RADY CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
ANN CRAVEN
CITY/STATE
San Diego, CA
LOCATION IN HOSPITAL
Lobby and Hallway
INSTALL DATE
2022
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ABOUT THE INSTALLATION
In 2019, RxART tapped artist Ann Craven to create an installation for the Chadwick Center at Rady Children’s Hospital. The resulting piece, which was completed in 2022 and is titled Sleepy Pandas, took over the center’s lobby, hallway, and child life room with playful paintings of the eponymous bears. Reproduced in varying sizes, Craven’s pandas are the epitome of relaxation, comfortably draped over their respective branches. Their lovable demeanors radiate outward, bringing cheer to the hospital’s hallways, as well as providing an amusing distraction for the children and families who receive care at the center.
This project was made possible by the generous support of the Rose Foundation.
ABOUT THE HOSPITAL
Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego is a nonprofit, 511-bed pediatric-care facility and the only hospital in the San Diego area dedicated exclusively to pediatric healthcare as well as the region's only designated pediatric trauma center. The Chadwick Center at Rady Children’s is an accredited children’s advocacy center (CAC) that provides family-focused and trauma-informed services to children and adolescents who may have experienced or witnessed maltreatment, abuse, or violence.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ann Craven (b. 1967, Boston, MA) received her MFA from Columbia University in 1993. Craven is known for her portrayals of natural subjects – in particular, birds, flowers, and the moon – rendered in bright, familiar colors. Her work plays with the notion of temporality in an almost playful way, lacking excessive gravitas and instead opening itself up to spontaneity: “My paintings are a result of mere observation, experiment and chance and contain a variable that’s constant and ever-changing — the moment just past.” She mixes her paints directly on the canvas and dates and titles her palettes just as she does to her works – to her, the paint on the palettes become physically useless after the work is completed, making the creation of each painting a unique and isolated experience.
