E81 – Healing the Healers and the City: Art as Clinical Infrastructure in the Nation’s Largest Public Health System
In the nation's largest public health system, art is infrastructure. This session examines how NYC Health + Hospitals' Arts in Medicine department curates and commissions art across 11 hospitals and 35+ sites to support workforce resilience, patient experience, and public health outcomes.
Rooted in the 1930s WPA Federal Art Project, NYC H+H stewards 7,000+ works integrated into clinical environments. Through Curating for Health, the department treats the built environment as a public health intervention.
The session highlights HHart of Medicine, an evidence-based art observation program developed with the Whitney and Brooklyn Museums that reduces staff burnout; and the Community Mural Project, which embeds collaborative "Healing Walls" to strengthen cultural representation and foster thereapeutic spaces.
Designed for architects, designers, and planners, this presentation illustrates how modest investments in art yield returns through improved patient satisfaction, workforce retention, and community trust—offering a framework for integrating visual art as a scalable, cost-effective tool for equity and whole-person care.
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