Salud-Arte: Art of Healing University Health System

Salud-Arte: Art of Healing

By University Health, Photography copyright Mark Greenberg

The Salud-Arte: Art of Healing program was established by University Health leadership in 2010, with an appointed staff, community leaders and stakeholder committee, to integrate artwork as a healing component in our built environments. The two areas completed during the 2008-2014 Capital Improvement Program (CIP), were the Robert B. Green Clinical Pavilion, which opened in 2013, and the Sky Tower at University Hospital campuses, which opened in 2014. The vision of the program is to use art to inspire healing, compassion, hope and trust, and build an understanding of the healing attributes that exposure to art, nature, color and light can provide in a medical setting.

We also aim to:

• Reflect the community we serve, • Improve the experience of our patients and visitors, • Communicate our mission through art and design enhancements, • Be good stewards of our financial and natural resources.

Benefits of art in a healing environment include:

• Providing a positive distraction from worry and anxiety, • Faster recovery with less medicine and shorter hospital stays, • Cost effectiveness with faster discharges and bed availability, • Staff retention and welcoming environment for patients and families.

A poignant example of a positive distraction was a terminal patient several years ago, who entered our emergency department for the first time, due to a relapse in his condition. Instead of sadness and anxiety, this patient almost jumped off the gurney, wanting to look at all the art in this clinical area. As an artist himself, he found great joy in recognizing the work of other local artists and gave us seven works before he died a short time later.

The Salud-Arte: Art of Healing program is laid out in three phases following an evidence-based design approach to art integration. 1) Design Enhancement; artwork actually built into the building such as wall designs, metal works, glass frit and screens 2) Public Art; art selected for a signature area with a central focus such as a hanging lobby sculp-

ture, electronic artwork along an entrance corridor or sit-specific mosaics. 3) Art Procurement; we procure unframed artwork from local, regional and national artists, while staff and patients also have a chance to donate artwork to the program. This section can include mixed media and sculpture.

The Robert B. Green Clinical Pavilion, which opened in January 2013, is an over 350,000 square foot, six-story building, containing over 450 art objects that fall within these three phases. Two of our signature highlights creating a peaceful, welcoming environment are, “Life in Light” by Cathy Cunningham Little and “Feather Wall” by Ned Kahn.

University Hospital’s Sky Tower is a 1.1 million square foot building, with 11 floors and 420 individual patient rooms, that opened in April of 2014. Each patient room includes a piece of handmade glass that is visible from the patient’s bed and family area. Within the three phases, there are now more than 4,000 pieces of artwork, growing from the original program of 1,200 when the building opened. Our highlights here include Riley Robinson’s “Bluebonnets” and “You Activate this Space,” created by Ansen Seale, which won the International CODAworxs Award for Best Art Integration into a healthcare interior category in 2014.

Since 2014, University Health has opened numerous new clinics, renovated older clinical floors, incorporating artwork within all of these locations. The artwork is an important standard and the continuation of quality continues throughout all of our renovated or new built environments. It is our commitment to compassionate care.

Within the new 850,000 square feet and 12 floors of the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital, we are integrating artwork via the three-phase system. We expected to utilize the work of hundreds of artists and small businesses for this project. We are focused on supporting the medical and emotional needs of children and women to create a place of discovery, hope, calm and regeneration. Each floor will incorporate “hidden” art treasures, for children to discover that are colorful and installed at their eye level. Two of our design enhancement teams are composed of mother and daughter artist pairings, utilizing their shared memories and experiences.

Since 2015, Salud-Arte: Art of Healing has been partnering to create public awareness and bedside programming for patients and staff. Our current and past community art partners include:

UTH, San Antonio

UTSA

San Antonio Museum of Art

Say Si

Blue Star Contemporary

Witte Museum

St. Phillips College

Carver Cultural Community Center

Southwest School of Art Good Samaritan Center Guadalupe Center Artpace McNay Art Museum Ecumenical Center Voices de la Luna Hearts Need Art Trinity University City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs San Pedro Creek Foundation CBAW, (Community Building Artworks)

Statewide and National Partners are:

Texas Association of Public Art Administrators

NOAH, (National Organization of Art in Health)

Hamilton Award, Honorable Mention, 2020, for our art and resiliency programming during CV19

CODAworx (Healthcare Interior of the Year Award, 2014) Tandem Press Tamarind Press Center for Healthcare Design

Our programs continue to grow and include patient channel videos of storytelling, art workshops, music performances, poetry reading, artist demonstrations, Pop-up weekly “Art in the Garden” and “Art in the Lobby” musical performances and projects, staff art kits giveaway, art programs in staff “Recharge Rooms” to support the well-being of our teams and staff art exhibitions and cultural outings. We have recently begun a program of bringing music to the nursing stations and patient floors directly as well as in main areas such as Infusion and Rehabilitation.

Our experiences range from patients or their families who stop and engage with us during these workshops and share how having this type of program impacts them. For staff during the pandemic, it became a comfortable normalcy to hear music, write poetry and even dance and laugh at an outdoor concert in one of our gardens. We have cancer patients who do not need to use their medication pumps to ease their pain, because they are engaged with our AYA music and art programs. A young mother with a child in the Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) who welcomes our Friday workshop can be in community and join us to pass some of the many hours she spends in the hospital. We use the tenets of Trauma-Informed Care to create an arts program to comfort nursing teams who supported a local team struck by tragedy and loss.

In the words of the artist Paul Klee, “art does not reproduce what we see, it makes us see.” As we continue into our second century, University Health “sees” art in our future growth. We continue to aspire to use the arts as a healing tool, which can speak many languages, cross age barriers, open young minds and raise up the spirits of all who come to us seeking care.

Interested artists and/or local small business owners can find our University Health art procurement calls at www.publicartist.org. This site includes a FAQs, a link to registering as a vendor, dates for upcoming University Health art tours at the Medical Center and upcoming outreach talks. For questions and general information about the current art program and partnership opportunities, please contact:

Allison Hays Lane Curator & Archivist University Health Allison.lane@uhs-sa.com (210) 743-6839