(music)
- Art is important for everyone
who's in the environment.
So everyone from the cleaners, to the dirt nurses,
to the doctors, to the patients.
(footsteps)
- If we put something on the wall
that is more meaningful or hang something
from the ceiling that's more meaningful,
our lives are, actually, improved and more meaningful.
UC Davis Medical Center started
their collection in the '80s.
So they've been thinking along those lines for a long time.
- [Peter] There's been a number of studies indicating
that if you, in fact, have good quality art or a
pleasant environment, that you tend
to get better clinical outcomes.
- [NURSE] All done! - (laughs)
- [Beth] You're trying to create an environment
that they may be in for several minutes,
maybe a half hour that is pleasing and interesting,
that makes them feel that they're taken care of.
(hammer)
Every piece has an identification tag
that list the name of the artist
and, I think, it makes people feel
that we're looking at our community
and using artists from our community
who also, in making their art,
are probably reflecting the community.
(gentle chiming music)
- I've outlined the shape of the river,
Sacramento area in this painting.
So I'm trying to reference local geography,
history, and also pull in ideas about healing and the body.
As I add a layer, the layer on top also needs
to speak to the layer below.
So they work together and build the story.
And so you get this three-dimensional
and you can, actually, see a little slight shadow
from the lines, I like to have that.
(piano music)
- [Lorene] You can look at a painting
and it takes you somewhere else.
And whatever that experience is,
it might take you out of that moment
of stress or anxiety.
(fast piano music)
- I need to create something
that can calm people down in a way,
soothing in their soul, their mind.
(fast piano music)
- One of the most interesting things
about making sculptures
is how people kinda personalize the experience of it.
And, I think, that the people here
are really well-poised to do that.
(fast piano music)
- I was focusing on, kinda, the chaos.
I kinda wanted to replicate this
to juxtapose the quieter aspects of this building.
(piano music)
- [Peter] There's a long history of using art
as a therapeutic initiative and as a therapeutic approach,
and you can suddenly be in a different place.
- [Patient] Ok, one, two , three.
- [Peter] You can be feeling differently,
you concentrate on that, you focus on it,
and then, you go in a different direction.
- [Man] Good job, Tom.
- We have a lot of patients who commented
on how nice it is to come into the gym and to see the painting.
They see the art for the first time, they always smile
and they always comment on how special it is,
how neat it is to have art like that.
(door opens)
- Coming into any medical environment,
but especially into the Cancer Center,
it can be pretty scary.
A lot of doctors' offices are sterile,
white walls, very clean looking
but it doesn't help that fear and that anxiety
the patients and children have.
The instant you walk into our waiting area
there are pictures, and color, and things
that help kids calm down and relax.
There's a needlepoint of fairy tales
and it's many different fairy tales all put together.
So kids like to come out of their clinic room
and try to guess which fairy tale each part
of the picture belongs to.
If it was just a white wall,
I wouldn't be able to use that or help
the child to calm down.
-You don't want to be in a sterile,
sort of, purely white, purely beige type of environment.
We need to just brighten up the atmosphere
and at the same time, that relaxes people.
- Real artwork can decorate a place
or you can decorate the place with work
that is a digital print of a painting
and it's been made a thousand times over.
There's a flatness to that work
and, I think, the kind of easy way to think
of that is decoration versus real artwork.
It's handmade, it's original, it's culturally enriching.
- Really, art is about communication.
And it's a way that the health system itself
can communicate to both patients
and to all the staff in an effort
to, literally, make them feel better.
(gentle chiming music)