Health Care Fine Art

Lighting is Everything !

What a difference proper lighting makes!

To properly display art in a hospital, the first thing to ask is "What lighting will the picture have?"

This point was made crystal clear to me the first time I exhibited in a gallery with a quarter-million dollar lighting system. I was stunned by how much better my pictures looked; better than I had ever seen them. It was as if they were properly dressed for the first time. The pictures just seemed to pop; better contrast, better color, better presence.

But you don't have to use such a fancy computer-operated system. Just a few inexpensive spot lights can make all the difference, as the picture above demonstrates. This is a recent installation in Virginia with one of my canvas prints (Lotus-Back 7558). 

This picture was taken with Norm Brinkman's iPhone.

Protecting Art in Hospitals

Henry in his new spray room applying varnish to canvas prints

Canvas prints can be very effective in hospital settings. They have several advantages:

• No glass
• No glare
• Lower framing costs
• They can go very big

However, I am frequently asked: How do canvas prints hold up in a busy hospital environment? What happens when the cleaning staff wipes them with a wet cloth? How will canvas prints tolerate children with peanut butter and jelly on their fingers touching them?

The answer is: if they have a protective coating applied, they should do just fine. Over the last several years I have sold hundreds of canvas prints and they have held up fine. But I'm always looking for ways to improve things.

One problem with the protective coating I had been using is that it had to be applied after the canvas was stretched, otherwise it would crack. That meant passing on that job to the frame shops. Now I have discovered a coating that can be applied by me before I ship the prints, before the prints are stretched.

I've testing this varnish and it is amazingly tough; almost bulletproof. I've tested my prints by scrubbing them with soapy rags and by trying to scratch them with a kitchen fork. The prints came through just fine.

However, to apply the spray I had to build a spray room. A spray room is a sealed room with a strong exhaust fan and good lights. The picture above is me in the spray room today.

The Henry Ford of the Framing Business

The Chicago Tribune calls Jay Goltz "the Henry Ford of Framing". As I have learned more about him I can see why. Just like Henry Ford, he streamlined the whole framing process by developing systems that would maximize efficiency and minimize errors.

Instead of one person doing the entire framing job, he created an assembly line where different people do different jobs. For example, one might cut the frames, someone else would cut that mats and yet another person assembled the final product and added the wire.

He is also an energetic, charismatic entrepreneur. In addition to running his framing business he has written books, travels to give speeches, has started several related companies and even has a blog.

One nice thing is that he is willing to share a lot of his ideas to help others succeed. A good starting point for this would be his book: The Street Smart Entrepreneur: 133 Tough Lessons I Learned the Hard Way. I read it and enjoyed it. It is a quick read and provides real-world advice that could help many small business owners, not just those that run frame shops.   

Article about him from Inc.com: click here

Here is the website about all of his activities: www.jaygoltz.com

Kathy Hathorn - Featured Entrepreneur in Small Biz

Kathy Hathorn, CEO/Creative Director, American Art Resources

Business Week's Small Business magazine (Small Biz) ran an article this Spring about how 5 entrepreneurs were mass-producing custom products. "When you customize, you separate yourself from the pack". One of the companies featured is American Art Resources; which should be familiar to readers of this Blog.

Here is a quote from the article, which is called "Breaking the Mold"

In the late 1990s, Kathy Hathorn saw a new place for custom artwork. Hospitals and medical centers were starting to recognize the therapeutic value of art for their patients, as well as the ability of unique art to spiff up a brand in an increasingly competitive industry. Hathorn started American Art Resources in 1998 to commission and install artwork, from huge sculptures to photographs of historic buildings, for health-care facilities. "It's not about decorating the space," says Hathorn. "It's about the impact of the art on the patient and caregiver experience. The art becomes part of the message a hospital sends out."

Hathorn commissions pieces from her network of about 1,900 artists working in practically every possible medium, including painting, photography, fiber, ceramics, and drawing. Many of those artists owe 15% to 20% of their annual sales to American Art Resources, so they are motivated to complete projects on time and on budget.

American Art Resources, now a profitable 31-employee company, sells about 1,000 pieces each year, with revenues of about $5 million. Hathorn's staff handles every aspect of the job, including framing and installation, which she says keeps costs low and avoids third-party liability.

Hathorn sends some direct-mail pieces to potential clients, but most of her marketing is word-of-mouth. Many of her company's works generate plenty of buzz, such as a recent commission for the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, which wanted something never done before. Hathorn commissioned a sculptor in upstate New York to design and build a "tree of life," and a year later, a 30-foot, 6 1/2-ton painted steel tree was installed in the hospital's atrium.

Gallery Wrap - Pros and Cons

In the last few years my canvas prints have become much more popular. It is easy to see why. Canvas prints have a lot of advantages over paper prints:

• Canvas is much less expensive to frame than paper
• Canvas prints have no glare since they aren't covered with glass

How to properly frame canvas is a matter of taste.
Many frame shops promote "Gallery Wrap" where the canvas wraps around the sides. Personally that is not my preference. My background is in oil painting. Oil paintings would never be wrapped around the sides. In museums, one would never see an image on canvas wrapped on the sides of the stretcher bars.

My preference is to have the white canvas show on the sides and leave the picture unframed. That is a very contemporary look.

Alternatively, a thin wooden strip can be applied on all sides which makes the print appear more finished.

Why do Frame Shops promote "Gallery Wrap"? I think it is because it is much easier and faster to stretch the canvas if one does not have to precisely align the image to the front. With white edges it is tricky to get the four edges of the image to align exactly with each edge. If a quarter inch of white shows on the front it looks very bad.

Can Framing Be Green?

The trend in Architecture and Design is towards using "green" or environmentally friendly methods and materials. More and more projects are LEED certified. I wondered about how this might be applied to the art that is matted and framed for HealthCare.  I asked Puneet Bhasin:

How can you make sure that your frame shop is environmentally friendly? 

Ask your framer to make sure that most of the papers used in the mat boards are produced out of recycled fiber and that only environmentally friendly colorants are used.

Whenever it’s not feasible to use recycled fiber, make sure the source material is from responsible mills that use tree farms for their wood pulp. Therefore a tree is planted for every tree consumed.

Make sure that the frame shop recycles all the paper products they use. Check to see if the wood moldings are cut from continually recycled forests, whose trees are planted, nurtured, and harvested on a rotation basis.

Puneet Bhasin is Vice President at Artline, a Contract Framer with offices in New York, Florida, Illinois, and California. He said that Artline is happy to provide "Green" Frames upon the designer's request.

Backlit Panels - Part Two

A FedEx truck delivered a sturdy wooden box on Friday. After I unscrewed a side panel I found a very thin lightbox with one of my images installed. You can see me holding the backlit panel in the picture to the left (click on the image to see a bigger picture).

Today I called Tom Kitchell at  International Linear Matrix in Florida to ask him a few questions about the light box he sent me.

How is your lightbox different from others on the market?

Ours is one of the thinnest light boxes available - it is under two inches thick, even when it is double-sided. Also ours is unique in being made and serviced in the USA.

What would a lightbox like the one you sent me cost if a hospital were to buy one?

A 2 x 3-foot lightbox like the one we sent you retails for $480.

How long do the tubes last before they have to be changed?

The fluorescent bulbs are rated for 20,000 hours. That is 2.5 years of continuous use. We use standard T4 Flourescent Bulbs which are standard; very easy to find and easy to replace.

Do you typically supply the printed image to go in the lightbox, or do your customers tend to do that locally?

We can go either way. The images we print are done a Kodak N-CAD printer using Kodak Premium Backlit film that is 7 mils thick.

Is there anything else you would like to say?

Because our boxes are made here at our factory in Florida, we can give very quick turn around times, typically 7-10 days. All of our orders are custom. We can make a lightbox of any size up to 4 x 10-feet.

 

I plan on displaying this lightbox in my booth at the HealthCare Design 07 Conference in Dallas in November.

Part One of the discussion on Backlit panels can be found here.

For more information:
Thomas J. Kitchell
International Linear Matrix
10821 Canal Street
Largo, FL 33777
www.ilmusa.com
800-780-7446 x 3016

How to work with an Art Consultant

Tradescantia_1568

As I started to focus on providing art for HealthCare I quickly realized that much of the art is selected by Art Consultants. To learn more about them I interviewed  Barbara Harriman who is an Art Consultant and is president of Distinctive Art Resources.

1. Why would an Interior Designer subcontract the art selection and installation to an art consultant?
   Art consultants can become strong allies with project architects and designers.  By selecting an art consultant, designers and architects are able to provide design direction to the art program without expending costly production hours.
   
   Art consultants have vast artist resource libraries and connections with art communities which allow them to offer a wide variety of selections / solutions in minimal amounts of time.  An art consultant’s expertise paired with their resources can result in saving the client time and additional fees while providing creative art options and solutions.
   
   Turnkey art consultants also provide the luxury of using one source for all art needs, including installation. 
   
   
2. What percentage of your work is for Interior Designers / Architects?
   30%
   What percentage is for Facility Owners?
   70%
   
3. How does one find an art consultant?
   It is the art consultant’s job to HELP facilities create an art program that surpasses their expectations so an art consultant should be chosen based on their ability to offer creative suggestions and solutions while remaining within budget and on schedule.
   
   Facilities and architects / designers should look for an art consultant who actively seeks direction from the facility (art committee) and the design team, as both have been integrally involved in the project long before the art consultant’s arrival.   
   Other criteria to consider when choosing an art consultant:
   
   • Do they work only in Healthcare? 
   • Do they select art based on research informed decisions so as to mitigate stress and offer the possibility of improved patient outcomes?
   • Do they have a history of completing art programs on time and within budget?
   • Is their pricing competitive?
   • Do they charge consulting fees?
   • What do past clients say about working with them?
     
4. For healthcare projects, is it important to find someone who specializes in Art for HealthCare?
   Absolutely as art can not only enhance healing environments but can also be integrated with marketing strategies by becoming the visual face of a facility.
   
5. What percent of your work is HealthCare? 
   100%
   
6. Any suggestions on how to best work with Art Consultants? 
   Contact an art consultant early on in the project for budget information.  Even if it is not time to begin developing the art program, an art consultant can help define realistic budgets as early as the design development phase.  OR 
   
   Once you are ready to begin working on the art portion of a project, contact the art consultant to discuss process as well as the project’s scope, style, interior finishes and expected completion date.  The art consultant can then provide you with a suggested project timeline and additional budget information.
   
   
7. How are Art Consultants paid? Per hour or a percentage of sales?
   This varies between art consultants.  I can only speak for Distinctive Art Source.   Typically there are no art consulting fees involved with our services.  Our costs are covered in the price of purchased art.  Due to our high purchase volume, we are able to pass considerable savings on to facilities.  Should a facility request specific services (such as an art inventory, call for artists, or creation of a community art gallery), we will provide a proposal for the requested services with minimum and maximum fees defined.
   
   Original or commissioned art is often sold at cost plus a percentage or at cost plus an hourly fee (for time spent finding and commissioning the artist).
   
8. Anything else you would like to add?
   A healthcare art program is successful when positive responses are optimized, stress is mitigated, way finding is enhanced, goals are achieved, budgets remain intact and expectations are surpassed.
   
   
9. Could you tell me a little about your Art Consulting business?
   Distinctive Art Source, a national art consulting firm, works exclusively in Healthcare. While our focus is creating Patient Based art programs (centered on research and owner / architect / designer input), our goals are twofold:  to bring unexpected art options and solutions to each project and to involve the local art community whenever possible. Our firm’s architectural background is structured to blend seamlessly into the design process providing owners with necessary budgets and timelines right from the start. Budget's and schedules are important to us; we do not exceed budgets and we do not miss deadlines.
   
   To learn more about Distinctive Art Resources visit their website: www.distinctiveartsource.com

Tradescantia_1568 (illustrated above) is one of the images that Barbara selected recently. She had it printed on canvas and sized 66 x 43-inches.

Digital Photo Frame - The Future of Hospital Art?

Prediction:
Within ten years flat panel television screens will replace prints as wall art in patient rooms.

Sales of flat panel displays have been remarkable. Since they are used in all computer displays and most television screens there has been a tremendous drive to reduce price and increase quality. Even Bill Gates uses flat panel monitors to display fine art in his mansion.

The displays are starting to get into a price range where they could be considered for wall art in patient rooms. Last week I found one on Amazon.com for $180 and I thought I would try it out. Here is the Link

It arrived today and I've been setting it up and seeing how it compares to prints on a wall.

My initial impression: Close, but not ready for prime time.

• Having the image illuminated from behind is very pleasing and eliminates the need to consider proper lighting.
• Image quality is poor compared to my prints but I think that it will satisfy most patients. High-def monitors that look better are available, but they cost more.
• Having sideshows with hundreds of images is easy to set up and may be more appealing to some viewers than a static image.
• Patients could easily add their own pictures to personalize their room. I can see people loving having pictures of their grand children or their pets on screen.
• The screen is only 6 x 8-inches, much too small for wall art in a patient room. Bigger monitors cost much more.
• The build quality not good enough to survive in a busy hospital setting. This is really something for your grandmothers desk.

Security Mounts

Security Hardware

Mounting pictures in busy places like hospitals and clinics requires special care. It is important to make theft more difficult and to keep the art level in the event that it gets bumped.

I asked Puneet Bhasin for some suggestions. Puneet is Vice President at Artline, a Contract Framer with offices in New York, Florida, Illinois, and California.

Although the initial idea behind security hardware for artwork was created because artwork was disappearing from the walls, security hardware is now also utilized to make sure that the artwork can stay leveled on the wall and not move when someone bumps into it. 

We have gotten a lot of requests for security hardware because it also keeps the artwork from falling down if someone bumps it.  The traditional way of hanging artwork was to use hanging wire on the back of the frame, but as time moved on, people started drilling holes into frames to secure the artwork.  This posed a couple of issues:

1. It creates a look in the facility that you don't trust people
2. The drilling causes the frame to crack and over time the crack gets bigger and there are splinters in the frames.

Security hardware is mounted on the back of the picture.  There are typically 3 brackets that are installed.  One on each of the top corner of the artwork and third one in middle of the bottom part of the frame.  A T Screw is utilized to secure the artwork which needs a special wrench (or key) to turn the T Screw.  You only need 1 T Screw per picture (which is installed on the bottom bracket).

Typically we have seen pricing for security hardware range from $1.50 to $10.00 per picture.  Some companies like Artline don't even charge for security hardware but since we specialize in healthcare framing we are familiar with the hardware necessary for these facilities.  A lot of times a hospital will contact us because they had artwork locally framed and the gallery or frame shop doesn't even know what security hardware is.

For instructions on security hardware, you go to: www.artlinewholesalers.com

Security Wrench