Have you noticed how industry trends come full circle? Lately I've been thinking more the way certain industries learn from one another.

When I first began working in healthcare art consulting, hospitals had just began striving to mimic the hospitality industry by creating more artful healing environments. Hospital owners took cues from hotels and designed their new spaces to not only incorporate art but to feature art.

Now - more than 15 years later - hotels are taking cues from hospitals. Apparently the healthcare industry has been getting the evidence based design word out, because hoteliers across the globe are recognizing the role art can play in creating a relaxing environment that is specifically geared toward their unique guest population. Hotels, like hospitals are enhancing their viewers experience through artwork purposefully selected to help set the desired atmosphere.

For example, I recently admired the incredibly wonderfully illuminated focal points created by Dale Chihuly's Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon sculptures installed in a lavish casino. Walking into the opulent albeit windowless casino it was impossible to tell the time of day. Visitors immediately focus on the centrally placed radiant sculptures representing both day and night redirecting their external focus and holding it internally. Their presence adds glamor, elegance and excitement to the electric casino atmosphere where time stands still, while their placement was both artistic and insightful as the sculptures seem to announce that days turn into nights and nights turn into days within the casino. While these sculptures would not have connected in the same way with viewers in a metropolitan hotel lobby, they were perfectly placed in the casino.

EBD has helped document the healing effects of healthcare art programs and other industries are paying attention. We are grateful to all those in the field of healthcare who continue to understand, educate and promote healing art programs helping us all to realize that art is for the soul, no matter the setting.

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