Hospital Art Curators Convene at Crystal Bridges to Discuss Art’s Health Benefits

Key facts

• The Art Bridges Foundation hosted its first symposium for hospital art curators on 20 August at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
• 19 curators from across North America attended the event.
• Austen Bailly, deputy director of curatorial affairs at Crystal Bridges, shared a story of a boy who visited the museum after a sleep study at Arkansas Children's Northwest Hospital.
• Anne Kraybill, Art Bridges’ chief executive, stated the foundation wants to partner art museums and healthcare settings to create regionally specific programs.
• Connie Wolf of Stanford Health Care’s arts program noted that art placement in hospitals is limited by material types and hallway width requirements.
• Susan Krane of Montage Health discussed her work on the Ohana Center for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health, which opened in 2023.
• Ryan Patrick of NYC Health and Hospitals proposed the mantra “curating for health” at the symposium.
• Larissa W. Trinder, assistant vice president at NYC Health and Hospitals, said the arts and medicine department is embedded in the quality and safety cabinet.
• Nisha Sajnani, a professor at NYU Steinhardt and co-director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, is working on the global Hospital Murals Evaluation project examining murals in Nigeria, Slovenia, the US, and the UK.
• Jill Sonke, a cultural policy fellow at Stanford University, advocates for access to the arts as a social determinant of health.