by: Elaine Poggi | August 03, 2007 at 08:40 AM
Henry, I have an idea. Why don't you contact Roger Ulrich and Laura Gilpin who wrote the chapter on Healing Arts in this book and ask them if the octopus painting on the cover of the June issue of Healthcare Design is appropriate art for a children's hospital? In "The Art Corner" section of the magazine, it is written that "All the parents think she's scary, but the kids love her." Since many times parents are more stressed than their ill children, I ask if it is appropriate to display art that is scary to anyone?
Posted by: Elaine Poggi | August 07, 2007 at 05:22 AM
"is appropriate to display art that is scary to anyone?"
Good question!
But I would ask you to contact Roger Ulrich and Laura Gilpin to get their feedback.
Posted by: hdomke | August 07, 2007 at 09:55 AM