How to Start a Hospital Art Program

Suzanne Randolph speaking at MoMA today

Suzanne Randolph presented one of the four talks on "How to Start a Visual Arts Program in a HealthCare Setting" today. This was the beginning of the Symposium on “The Importance and Value of Art in Health Care" at the Museum of Modern Art in New  York.

I thought Suzanne had some practical advice that might be helpful to others. Here are my condensed notes.

Step One - Scope of the Project

• Who is the audience?
• What is appropriate for that audience
• Where can you place the Art to get the biggest bang for the buck?
• What is the budget & timetable?
• Key idea: Be flexible

Step Two - Where do you find the art?

• Galleries and Unaffiliated Artists
• Artist Registries
• Schools
• Not-for-profit Arts Organizations
• Patient Created Art

Step Three - Who Makes it Happen?

• Dedicated Staff or if possible and Arts Administrator
• Independent Art advisers
• Volunteer Advisory Committees
• Key to success: Collaboration 

Suzanne Randolph is an independent Art Advisor with 25-years of expereience. She is based in New York City. Suzanne's website is: www.suzannerandolphfinearts.com

The conference is jointly sponsored by the the Office of Cultural Enrichment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the Society for Arts in HealthCare, and MoMA.