A young patient interacts with a video installation by artist Jennifer Steinkamp in the Linda and Malcolm Glazer Family Lobby in Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. | Photo: Stephen Travarca
The Art + Design Institute embraces a holistic approach to create all-encompassing healing environments, such as Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s new oncology center.
A work by printmaker Jonathan Borofsky inspired the motto of Cleveland Clinic’s art program, established in 2006: “Medicine can cure you, and art is for the spirit.” A world-renowned collection of contemporary art includes nearly 7,000 paintings, prints, photographs, drawings, site-specific installations and other fine art objects on view throughout the health system. Today, the art program is part of the Art + Design Institute, which also encompasses arts and medicine; planning and design; strategic space; and sustainability. “We have to provide the right balance between highly functional, technically proficient spaces and the life-affirming, human touch,” says Chief Design Officer Chris Connell. “It’s a fine line to tread, but having control of both design and art puts us in this unique position, where we can leverage our expertise in both to get the recipe right.”
Music therapy can reach places that traditional medicine sometimes cannot. | Photo: Yu Kwan Lee