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OUR PROCESS
We connect pediatric hospitals across the nation with established artists who care about upgrading healthcare environments, and then we collaborate on museum-quality art installations that are fabricated in medically approved materials. Our goal extends beyond putting art on the wall; RxART is committed to helping improve patient outcomes and experiences for children, families, and caregivers.
Planning and Connecting
Development and Fabrication
Making a
Sustained Impact
PLANNING AND CONNECTING
1. Selecting a Hospital
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, RxART began experiencing an all-time-high volume of project inquiries from hospitals across the nation. We aspire to realize projects for all hospitals in need of our services.
2. Identifying a Need
RxART works with each partner hospital as they share key insights into the staff and local community, as well as their facility’s spaces that are most in need of improvement and have the greatest potential to impact the patient experience. Past projects have transformed waiting rooms; main corridors; machinery such as CT, PET, and MRI scanners; privacy curtains; patient rooms; waiting areas; communal spaces; and more.
Identified spaces for RxART installations in the Radiology Department at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
3. Making a Match
We are proud to work with some of the most celebrated artists of our time, all of whom demonstrate considerable generosity and care when undertaking an RxART project. Our process involves proposing artists to each hospital before one artist is selected by the hospital to submit a project proposal.
DEVELOPMENT AND FABRICATION
1. Artist Response and Proposal
Upon accepting an invitation to collaborate, RxART artists create a proposal for a site-specific installation that will meet the needs of the hospital’s patient and staff populations. The artist’s proposal must be designed to positively impact the patient experience. Submitted proposals feature the medium of the artist’s choosing as well as subject matter created specifically for the partner hospital. Each artist is provided with a modest honorarium.
3. Fabrication in Medically Approved Materials
RxART functions as an intermediary between the artist and a third-party design firm that coordinates architectural measurements and transposes the artist’s imagery onto medically approved materials. Using materials such as these means RxART can install projects in highly trafficked areas and ensures the longevity of the artwork.
2. Fundraising
In order to provide our services to hospitals free of charge, RxART assumes full responsibility for raising funds to cover every project. We build communities of supporters throughout the United States and engage with new local funders for each project.
Proposal imagery, renderings, and plans.
4. Installation
We work with the hospital’s facilities department to coordinate the artwork installation in a manner and at a time that does not disrupt treatment processes. This can mean late-night or weekend installations as well as specialized installers and tools, such as those required for an MRI suite that cannot include any iron material.
Installation of artwork by Rob Pruitt in process.
MAKING A SUSTAINED IMPACT
1. Maintenance
Upon the completion of installation, RxART provides conservation guidelines to the hospitals and remains available as a resource should maintenance issues arise. In some cases, an installation may be refabricated in a more durable material depending on its original installation date and ensuing technological advances. RxART projects remain on display for a minimum of five years.
2. Community Feedback
RxART seeks feedback from community members once a project is installed and aims to contribute this feedback to the growing field of art and medicine.
Click through the carousel to see the completed project and images from the ribbon cutting.
RxART Project at NYC H+H/Harlem. Artwork by Derrick Adams.
4. Mapping the Change
We update our project map and archive on our website upon the completion of each project. We believe our portfolio of hospital installations details an important example of how art and medicine can forge partnerships for good in America today. Explore our completed projects here and learn about projects in the pipeline here.
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