Health Care Fine Art

The crash of the hospital art market ?

Alexandra Peers writes in the Wall Street Journal today:

The art market's crash -- for that is what it is -- threatens to remake the art world. In the past few weeks, auctioneers, dealers, artists and collectors have changed strategies and policies, and it's likely that future changes will be even more sweeping.

When hospitals buy art, they typically are not dealing with the "art market" that this article is referring to: auctioneers, dealers and collectors. For healthcare art there tends to be a different mix of players: art consultants, interior designers and the hospital administration. The only similarity between the "art market" and the "hospital art market" is the artists themselves.

But the threats for those involved in the "art market" will be equally challenging to those in the "hospital art market". Is the hospital art market also crashing? Time will tell.

The article, called "The Fine Art of Surviving the Crash in Auction Prices" Click here to read the article (registration required).

Art takes a hit - Advice for artists

The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article last weekend "Even art takes a hit in economic downturn" by Julian Guthrie. "There are bubbles in all kinds of business. The art business is not immune. But it will recover. Sometimes you learn through suffering... Gallery owners are cutting costs, losing sleep and bracing for tougher times ahead. And, they're worrying about their artists..."

What is an artist to do in times like this? The article suggests:

• Have a business to fall back on
• Learn to barter by trading your art for services you need
• You can barter with doctors, dentists, restaurants, lawyers

Financial Downturn Hits Art Market

Cut Cakes by Wayne Thiebold, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 in.

No one would buy art for hospitals at the fancy art auctions held by Sotheby's and Christie's; the art is simply too expensive. However, it is interesting to see what is happening to prices as that reflects what is happening to art sales in general. According to  the Wall Street Journal this week:

The global financial crisis dealt a blow to the art market during the flagship fall auctions in New York City that concluded Friday, as fewer collectors were willing to splurge on the world's priciest artworks. Overall sales were less than half what they were a year ago, and a majority of works were offered at prices far below their presale estimates.

Art-market watchers had predicted sluggish results. These sales show that the art market is no longer immune from the global credit crisis that has already upended other industry sectors.

One of the pieces that just sold was "Cut Cakes" illustrated above. It was expected to selll for $2,000,000 to $3,000,000, but the actual sale price was $1,762,500.

The article from the November 15th issue of The Wall Street Journal is called "Call This One 'Crisis With a Pipe' Financial Downturn Finally Leaves an Impression on the Art Market" by Kelly Crow. Click here for a link (but registration is necessary)

Challenging Art Project: Long Term Acute Care

Tulips_4612

One of the winners in the contest for the "most challenging art project" was the HealthCare Architect Jeffrey Yentz. This is the text that Jeffrey submitted:

There is a new healthcare paradigm and that is the hospital within a hospital concept which drives the aesthetic "bus" of an LTACH (long term acute care hospital).  With an aging population that is sicker then a typical patient prescribed to be discharged; the federal government has agreed there should be a unique inpatient environment affording a length of stay approaching 26 days (versus the norm of 4).

The challenge is to create an environment that stimulates, inspires, and motivates.  One such way is to accomplish said goal is by introducing artwork that with subtle inferences enhances said motivation.

The goal is to create a sense of self trust and self worth during the course of recuperation so that the patient is inclined to return home healthy versus attempting to cling to every "free" day within a hospital environment.

How is this accomplished?

We emphasized photographic images in lieu of framed poster art. Traditional art inherently elicits an emotional gleaning but does not reflect the reality of the world the healthcare clientele will be returning to.  Plus, much of available artwork does not speak to the united nations sort of clientele that befalls the contemporary reality:  different cultures, different races, different beliefs, ages, sexes, etc.  Carefully selected photos however reflect both an honesty and personality that all can relate to especially if the images are from in and around the region. The result is a united nations imagery for a united nations clientele.

One interesting unanticipated turn of events was the treatment of photographic images.  To frame or not to frame.  In other words, to transpose the photographic image onto a canvas or to have that product hung versus the traditional framing.  A juxtaposition is what transpired. Clientele leaning to the geriatric side of the patient population much preferred the framed scenario because it made them feel like there were looking through a window .. which invariably is what they do for the most part when they are at home.  They simply do not opt to traverse outside all that much.  This means their world is akin to looking through a looking glass.  However clientele (not up in years) preferred a tactile aesthetic presentation (the canvas option) because their world is very much getting out in the world and the canvas scenario afforded more connectivity to their world's features and elements.

Since a hospital staff cannot predict the profile of patient about to be a denizen on an LTACH environment we could not "segregate" an aesthetic zone for the framed clientele versus the canvas clientele.  So in the final resolve there was a "leap frog" approach that annotated every other corridor piece would be of type "one" and the next as type "two".  This appeased each category of clientele BUT also represented a therapeutic motivator for the patient who needed to get up and about.  So in lieu of the traditional motivational flooring "squares"/patterns we could keep the floor patterning clean and leave the motivation to the wall treatments.

Jeffrey Yentz AIA is the Corporate Architect for Centra Health/Virginia Baptist Hopital in Lynchburg Virginia. As an award, he has received a brand new copy of HealthCare Spaces 4

HCD08

The audience at Jain Malkin's Talk on Evidence-based Design

Today is the last day of HCD08 (the HealthCare Design 2008 conference). Once again this 4-day conference has proven to be of great value for those interested in the use of art in HealthCare.

The conference is a great place to see art and learn about how others are using art in hospitals. You have the opportunity to meet the top people in the field who specify art, buy art and sell art. All the researchers doing work on Evidence-based Art were there.

In the exhibit area there are at least 15 companies with booths displaying art for healthcare. Here is a snapshot of me and Lorna at our booth:

3,200 people showed up for this conference in Washington DC. It is a diverse mix which includes among other things Interior Designers, Architects and hospital admininstration. Most of the attendees are from North America but there is a growing number of those from around the globe.

I've taken some snapshots of the confernce. To see the pictures, click here.

I've written before about why I consider this the most important conference on the use of art in HealthCare. Click here to read  "HCD08 - Best HealthCare Design Conference". Next year HCH09 is going to be in Orlando, Florida. I've already signed up to go again.

We are a Featured Blog on TypePad!

I am proud to say that Henry Domke Fine Art is a "featured blog" with TypePad this week.
Click here to see their featured blogs.

TypePad is the largest paid blogging service in the world. I have used TypePad for this blog since I started in early 2007.

I have to say I have been very happy working with them. They have templates which are easy to use and look professional. I never have to worry about coding (good thing, since I don't understand programming).

My two favorite blogs also use TypePad:

• Seth Godin's Blog
  
• Steve May's Blog
  

To learn more about TypePad, their website is: www.typepad.com

The Winner: Incorporating Faith Based Artwork into the Modern Healthcare Environment

One of the pictures from the winning installation.

Eva Payne won the contest to describe her most challenging healthcare art project and how she solved it. The problem she dealt with was incorporating faith-based artwork into the modern healthcare environment. Here is what she wrote:                   

Artwork selection may be the most subjective area of an interior designers work.  Although many studies exist which suggest that certain subject matter and color palettes may aid in the creation of the healing environment, selling those concepts to a rural, up and coming faith based hospital administrative staff is another matter. 

Artwork selection has been the most contentious ongoing issue with a client wishing to focus primarily on their faith mission.  As a community hospital the budget was not available to commission artwork, and most prints and lithographs currently available with a Christian theme are not particularly sophisticated artistically. Given this lack of quality images it is quite difficult to assemble an art package large enough to address all of the needs of a hospital.  After working through several art consultants and a selective hospital art committee we were able to compromise in several ways.

A few images of churches and crosses were utilized; bible verses were inscribed in mats under peaceful landscape images, in lieu of artwork in some areas metal letters were used simply with the words such as, “Faith”, “Hope”, and “Love” from Corinthians I.  Moving in this direction made the committee more comfortable with using some botanical images alone to evoke a soothing, nature oriented theme with photographs of flowers and regional landscapes.  Although getting to this solution was quite trying at times, the project achieved both the goal of inspiring patients and visitors with the Christian message while creating a modern healing environment.

Eva said that the bible verses under the images are a little hard to read on the snapshot shown about - but they are there.

Eva Payne  ASID IIDA  LEED AP is an Interior Designer at TRO Jung|Brannen in Birmingham Alabama. She is a senior associate.

I have already packed up her award, a brand new  signed-copy of Jain Malkin's essential new book - A Visual Reference for Evidence-Based Design. A $200 value.

Picking the winner was difficult. There were many excellent entries. The entries were so good that I decided to give awards to two other contestants. The two runners up (Jeffrey Yentz and Angela Ahrens) will each be gettign a brand new copy of HealthCare Spaces 4.

Thanks to all who entered the conest!

Upgrade Fatigue: The tools keep changing every 18 months

Today FedEx delivered yet another version of Photoshop

Artists using digital tools have to be prepared to go through frequent upgrades of every tool they work with. Today I got the 11th major revision of Photoshop. It is called Photoshop CS4. Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Adoble Lightroom 2 are the essential software programs that allow me to create my art. 

About every 18 months I have to upgrade or replace my:

1. Computers
2. Computer Programs
3. Cameras
4. Printers

The hardware and software upgrades were something that I used to look forward to; sort of like a kid at Christmas. My enthusiasms for upgrades has faded over the years. There is always a lot of new controls that have to be learned (and unlearned). Often there are software bugs that mess things up. 

Until I have mastered all the new features, my work is slowed down. I prefer to work when I know the tools so well that I don't think about what I am doing; then it is intuitive. 

Life would be much easier if I had remained a painter. The basic tools (brushes, paint and canvas) would not have changed over my entire career.

One option that I chose to ignore is skipping the upgrades. The software and hardware would continue to work for many years if I just left them alone. However, at this point I think the power of the new tools justifies the hassle and cost in time and money.

I wonder if the improvements (such as doubling of computing power every 18 months) will ever stop...? To read about Moore's Law click here.

AIA Healthcare Awards 2008

CHA Women & Children's Hospital

The current issue of Architecture Week has an article about the AIA National Healthcare Design Awards for 2008. I thought it was interesting that two of the four facilities to get awards were not in North America. The name AIA; "American Institute of Architects" might suggest that they would be from the US. The winners were:

• CHA Women & Children's Hospital near Seoul, South Korea
• Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, in Shenzhen, China
• Peter and Paula Fasseas Cancer Clinic at University Medical Center North, Tuscon, Arizona
• Weill Greenberg Center, Weill Medical College of Cornell University within New York City

The article by Dan Noble, FAIA, FACHA, (which you can read by clicking here) emphasized that all four healthcare facilities incorporated extensive daylight for the benefit of the patients and staff.

For the CHA Women & Children's Hospital (shown above) the look is intended to mimic the trends in high-end shops and spas. 

...a softness of natural light, organic elements, and curving forms tempers a sleek building of glass, aluminum, and stainless steel. KMD Architects designed the facility, with associate architect yo2 Architects, to provide uncluttered respite from the surrounding neighborhood's visual noise.

The AIA website has a good article on the awards which you can read by clicking here.

Hurricane Ike Floods our Farm

Hiller's Creek in full flood stage today

Hurricane Ike dumped 7-inches of water on our farm in Missouri last night. To see what impact such a heavy rainfall had we took a walk along Hiller's Creek after lunch today. Hiller's Creek is the main stream here on the Prairie Garden Trust.

It is in full flood, but had already receded some. The water covered the entire area to the edge of the bluffs. That is about 200-feet from the normal edge of the creek.

With all this moisture we are already starting to see many fall mushrooms. This looks to be a peak year for them.