Interior Designer Diana Spellman
Diana Spellman is one of the leaders on the use of art in HealthCare. Last year she wrote a cover article: "The Art of Healing" for HealthCare Design Magazine. Recently she answered a few questions about her company and the use of Art in Healthcare during a phone interview:
Last year you were diagnosed and treated for Breast Cancer. Has that experience altered your view on the use of art in Healthcare?
Yes! I’ve become more passionate about the use of color and Artwork in Healthcare facilities, the Mind, Body, and Spirit connection is very real. For instance, I received Chemotherapy for five months with an excellent team of doctors, but the infusion area that I spent a lot of time in was painted in grayed blue tones, did not take advantage of the wide expanse of windows, and the Artwork consisted of several silk wreaths. Fortunately, I had a very positive and fighting spirit, but the patient care environment does have a significant influence on the patient’s state of mind, thus affects their health.
I witnessed many patients come into the Chemotherapy area, completely down in their spirit, and really scared. I believe that if the environment utilized warmth in neutral wall finishes, allowed the sunlight and nature outdoors to come into the space and utilized interesting macro images of nature within the spaces that a sense of positive hope would transcend full circle to the patients and caregivers.
In addition, I was hospitalized numerous times for surgeries, again experienced firsthand how the built environment affects the patient experience, as well as my family and the caregivers. The exterior/interior environments from the time you leave your car, cross the parking and enter the building, the color, materials and Artwork affect your sense of security and well being. An example of this was my experience of pre-op prep in an area that had a sense of coldness, from the use of hard materials in grayed/cool colors, cool lighting color that made the patient feel like a specimen and lastly no Artwork of any vibrance and clarity with color. Henry, that is something your work brings to the environment, a true sense of hope and compassion.
One last example of an experience I encountered, was my hospital room, right out of the retro 60’s with the built-in lockers for my clothes, and an attempt to update with paint and a pastel wallpaper border. The paint selection and the use of a beautiful image of nature, say an up close branch with a butterfly, brings into the space, a special sense of nature’s surprises. As a patient, I would have felt more cherished than looking at the foot wall that was crowded with numerous signs and marker boards, that I could not even see with out putting on my glasses.
What impact will the downturn in the economy have on the use of Art in Healthcare? Does this mean reduced budgets and more poster art?
There is no doubt that people will continue to cut budgets, money is tighter. With less money for Art, I encourage my clients to do less, but do it with the most sensitive impact possible. Rather than buy more quantity and inexpensive, plan on blending the budget with Fine Artwork in the key wayfinding focal points and if needed, implementing it in phases over time.
I am very proud to say that many times we have helped our owners create events to raise dollars to fund the better quality Artwork, we are there to really partner with the owner. An example of this was several years ago, I created a Wine and Cheese fundraiser for an owner, and we did a private Fine Art Preview tour with community leaders. It was so much fun! We had the help of an auctioneer to auction off “Naming Rights” on the specialized pieces and we helped to raise over 40% of their entire Artwork budget in a two-hour period.
Many hospital CEOs understand the value of working with design professionals to create the Healing Environments – with Artwork Master Plans. If they read the latest information on this topic or have completed new buildings or renovations with well thought out Artwork, they experience dividends with their patient satisfaction, thus it translates into more market share. That being said, it is more critical than ever to work with experienced professionals that understand the administration’s mission and goals. The Artwork budgets must be carefully planned and executed to get the most value for the dollar. No owner has money to waste, that is why working with the professionals create the most successful end results.
Tell me a little about Spellman Brady & Company. How did you get into this, how did the company start and how has it changed over the years? Who is the “Brady” part of the name?
Well, first of all, the Brady is my maiden name. I like it and am proud of it, so I wanted to utilize it in our company’s identity. We are also a certified WBE, (Woman Owned Enterprise), so again it was important to use the Brady name. I grew up in a medical family but always loved design and Art. I love to create Artwork, but that tapered off as I became busy with my career and family. My husband, Stan and I got into the Healthcare design specialty (28) years ago working with a large architectural firm HLM. That is where we met each other, working in the interiors department, and have moved cross country twice during our careers, working out in the inter-mountain west and also California.
We always knew some day we would open our own firm, and seventeen years ago when our oldest was a baby did just that. Our goal was to create a smaller firm with experienced designers, to interface with the owners (Hospitals, Senior Living, and Universities) and the architectural teams across the country. Our expertise creates the bridge between the owner, architects, furniture manufacturers and artists directly. We have the ability to design with the finishes, furnishings and artwork as functional sculpture with the facilities. Our processes are very effective to create the most successful timeless designs and be fiscally responsible. Once we have teamed with different architects they realize they can team with a company like SB&C that understand their vision and wants to create a seamless end result. That is why, for instance, our Artwork Master Plans look cohesive and integrated with the architecture, not applied like frosting. Same goes for the furniture packages, timeless and integrated.
How many people work there now?
The first four years in business, Stan and I worked out of our home with a part-time assistant, but it became too much of an invasion on our family, (I was expecting our second child.) In 95’ we moved into our first office with three other team members, and it grew by about six team members every five years. With (21) full time and (4) part time, I would say, that we have been careful to control our growth, by doing a good job of forecasting and budgeting our overhead in order to have a healthy business, and to be able to pass on operational savings to our clients.
What geographic area do you serve?
We work all across North America; we’ve done business in 28 states, as well as planning for one of our University clients who has a campus in Geneva, Switzerland. We are able to work very efficiently long distance because we began our careers working across the country, long distance with hospitals. That was back in the day, when shipping in samples quickly, was sending them overnight on a bus or an airplane, well before overnight Fed Ex and UPS.
What percentage of your business is HealthCare?
Our work breaks down into three vertical markets:
- Healthcare 50%
- Higher Education: 30%
- Senior Living: 20% - this is a big growth area
We actually see growth in all three of our markets, but as we all know, the baby boomers are getting older. Do you refer to Evidence-based Art when helping a HealthCare client come up with an art program?
Evidence-based Design is certainly a buzz-word these days; it is very exiting and progressive. I believe the whole language of Evidence-based Design was created in order to associate meaning to this movement of Healthcare design as non-institutional in appearance, but still with patient safety/ infection control, quality care/patient stress reduction, caregiver productivity and of course environmental efficiencies.
However, many great Designers were doing Evidence-based work long before the term was invented. Evidence-based Design is looking to create ways to measure what we do and that is very important as the profession progresses.
Some research on Evidence-based Art suggests that abstract art is inappropriate for patient care areas. What is your opinion?
Hard abstraction, or pure abstraction (like Jackson Pollock) is difficult for many people to understand; they reject it. However, I do believe soft abstraction; with a component of realism can work well in patient care areas, as long as the colors produce a sense of calmness. I am thinking patient care areas such as a Chemotherapy infusion area where a patient needs to escape into an image that is thought provoking and calming at the same time. Truly, the general population does not like abstract, unless they can see imagery in it, such as mixed media collage Artwork that has actual images within the overall piece. A large macro Fine Art photograph can have a sense of abstraction to it and still be very effective. What’s fun in creating Artwork Master Plans is to create an element of surprise and delight in key focal point areas.
What differentiates you from your competition in putting together art projects for hospitals?
Overall there are numerous Artwork specialists around the country that can do a very good job of creating Artwork in Healthcare settings. I believe that my education and experience as an Interior Designer adds a huge benefit of integrating the art with the rest of the building architecture, interior design and wayfinding. We design a lot of custom design features that incorporate art or become art. Our team has the resources and expertise to integrate these elements with the building that may require some architectural and/or engineering work by the design team or by the fabricator.
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