The NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine program has announced a new season of paint parties, where anyone can help paint murals using a “paint by numbers” format, and the resulting murals will be permanently installed at hospital sites as part of the NYC Health + Hospitals Community Mural Project. The murals were designed by 10 artists selected earlier this year and developed through focus groups with patients, staff, and neighborhood residents.
The system also released the design of a mural by artist Kristy McCarthy that will be installed in the pediatrics department of NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health. Anyone can help paint the mural at the first paint party of the season: Thursday, June 22, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The Community Mural Project is featured in the latest episode of “That’s So New York” on NYC Life (WNYE-TV/Channel 25), the flagship channel for NYC’s television network, NYC Media.
“We’re proud to partner with NYC Health + Hospitals to bring 20 more community murals to the system over the next two years,” said Laurie Tisch, founder and president of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. “The murals have created so much joy and beauty in facilities in every borough, involved staff in creative collaborations, and offered new ways for people to become engaged with the hospitals. It’s a pleasure to help expand this popular program.”
“The Community Mural Project is a tremendous opportunity to engage our patients, families, and staff in a collaborative and engaging process,” said Larissa Trinder, assistant vice president of Arts in Medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals. “Public murals reinforce a sense of pride and trust in one’s community. We continue to be grateful to Laurie M. Tisch and her Illumination Fund for her deep awareness and advocacy of the significant role these murals have on public health.”
NYC Health + Hospitals serve communities in all five boroughs. The Community Mural Project is an opportunity to engage patients, families, and staff in a collaborative process. Decades of research have shown that the arts can play a role in “healing the healers,” as well as improving patient outcomes and creating community health awareness and partnerships.
The new murals will build on the 26 murals created in the first wave of the Community Mural Project and recently featured in a new book, “Healing Walls: New York City Health + Hospitals Community Mural Project 2019–2021.” The Community Mural Project and other Arts in Medicine programs at NYC Health + Hospitals are made possible with support from the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.
Community members are welcome to help paint a mural at the paint parties:
NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens
Friday, July 14, 12 p.m.–3 p.m.
82-68 164th Street, Queens, NY 11432
Artist Zeehan Wazed (@zeehanwazed)
NYC Health + Hospitals/Carter
Thursday, July 20, 12 p.m.–3 p.m.
1752 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10035
Artist Ji Yong Kim (@jiyongkim_art)
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Morrisania
Tuesday, August 8, 12 p.m.–3 p.m.
1901 First Avenue, New York, NY 10029
Artist Yukiko Izumi (@yi_design_jp)
NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County
Friday, August 18, time to be determined
451 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203
Artist Jodi Dareal (@jodidareal)
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Sydenham
Friday, August 25, 10 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
264 West 118th Street, New York, NY 10026
Artist Stephanie Costello (@stephcostelloart)
NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem
Date and times to be determined
506 Lenox Avenue, New York, NY 10037
Artist Tijay Mohammed (@artoftijay)
NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln
Date and times to be determined
234 East 149th Street, Bronx, NY 10451
Artist Dister Rondon (@dister)
NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx
Date and times to be determined
3424 Kossuth Avenue, Bronx, NY 10467
Artist Roy Secord (@roysecord)
The Community Mural Project has been the country’s largest public hospital mural program since the 1930s, when the depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissioned murals in public buildings, including virtually every hospital in New York City’s public healthcare system. The WPA murals were the start of NYC Health + Hospitals art collection, which now is the city’s largest public art collection and includes more than 7,000 pieces of art in multiple disciplines. The art collection is used to enhance the healthcare environment, inspire creativity, promote wellness, increase access to the arts, and engage staff.
NYC Health + Hospitals’ collection of more than 7,000 artworks includes historic murals commissioned through the WPA, paintings, mosaics, photographs, sculptures, installation art, and murals by both emerging and established professional artists. The collection includes works by some of America’s leading artists, such as Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Helen Frankenthaler, Mary Frank, Betty Blayton, Candida Alvarez, Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, and Keith Haring. More than an art collection, these works create a healing environment, activate spaces, engage staff, promote visual acuity, and expand access to the arts for 43,000 employees and more than 1.2 million patients who receive care at NYC Health + Hospitals facilities.