According to the Cleveland Clinic, 60% of patients reported that a healthcare facility’s art collection reduced their stress levels. A study from the University of London found that viewing a beautiful painting increases a person’s level of joy by 10%. Simply put, art is an integral part of recovery and quality of life for healthcare patients.
Kevin Barry Art Advisory has decades of experience designing, curating, creating, and sourcing art for healthcare spaces. Whether you’re working with a large budget and looking for an eye-catching statement piece for your lobby, or need to find budget-friendly ways to liven up an exam room, we have the knowledge and creativity needed to make it happen.
We are excited to unveil four custom concepts created by our in-house design team for wellness spaces. With these renderings we hope to demonstrate our capacity to dream big and create spaces that advance a narrative and create an art experience.
Medical Office Foyer
Our first custom concept sits within the foyer of a large hospital in the Pacific Northwest. It sits in a larger medical center that includes a teaching hospital, and is adjacent to a prestigious university known for their world-class medical school. The color palette for this project reflects the colors of the university (green and yellow), as well as those in the hospital’s logo (fuchsia and blue). The design directive for this building is inspired by the region’s signature rainy days, reinterpreted into technicolor brilliance.
Rainy Day Brilliance
The entrance to the main building welcomes patients and staff with whimsical sculptures in the shape of candy-colored umbrellas that hang suspended from the lobby’s high ceilings. Interspersed among the umbrellas are fine strands of clear acrylic with a beaded texture that are lit from the inside by LED lights.
Droplets of Light
In adding a periodic flickering effect to the lights, the strands create the appearance of falling rain drops. Below the umbrellas is a lounge area in a variety of fluid, organic shapes. As light from the ceiling fixtures travels through the umbrella sculptures it projects a cascade of colors across the bright blue couches.
Painted Glass Tiles
Above the foyer’s reception area is a large-scale original artwork created with painted glass tiles by artist Paul Housberg. The individual pieces have been fired onto commercial-grade glass and then mounted to drywall. The glass has been painted to complement the colors of the space and beautifully reflect the ambient light of the foyer.
Images courtesy of the Paul Housberg Glass Project
Blue Skies Ahead
To the right of the front desk above the entrance to the hospital’s corridors is a digital art moment created from looped timelapse footage of gorgeous local skyscapes. The interplay of the movement of people through the foyer set against the fluid motion of the digital art creates the feeling of standing inside a living, breathing organism.
Following the floor direction markings— each color representing a wing of the hospital— visitors pass large-scale artworks as they make their way through the hospital’s corridors. In this hallway, guests see two statement sculptural pieces, one inside and one in the outdoor healing garden.
Outdoor Sculpture
According to healing garden proponents and experts, therapeutic landscapes support wellness through providing relief from symptoms, stress reduction, improvement in overall sense of hopefulness.
Sculpture artist Matthew Placzek is known for his large-scale sculptures and has several of his monumental pieces in healing gardens across the country. For this project, we asked Placzek to create a custom outdoor sculpture in the design’s color scheme.
Wall Sculpture
This custom wall sculpture is made up of over a dozen pieces of wood laminate painted and arranged to create a varied, dynamic and colorful art moment. The positioning of the wall piece within view of the outdoor sculpture allows for the artworks to be in conversation with each other. Their strong lines and geometric shapes, saturated colors, and their size create a bold symmetry.
Pediatric Waiting Room
Our next custom concept takes a pediatric waiting room and reimagines it as a fanciful space with a warm, inviting narrative. Our vision for this clinic was to take visitors on a family safari. The colors and textures of the space reflect the natural grasses, fibers and hues of the African grasslands.
Sculpture in Flight
A cascade of birds in flight hangs suspended above the reception area. The birds, inspired by the Lilac-breasted rollers, natives of the African savannah, are light-weight resin sculptures hand-painted in a gold metallic hue. The effect created is that of a flock of birds gilded by the setting sun.
Further along the wall, the region’s largest avian species prances along the landscape. Additional references to the natural beauty of the wilds of Africa are custom-designed wooden benches constructed to appear to rest on a small granite boulder. Window treatments complete the immersive effect as they appear to surround guests with tall, wild grass.
As patients walk further into the pediatric waiting room, they venture deeper into their family safari experience. Placed amongst artful custom-designed seating areas are several statement art pieces inspired by the flora and fauna of Africa.
In the center of the room, a giant sculptural interpretation of an acacia tree sprouts large acrylic leaves that hang suspended over seated guests. Visitors to this oasis include a life-sized giraffe and family of hippos wading in the water. The animals have been visually deconstructed to offer artistic, geometric reinterpretations of their natural forms. To create a more playful experience for visitors, one of the hippos makes for a fun seating area for children.
Inspired by natural forms and textures of the African grasslands, the wall across from the hippo family seamlessly morphs into a seating area. The effect is reminiscent of the smooth walls of canyons worn down over time by natural elements. From their seat, patients can turn to their left and enjoy a savannah sunset on a custom wallcovering.
Hospital Rotunda & Cafe
To make a big first impression on guests in this hospital’s rotunda, we commissioned a large-scale hanging art installation inspired by the region’s native Anise Swallowtail butterfly. Suspended from the top of the rotunda, this piece is composed of over 150 powder-coated die cast butterflies painted in a color palette inspired by the Southern California sunset.
Butterflies have a universal association with optimism and vitality. While the Anise Swallowtail is indigenous to the local region, butterflies are migrants who relocate throughout the year. By selecting the butterfly as our subject, we acknowledge the contributions and beauty of both the native residents of the area as well as its more recent immigrants.
Our café concept is inspired by the area’s local forest reserve. To bring an element of the great outdoors into the hospital’s café, we commissioned local artist collective TECTURE to create this multidimensional mural. The creation of this art moment involves layering pieces of wood and acrylic that have been precision-cut to create a collage of texture and color evocative of forest scenery.
Meditation Room
For this project, our client asked us to present two concepts for a meditation space in their hospital. We called this first concept “Rooted”, as it is inspired by manzanita trees native to the hospital’s region. Our vision for this proposed art piece is to bring a quiet strength to the meditation room that creates space for visitors to feel a variety of emotions and find a sense of peace.
The tree is composed of individual sheets of iridescent mica that are affixed directly to the wall. The inclusion of mica is a reference to pegmatite deposits found across the local county. Mica, one of the large crystals found in pegmatite, can be found in these deposits which are formed when hot molten magma cools. Mica crystals are an excellent example of the delicate beauty found within the rough exterior of the natural world.
Our second meditation room concept, “Quieted”, envisions a large-scale glass tiled wall that creates a peaceful setting for reflection and stillness. To create this piece, artist Paul Housberg fires individual glass tiles onto commercial-grade glass before mounting it to drywall. The glass has been painted in cool, soothing colors meant to inspire calmness and center the viewer.
By choosing glass as a medium, this concept connects to the ancient tradition of incorporating stained glass into places of worship. Regardless of denomination, we are drawn to the delicateness and reflection inherent in glasswork. By making this glass tile wall large in scale, we add an element of awe and splendor to the room to inspire contemplation.
