Art to Promote Healing

Richmond Area Arts Council Executive Director Debbie Kidd discusses how displaying the works of local artists in the hospital is encouraging for patients, families and staff.

Art to Promote Healing HealthTalks Transcript

Debbie Kidd, Executive Director, Richmond Area Arts Council
We at the Richmond Area Arts Council are very proud, along with Baptist Health Richmond, of this beautiful artwork that we have in the common areas and the patient rooms here at the hospital. We are proud of this, because it helps to promote the healing process. One picture and painting that is an oil, in particular, has a scene of beautiful waterfalls and different animals in there. And so, it’s a conversation piece: Can you find the frog? Can you find the fish? Can you find the bird? If you have a positive piece of artwork that might be a conversation piece, it could help to divert the patients attention away from how they may be feeling poorly and give them something else to think about other than their discomfort at the time.

The artwork of this Baptist Health Richmond project is selected through a call to artists that is instituted by the Richmond Area Arts Council, in cooperation with Baptist Health Richmond, for local artists in the surrounding area. They submit their artwork, and it is adjudicated by a panel from the Patient Advisory [committee] here at Baptist Health and also employees of the Richmond Area Arts Council, based upon its ability to promote the healing process. Artwork that is celebratory of life and living helps us soothe the patients, the support staff, and visitors to Baptist Health Richmond.