August 2014
Healthcare Art Report

 

I hope you're having a safe and enjoyable summer. This time of year always brings up childhood memories for me. It takes me back to hot days playing outdoors with my friends and long evenings playing Kick the Can. There's something about long summer days that make me feel at home - no matter where I am. It's a familiar and comfortable feeling. 

 

Afternoon Light, Ed Cooper, Camp LeJeune

That's one of the things I love about healthcare art programs - they have the remarkable ability to make people feel comfortable. With familiar imagery and locale-specific scenes, artwork can help people shift their focus toward more pleasant thoughts. It can provide comfort and visual reminders of home.

 

In this issue of Healthcare Art Report, we pay tribute to some of the healthcare facilities and artists we feel do a fabulous job of creating environments of comfort, familiarity and safety. Specifically, we commend Riverside Doctors' Hospital for their artistic display of portrait images saluting local EMS teams. We recognize the Intrepid Spirit III at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence Satellite Center at Fort Campbell, Kentucky for working with a local artist (and former resident) to create original oil pastels of state parks. And we share our tips for creating art programs in military facilities, where our country's heroes heal far from home.

 

As summer draws to a close and our vacations bring us back home, I have a challenge for you: take a look around the buildings you frequent and notice if there is a piece of artwork that draws your attention. What is it that catches your eye? It may surprise you to find that it's a piece of artwork that reminds you of home.  

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barbara Harriman, IIDA  

President/Creative Director
Distinctive Art Source

Riverside Doctors' Hospital Turns Ordinary to Extraordinary  

 

You've seen team member photos in hospitals before. They adorn staff corridors and are typically headshots, group photos or "day-in-the-life" action shots that strive for a photojournalistic appeal. We strongly support incorporating staff members in artwork and couldn't help but share one of the best we've seen.

 

 

 

At Riverside Doctors' Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia, they've taken an "ordinary" concept and turned it into an opportunity for "extraordinary" artwork. RDHW wanted to feature photos of their multi-county local EMS support teams in their newly constructed Emergency Department. The intention was to celebrate community partnerships and honor those who serve the hospital community. By working with local photographer extraordinaire, Michael Taylor of Sigmon Taylor Photography, Riverside was able to create a meaningful, artistic installation to recognize these critical community partners.

 

Click here to see how the setting of each portrait image so perfectly represents the counties served in Riverside Doctors' Hospital's Emergency Department.


Art and Artists of Note

 

 

Ed Cooper  

 

 

Cat Tesla 

 

 

Free Whitepaper: Five Things to Consider When Creating Healthcare Art Programs for Military Facilities 
  
Today's military hospitals are no longer stereotypical clinics adorned with American flags. Our military population requires a unique and thoughtful approach - both to healthcare and healing art programs.

 

Hold Me, Kristen Symmes

The team at Distinctive Art Source has been honored to help create art programs in several military facilities including the National Intrepid Center of Excellence in Bethesda, Maryland; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Camp LeJeune, South Carolina; The Center for the Intrepid, Fort Sam Houston, Texas; and Fort Belvoir, Virginia. We've had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in multiple military branches and cultures. And we're pleased to share our experience in this free whitepaper.

 

Click here to download the free whitepaper: Five Things to Consider When Creating Healthcare Art Programs for Military Facilities.  


A Word from Our Client


"Hiring an art consultant was a big deal for us - we had never even had a budget for art on a project before. And we had a general bias against consultants - we questioned the value. But Distinctive Art Source gave us personal attention and brought ideas and resources we didn't have. Now that I've been through the process, I can tell it would have been overwhelming to try to find and install the art on our own. The art program is a major contribution to the healing environment."

 

-  Carol K. Tulenko, Senior Project Manager,  

Real Estate Department, Presbyterian Healthcare Services

 

Inova Fairfax Outpatient Pharmacy Art Features Images of Local Medicinal Plants

 


Medicinal Plants of Virginia: Smooth Sumac, Butterfly Weed and Virginia Bluebells

Distinctive Art Source enjoyed working with the retail pharmacist and other staff members at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, VA to identify local medicinal plants. We then collaborated with photographer Henry Domke to create three multi-image collages. A nearby plaque identifying the names of the plants helps viewers make the connection between the pharmacy and the collages.

Industry News


Did you catch Kristin Zeit's editorial in the July issue of Healthcare Design magazine? She presents a compelling case for retail thinking in the healthcare market. Moving beyond hospitality, Zeit invites hospitals to consider every step of the healthcare experience and make it desirable.  

 

I particularly like this quote from Dr. Avein Saaty-Tafoya, CEO of Adelante Healthcare in Phoenix: "We talk a lot in the healthcare design community about beautiful public areas, but then it's like Oz: You walk behind the curtain and it could be 1963."  

 

Do you have hidden corners of your facility that are decades behind the rest of the building?

 

Read the full article here --  Selling it: A new inspiration for healthcare facilities goes beyond hospitality. 

 
About Distinctive Art Source
 

Distinctive Art Source is one of only two premiere healthcare art consultancies working exclusively in healthcare in the U.S. We believe that thoughtfully developed art programs contribute to a positive patient experience. Our work goes beyond evidence-based design and patient-centered care. We help clients create customized art programs with innovative art solutions that tell the story of their community, reflect unique facility goals, foster mutually-beneficial relationships and support a cohesive visual experience that is both dynamic and distinctive.

 

Our turnkey solutions range from goal development through installation. And our art resources are unlimited. DAS connects clients with hundreds of artists throughout the country to enable hospitals to conceptualize, visualize and realize the goals of their art programs.

 

Established in 2003, Distinctive Art Source has served a pivotal role in creating patient-based art programs in millions of square feet of hospital space. We are honored to work closely with some of the nation's most renowned healthcare architects, designers and artists. Our firm's architectural background allows the creation of the art program to blend seamlessly into existing architectural processes, keeping projects on time and within budget.



Learn more about the Distinctive Art Source team here.  
 
Bamboo Print
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Distinctive Art Source    (703) 956-1946   7900 Sudley Road   Suite 120   Manassas Va    20109-2806