Recently Completed Murals

This summer Splashes of Hope completed our largest, single-installation project to date in the Pediatric Unit at New York Hospital Queens in Flushing, New York.  The 44 murals, which now adorn the walls of the entire hallway and each patient room, depict local scenes of Queens and the multi-cultured children who reside in them.  Volunteer artists Catherine Brown and Sandy Romano also created friendly way-finding signs for the patient rooms. The entire project was fortuitously sponsored by the Starlight Foundation for Children.  And our work at New York Hospital Queens has not finished yet! We will be completing murals in their Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in the coming weeks as well. Click here to see the full installation.

Just before our work in Queens, our artists "Splashed" the bedrooms of Kaylee and Steve, who both face life-threatening illnesses.  6-year-old Kaylee received a mural illustrating all of her favorite things, and teenager Steve received a mural commemorating his wish to ski, with a portrait of his brother set over his special scene.  This artwork was made possible by Kristen's Walk to the Water. Click here to see both installations.

Just in time for school to swing back into session, we "Splashed" an exterior wall of the Tyree Learning Center, a school for special needs children in Sea Cliff, NY.  The concrete wall that blankly stared at students through the windows of the school's multi-purpose classroom was transformed into an underwater "School of Fish," complete with a dolphin professor and whale leading story-time.  This project was generously made possible by The Caldwell Family and every individual who participated in the 4th Annual Huntington Village Pub Crawl, sponsored by Blue Point Brewing Company to benefit Splashes of Hope.  The exterior wall paint for this project was donated by Mythic Paint and artists Megan Seal and Allie Caminiti volunteered their time to paint the fun and friendly underwater characters. Click here to see the full installation.

Early this October, Splashes of Hope staff along with volunteer artist, Colin Wilke, completed a Welcome Scene on the entrance doors and installed mural panels throughout the Pediatric Unit of Richmond University Hospital in Staten Island.  The 27 separate pieces highlighted local landmarks in park, beach and boardwalk scenes of Staten Island.  A trompe l'oiel view from a bright orange Staten Island Ferry was painted as the unit's entrance door motif. Click here to see the full installation.

Currently in the Studio

Make-A-Wish Foundation of Suffolk County's final murals are in-progress upstairs in our studio, depicting a myriad of fun, exciting, and exotic wishes that have been granted over the years to children with life-threatening illnesses. These mural panels are the second part of an installation made possible by our 2009 Annual Gala & Art Auction honoring Robert J. Bigler.


Splashes of Hope is continuing to add our colorful flourishes to the wall of Elizabeth Seaton Pediatric Center, a rehabilitative and palliative care center for medically fragile children located in New York City.  Our newest installation, sponsored by the New York Mercantile Exchange Charitable Foundation, will display scenes of Central Park's Belvedere Castle and of Bryant Park, both brimming with smiling child characters relatable for the children Elizabeth Seaton Pediatric Center serves.  The project will be accompanied by 500 coloring books custom designed for the Center with volunteer artist Debbie Wells.

This July marked a first collaboration of Splashes of Hope with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island (BBBSLI).   Ten pairs of Bigs and Littles helped us paint in pre-outlined panels, one of which will be installed in Schneider Children's Hospital, one in Northport VA, and one in the BBBSLI offices as a record of their participation in our mission.  Splashes of Hope volunteer artists Brian Fiedler, Liz Macchio, and Sandy Romano guided nascent BBBSLI artists in this "paintfest," with additional help from Dave Gussaroff.  To see all the pictures click here.

Columbus Day weekend brought the Deepwells Fall Festival, where Splashes of Hope annually paints over 250 children's faces for two consecutive days as a part of our partnership with Suffolk County Parks Department.  This year a devoted team of our volunteer artists, including: Sarah Baecher-Buggee, Diana Daino, Brian Fiedler, Hali Garber, Liz Macchio, Nicole Semel, and Sandy Romano, busily painted many beaming children's faces with all manners of flowers and butterflies, dragons and Spidermen.  To see all the photos click here.

Our weekly hand-painting activities also continue at Stony Brook University Medical Center Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, where artist Sandy Romano paints on children's hands and arms while they receive their infusions. The soothing tactile experience and provision of fanciful and imaginative imagery helps to provide a little fun and reorientation of focus during the children's treatment period. The program has been made possible by the sponsorship of the Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Foundation.

The students of the Splashes of Hope Club at LaGuardia School of the Arts, a high school for the visual and performing arts located in New York City, have continued their extracurricular volunteer painting for a third year.  Their most recent crop of ceiling tiles has been completed and given to Splashes of Hope, to be distributed within our annual Christmas ceiling tile drive.

Splashes of Hope has been busy spreading the word of our mission throughout the country over the past few months to service-focused organizations such as Rotary International and Kiwanis International. This May we exhibited at the Rotary District 7260 & 7620 joint conference covering the regions of Long Island and the Baltimore & Washington DC area.  We have since made a plethora of presentations to individual clubs in our local District as well as six exclusive presentations to clubs throughout Maryland following an invitation from Former District Governor Andrew Baum.  Splashes of Hope also proudly displayed our program at the Kiwanis International Convention in Nashville, TN this June and followed-up at the Kiwanis Cal-Nev-Ha District Convention in San Diego, CA in August.  We thank the Sayville, Huntington, Lindenhurst, Melville, and Smithtown Rotary Clubs for their recent support of our mission.  Further presentations at Stony Brook and Islip Rotary Clubs are scheduled to occur this and next week. Click here and here to see all the photos.

Upcoming Projects

Our national push comes as we continue to "Splash" the country through the generous support of Southwest Airlines, sponsor of our flights for projects in Naples, Florida; Houston, Texas; and Oakland, California this year.  To find out how you too can be a part of these National Splashes by partial sponsorships of these murals, please email info@splashesofhope.org.

The Laurence W. Levine Foundation is once again generously lending its support in many ways this year.  The Foundation's sponsorship will maintain our weekly hand-painting program at Stony Brook for children battling cancer and it will enable us to create customized coloring books addressing the needs of children during their hospitalization and treatment experiences.  The Foundation is also sponsoring our third "splash" of an examination room within the VIBS network--this latest will be within Stony Brook University Medical Center.

Splashes of Hope is proud to donate a mural panel to the United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Suffolk in recognition of Colleen West-Levy, honoree at UCP's October gala and long-time supporter of Splashes of Hope.  The flowering garden scene--which can be placed in any UCP's homes or centers--of is a perfect metaphor for Colleen's own grace and beauty, which she perennially shares in the world with her philanthropy and love.

Through the volunteer efforts of artists Diana Daino and Sarah Buggee, Splashes of Hope will also be able to donate mural panels to two inspiring and brave children battling cancer. Diana is painting a Lake Tahoe themed mural of all of 8-year-old Kinsee's favorite things, to be delivered to her home in Tennessee this Christmas.  Sarah, and the newly formed Splash Club at Parson's School of Design, will be creating a mural for 3-year-old Erin from Stony Brook.