The Phipps Center for the Arts

The Healing Arts Program: A Collaboration of Hudson Hospital and The Phipps Center for the Arts

Reception: Friday, May 22, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

In 2001, The Phipps Center for the Arts and Hudson Hospital embarked on an innovative collaboration to exhibit, acquire, and commission original work by regional artists. While the health care field has begun to embrace the understanding that a well-designed environment that integrates the visual arts can have a positive impact both on a patient's healing process and on staff morale, the Healing Arts Program at Hudson Hospital is unique. It is the only one of its kind that involves a collaboration between two community-based organizations.

At any given time, work by several regional artists is on display in waiting areas, conference rooms, patient and staff corridors, procedure rooms, and patient rooms. Exhibits are rotated every three to four months, offering variety and interest for staff, as well as opportunities for many regional artists to participate.

"Earth, plants, water, sky and ether are my subjects; color, movement, light, and shadows are my words. I breathe the air from earth and water – I interweave them in painting . . ." -- Joonja Lee Mornes

Images of grasses flowing in the wind, subtle in form and color reflect the varying moods of the seasons. Mornes captures the texture and essence of landscape in her larger than life canvases inviting the viewer to experience nature in a new and very personal way.

In contrast, small and gentle landscapes by Mary Pat Opatz Herges offer longer views of her favorite places. Using many layers of opaque paint and transparent glazes, Herges says her preferred painting surfaces are Baltic birch panels. She applies layers of gesso which she sands by hand after each application to arrive at the "surface perfect to paint on."

Mornes’s work is exhibited in the Main Conference rooms through September 23 and Herges’s landscapes are on view in the Inpatient corridor through August 9.

Also on view through July 12 is work by Judy Fawcett, Christina Hankins, and Ellen Wold; through August 9, work by Priscilla Briggs, Alisha Duckett, John Finkler, Tre Hagg, Anna Johannsen, Layl McDill, Mary Kay Neumann, and Dean Rehpohl.

These and other regional artists working in a variety of media offer ongoing exhibits at Hudson Hospital. The Healing Arts Program which is a collaboration between Hudson Hospital and The Phipps Center for the Arts presents these exhibits free of charge and open to the public.

For more information on the healing arts program or to schedule a tour, please contact Margaret Welshons, Healing Arts Coordinator, at 715/531-6059, or mwelshons@hudsonhospital.org.