Visit Hillcrest Hospital for the Art

Visitors, patients and employees at Hillcrest Hospital can visit an art museum just by exploring the hallways.

"It is a mini museum in the hospital," said Jennifer Finkel, one of three curators who oversee artwork at Cleveland Clinic properties. The Arts & Medicine Institute, the Clinic's art program, was established in 2006 by Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, Clinic chief executive officer and president.

"The Clinic has been collecting art since it opened 90 years ago," Finkel said. However, the creation of an aesthetics committee in the 1960s focused more attention on the art collection.

"We are collecting contemporary art, from artists who are local and national, emerging in their careers as well as more established artists," Finkel said. "It's not the Sunday painter."

"We look for a diversity of looks and feels and subject matter," she added.

Finkel said curators not only consider what art to purchase, but where it should be placed.

"There are so many different factors," she said. "What you would want in the atrium is different from what you have in the NICU waiting area."

Other placements are done for wayfinding purposes, she added. Distinctive works are placed in key locations to help people recognize where they are in Hillcrest Hospital.

"You want more recognizable images. This place is such a maze," Finkel said.

A good example of that are the color photos and aluminum sculptures that are located between the atrium and the new tower. Created by Peter Newman of London, the photos are views of city skylines from the ground up, while the sculptures located nearby fill in the middle area of sky.

Also memorable are a series of three 3-D lenticular works of Japanese landscapes done by Julian Opie of London.

In new Jane and Lee Seidman Tower, works are grouped by floor under the themes of people, places and things. An example of the places covered on the third floor are a pair of landscapes by Cedric Delsaux, a French photographer born in 1974.

Finkel said she enjoys the mixed media prints by Hui-Chu Ying, a Taiwan-born artist who teaches at the Myers School of Art at The University of Akron. The prints, located in the hospital's atrium, have patterned designs into which she incorporates images representing healing and spiritual connectivity.

Curators make a point to have about 10 percent of the artwork come from local artists such as photographer Nancy McEntee, a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and Barry Underwood, head of photography at CIA.

"We're always interested in seeing new works from local artists," Finkler said.

Finkel, who has a doctorate degree in art history, said she enjoys working in a hospital rather than the academic setting in which she was previously employed.

"It felt like the service component was missing," she said.

As for whether art helps the healing process, Finkel said that's difficult to determine.

"It is so subjective. There's no precise way to measure that," she said. "We measure it by the testimonials and feedback we receive."

One woman waiting for a heart transplant was so moved by an artwork that she sent a letter thanking the artist.

"She said it was so inspirational to her," Finkel said.