Health Care Fine Art

Art in Italian Hospitals: Part 2

A hallway in Santa Maria Nuova Hospital in Florence before and after Elaine Poggi's photos were hung

Elaine Poggi continues her investigative reporting on the art scene in Italian Hospitals:

The following are my thoughts on the old public hospitals in Italy.  I’ll write another article on our new public hospitals later…
 
Many of the public hospitals in Italy date back hundreds of years.  The oldest hospital in Europe is Santa Maria Nuova, just a few blocks from my office in Florence.  Parts of this hospital date back to the late 1200s.  Thus, it is easy to imagine that the structures of the facilities may not be in great shape.  Most if not all of these old hospitals do not have funding for art in their budgets because funding is poured into the maintenance of the structures. 
 
When I enter these hospitals, sometimes it is difficult for me to breath because of the depressing atmosphere, the dirty and bare walls, the uncomfortable and mismatched furniture, the patients waiting for hours in tiny waiting rooms.  It is just awful…
 
Fortunately in the last few years there are signs of improvement.  Sometimes the doctors or nurses at their own expense will put up posters or photographs on the walls of their area.  Through The Foundation for Photo/Art in Hospitals, I have donated hundreds of nature photos to many hospitals all over Italy to add some color.  I would say that the need for art to brighten these old facilities is urgent.

To read "Art in Italian Hospitals: Part 1"  which dealt with art at Private Hospitals, click here.

Elaine Poggi was born in America but has lived in Italy for decades. She founded and heads the The Foundation for Photo/Art in Hospitals a non-profit publicly supported organization dedicated to placing comforting nature art in hospital world-wide. She is also a fine photographer and frequent contributor to this blog.

Art in Italian Hospitals: Part 1

Art in Villa Cherubini, a private hospital in Florence, Italy.

Elaine Poggi has kindly agreed to do some investigative reporting on the art scene in Italian Hospitals. This will be her first report.

From my experience, I find that the private clinics in Florence have much more art displayed than the public hospitals.  Most of them are villas that have been converted into healthcare facilities and they all have a hotel-like atmosphere.  Much of the art is abstract and some of it is religious.   There doesn't seem to be any plan or theme to the placement of art.

I've spent considerable time in Villa Cherubini - surgery on my broken ankle, 5 months later surgery on my husband's broken ankle, plus my in-laws both passed away there.   The Villa dates back to the 1850s and in 1928 was converted into a Catholic healthcare facility.  Since 1991 it has been a private clinic run by friends of mine.  I have always been fascinated by the Arlecchino figure that greets visitors in the entrance.  It is curious, colorful and catches your attention.  Behind the sculpture is a very abstract painting and just up the stairway is another art work showing the Madonna and Child.  There you have it all as you enter this facility - humor, abstraction, and religion - all in the form of art.  

Elaine Poggi was born in America but has lived in Italy for decades. She founded and heads the The Foundation for Photo/Art in Hospitals a non-profit publicly supported organization dedicated to placing comforting nature art in hospital world-wide. She is also a fine photographer and frequent contributor to this blog.

Featured Artist: Sandra Bell

Geronitius by Sandra Bell, Bronze Sculture

Sandra Bell lives in Ireland and creates bronze sculptures. She is self-taught and uses the lost wax method to create abstractions of the human form. "My aim is an artist is to portray the essence of the human form and the tranquility of the inner self by means of abstract figurative expression."

One of her healthcare pieces was for the Galway Clinic. I asked her how she got that job.

It was quite by chance that a director of the clinic visited an exhibition and saw the maquette of Gerontius. He bought it to place in the foyer of Galway clinic. He had in the past bought small pieces of mine through galleries and was familiar with my work. Galway clinic features a grand piano in the foyer and the sculpture being on the theme of Elgar's Gerontius may have seemed suitable.

Tell me about where the name of the piece came from.

I find "The Dream of Gerontius" by Elgar uplifting.

What process did you use in creating Gerontius?

I concentrated on a vertical theme of the figure with a trumpet, however the base needed to be stronger visually and I added the bars to denote bars of music and strings of a harp. The sculpture seemed well balanced at that stage and I resisted doing anything further.

In the US Sandra is represented by Kearon-Hempstall Gallery in Jersey City, NJ. You can see her work on page 143 of The Guild Sourcebook Volume 23 or on her website: www.SandraBell.com

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.

New Journal: World Health Design

July 2008 Cover of "Design for Health" CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE

World Health Design (WHD) is a new journal published by The International Academy for Design and Health. To learn more about it I interviewed Marc Sansom, the Marketing and Communications Director by email. Marc is based Essex, England.

Is there a plan to have articles about the use of Art in HealthCare?

Art in healthcare is a hugely important topic, and often underestimated by decision-makers in respect of its contribution to the health and wellbeing of patients, staff and families in the healthcare environment. We will be providing coverage of this key topic in WHD, but also hope to work with partners on supplement reports and publishing projects to promote the research and practice being done in the field.

Who is the intended audience?

Design & Health is a global knowledge community with an international interdisciplinary network of health planners, architects, designers, engineers, health managers, clinicians, nurses, health scientists, psychologists, constructors and industrialists working in research and practice in government, academia and business. The audience of WHD reflects the make-up of this network.

If someone wanted to subscribe, how do they sign up? What does it cost?

Subscription offers are available for both individuals and teams across one or two years and offer great value for money. To subscribe, either download a subscription form from www.designandhealth.com or
e-mail marc@designandhealth.com for a form.

How often does it come out?

World Health Design is published four times a year, but we hope to publish bimonthly in 2010.

The second issue is just going to press, is that right?

The second issue has been published and distributed. The third issue goes to press in October.

How many different countries is it being mailed to?

The readership is truly global and coverage is provided across all the major continents of the world in both the developed and developing world.

What is the website for the magazine?

Information on the magazine is available at the web site for the International Academy for Design & Health: www.designandhealth.com

We are, however, also in development of a new, modern and interactive web site platform for both World Health Design and the International Academy for Design & Health, which we hope will be launched by the end of September.

Anything else you would like to say about this new Journal?

World Health Design is the most exciting publishing project in the field in its unique attempt to bridge the gap between research and practice to an interdisciplinary audience at an international level, and we welcome anyone who wishes to support our ambitions, either as contributors or through advertising and sponsorship to join us in achieving this ambition.

Healing Poetry from an Indian Physician

Today I received an email from an Indian Physician who wanted to share his poetry. I'm no judge of poetry, but I thought others might enjoy what he wrote. His name is Dr. Tauheed Ahmad. He is now pursuing post-graduate work in Community Medicine in Aligarth (North Central India). I asked him to tell me a bit about this work:

"Though I do not write 'healing poems' in a direct sense, you would be pleased to learn that I have completed a collection devoted exclusively to tobacco-control, which is a public health problem of great importance.

Apart from that my first collection (The Timeless Epitaph and other new poems) was published about 2 years back. I am sending you some of my favorite poems from that collection."

Here are a few of Dr. Tauheed's poems:

WHERE IS THE CHILDHOOD GONE

BUTTERFLY WINGS
In miniscule bits
Each a different color.

Pages of comics torn
Fly like autumn leaves
To unattended corners.

Some bedlam boils
Behind those glazed
Forbidden doors.

A glaring, blaring box
Laughing of mutual abuses
Expletives, one too many!

Where is the childhood gone?


THE PLACE WHERE YOU DWELT

IN THE tranquil ambiance
Some miles away
I see your recall
In the air and walls
On acacias, eucalypti
And gulmohars.

The house where you dwelt
Holds for me, a somewhat
Holy import.

Traveling with a historical breeze
I hear the tiny giggles
I hear taps of small feet
I hear someone chasing
Someone singing,
I hear someone
With a thud fall.

The emerging tear chimes
In little clear eyes
And I feel my heartbeats!

Cheaper to knock down hospitals

Roger Ulrich is considered by many to be the father of Evidence-based Design. This week he was making news in Ireland. Mary Anne Kenny wrote this on June 27th in Irish Medical Times:

It would be more cost-effective for Ireland to knock down its existing high-acuity hospitals and re-build them according to evidence-based design, than to attempt to renovate them, according to an expert in hospital design.

Speaking in Dublin last week, Prof Roger Ulrich, Director of the Center for Health Systems and Design in Texas A&M University, said that renovating existing hospitals is ‘short-sighted’. “Ireland has a vast, obsolete health estate with 800 single-bed rooms out of 12,500 beds. ‘Retrofitting’ high-acuity hospitals results in mediocre results for higher long-term costs. There are more infections in the long run, there’s slower bed turnover and there’s increased use of pain medications, which cost a lot of money on top of renovation costs.”

Prof Ulrich said there was ‘extreme bed packing’ in some Irish hospitals, with spaces of just .3 metres between beds in some cases. “Political will and leadership is necessary to see past the idea of ‘saving money for constituents’ in the short term,” he said.

Hospital art 'to speed recovery'

BBC News June 25 had this online:

A hospital has defended its decision to recruit a £32,000 ($64,000 USD)-a-year art director.

University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust, which is building a new £400m ($800,000,000 USD) hospital, wants to fit wards with paintings.

The trust's chairman Mike Brereton said research showed that less-clinical hospital environments could help patients recover quicker.

He said the post had been funded by the Arts Council and other finances, including donations from charities.

'Faster recovery'
He said: "We want a world class facility here in north Staffordshire.

"Patient experience is very important and there are very few things that are better than patient experience.

"We know that in environments where you do get this addition to the patient experience you get much faster patient recovery, you get reduced stress levels amongst patients and amongst staff.

"Funnily enough there's even evidence that you get pain reduction as a result of a good environment.

"You also improve patient satisfaction. There's a whole series of really good outcomes from improving the environment in this way."

Bargain Paintings from China

Oil paintings are usually too expensive to fit into the budget of a new hospital. It helps if you have a donor who would give one from their collection.  Now there is another way to have real oil paintings: have them made in China.

To learn in more detail how this works I interviewed Wujie Li. He owns The Oil Painting Studio.

Tell me a little bit about how The Oil Painting Stuido got  started. When did it form? How many people work there? How many  artists? What city is it in?

The website was founded in 2001, but we started the oil paintings business before that. First I was working for a biggest gallery of the Netherlands as an oil painter. Since I was working harder than the other Chinese, after one year, the gallery give me all of the order in china. But, I can not do them all by myself. I had to create the studio to do the business. I found more good artists and trained them to fit the orders request. Now there are 22 artists in the studio. We locate middle of China in Jiaozuo.

If an art consultant in the USA wanted to have a particular  painting made, could they send you a reproduction of the painting that  you or one of the other artists there could use as a template?

Yes, this is our work every day. the clients can send us the picture or image by email. We do the paintings according as clients request.

How does payment work? If an art consultant wanted to have you make  10 paintings, do they have to give you a down payment? Do you take  credit cards?

Usually if the client place a order,the client needs to send 50% money first, then we start the painting. when the painting is finished we will send the client an image for check. if the client like it,the client can put rest payment. if no do not need. but we need the rest money so we will changed and change to let the client to like it. we accept paymeny by paypal, wire and western Union.

How is the art shipped? Can you use FedEx?

We use FEDEX ,DHL and UPS.

I would assume that one of the reasons someone in America would go to the trouble of working with you is that your prices are much  better. Can you give me examples of prices?

 the price we service for artists below:
12"*16"=$160USD
16"*20"=$200
20"*24"=$240
20"*30"=$300
24"*30"=$340
24"*36"=$360
30"*40"=$420
36"*48"=$480
It is no including ship cost and frame cost. the quality is top realistic painting.

Is there anything else you would like to say?

I just want to say i do the business more than 12 years, and I am a boss and also an artist. So i know what's the service does the gallery need and what's the painting business the market of US need. Also i have others clients in US. for examples one of them a business man, he like horse, so he order more horse paintings for more horse show, to get more order form horse owners. ....very interesting.....

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I've put up two previous posts about art from China:

Save Money on Art: Outsource to China

Chinese Aim High with Fine Art Copies

For more information about oil paintings from China, contact:
Mr. Wujie Li , Principal
The Oil Painting Studio
www.oilpaintingstudio.com
P.O. Box ART-108,Qunyingxin Village,
Shanyang District, Jiaozuo, Henan Province, China 454150

Contemporary Stained Glass

Gerhard Richter's Cologne Cathedral

I've seen a variety of stained glass windows used as art in hospitals; usually in the chapels. But I've never seen anything as visually exciting as new glass art created by Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke for European Cathedrals. Peter Schjeldahl reviewed the work in the May 12th New Yorker.

When directly sunlit, Richter’s south-facing window admits a wash of aureate illumination into the cathedral’s gloomy immensity; at other times, it glows or shimmers. It is beautiful, grand, and entrancing, with the exfoliating specificities of a Bach fugue. Sixty-five feet tall, it consists of eleven thousand five hundred panes of “antique” handblown glass...

As I've mentioned on this blog before, Richter is my favorite living artist and Polke is not far behind.

Peter Schjeldahl has been my favorite art critic for over a decade. He has been the head art critic at the New Yorker since 1998.

To read the New Yorker article MANY-COLORED GLASS Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke do windows by Peter Schjeldahl click here

To see a slide show of their work click here.