Programs
Artist-in-Residence
Press Release Artist-In-Residence
Artists bring a unique perspective that fosters connection, empathy, and care among staff and patients. Research has shown that engaging in creative activities stimulates our mind and body, helping us be present and reflective. It also shows a strong reduction in stress and anxiety. Artist-in-Residence programs in healthcare systems play a crucial role in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of both staff and patients. This strategy offers a variety of art-making activities and a diversity of projects that reflect the priorities of the health system, particularly our focus on health justice initiatives. Arts in Medicine partners with The Creative Center – University Settlement to deliver a unique artist in residency program by adapting their evidence-based approach for NYC Health + Hospitals’ staff members.
Currently, five NYC Health + Hospitals facilities host artist-in-residence programs: NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Morrisania; NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln; NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx; NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County; and NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst. Staff and patients are welcome to participate in any of the artist’s weekly six-hour sessions. Each resident artist offers diverse forms of instruction, including myriad mediums; painting, sketching, drawing, jewelry making, photography, creative writing, paper arts, fiber arts, natural fabric dyeing, and botanical printing. Additionally, exhibitions are often organized to showcase the work created.
Learn more about our current artists here:
Nikki Schiro (@nikki.schiro)
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Morrisania
Nikki Schiro is a native New York artist. Nikki was the Artist-in-Residence for Outpatient Oncology, Mt. Sinai West (formally Roosevelt) for twelve years, where she engaged patients and their families with Art during (often very long) chemotherapy treatments. She is the co-creator and director of OZANEAUX ArtSpace, a philanthropic, artist-run exhibition/project space established in 2009, with her partner, Frederic Ozaneaux. Here she has volunteered her personal time, knowledge and professional experience to empower underrepresented artists and curators in her community. Nikki Schiro is a certified and practicing Reiki master and a working actor. Her number one hobby is dancing Argentine Tango.
Wilhelmina Grant-Cooper (@sistaahstudio)
NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln
Wilhelmina Grant-Cooper is a self-taught, Harlem-based visual artist, arts instructor, and author. Wilhelmina creates assemblages using mixed-media and found objects which she repurposes into visual art. Her artistic undertakings include long-term assignments as a Creative Center at University Settlement artist-in-residence wherein she used the arts to nurture the creativity of cancer patients, their families, and staff in a healthcare setting. She also guides elder participants through arts activities at senior centers in Washington Heights, the Upper West Side and Brooklyn. Wilhelmina is an avid gardener and lives with her husband in Harlem.
Cibele Vieira (@cibelevieira_studio)
NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx
Here is a wonderful video of her: Artist Cibele Vieira Creates Art in the Elevator at North Central Bronx on Vimeo
Cibele Vieira, a Brazilian artist, combines images, sculptures, and movement in her work, exploring social and political themes. She believes artists should share and educate the public about contemporary art while also recognizing the healing power of art. Her work aims to bridge the gap between art and society, emphasizing how art can bring people together, facilitate conversations about our diverse experiences, and serve as a tool for healing and self-expression.
Livia Ihinosen Ohihoin (@liosadornments)
NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County
Livia Ihinosen Ohihoin is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York City. Her multicultural upbringing and experiences fostered a curiosity for the world that has not stopped since. She explores and marries various mediums including movement art, jewelry, writing, and film. While her work is continuously evolving through new mediums and processes, a thematic thread of intimacy, connection, and movement can be traced through all of her work. As the founder and creator of Lio’s Adornments and as a queer immigrant woman of color, she is an advocate for fellow minority artists and business owners.
Carla Torres (@carlisimaultra)
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst
Carla Torres is a visual artist, who works across several media including drawing, painting, illustration, animation, and murals. Originally from Ecuador, she relocated to New York City in 2006, looking to expand her horizons and vision as an artist. Since then her work has been exhibited in several galleries locally and internationally including the Queens Museum and the Noguchi Museum. Her work has also been awarded by the most prestigious illustration awards in the US, Canada, and Europe.
If you are a site interested in this program please reach out to our Program Coordinator, Ashley Arnold: arnolda4@nychhc.org.
Music & Memory
Music & Memory is a national evidence-based program that brings personalized playlists on iPods to patients or residents with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or other cognitive loss. Music can reduce the need for medication and improve relationships for patients experiencing Alzheimer’s disease. Music & Memory is currently offered at a majority of NYC Health + Hospitals inpatient and long-term care facilities.
Lullaby Project
The Lullaby Project pairs pregnant women and new mothers and fathers with professional artists to write and sing personal lullabies for their babies, supporting maternal health, aiding child development, and strengthening the bond between parent and child. Singing during and after pregnancy can support maternal health and aid in child development and singing is one of few treatment options shown to reduce maternal stress during pregnancy.
HHArt of Medicine – Art Observation Workshops
HHArt of Medicine is an art observation program for health care staff that creates a safe environment for health professionals to deepen their connection with one another. Empathy based curricula is a core component of the HHart of Medicine social-emotional learning module. Learn more.
Music for the Soul
Throughout the years, NYC Health + Hospitals facilities have hosted concerts for patients, staff and community members. Learn more.
Community Mural
The Community Mural Project, a flagship of the NYC Health + Hospitals Arts in Medicine Program is designed to encourage creativity, lower stress, build trust and increase engagement between hospital staff and members of their surrounding communities. The murals also create spaces for joy as well as healing for patients and frontline medical workers who are under enormous stress.
From 2019 through 2021, artists – selected from hundreds of applicants – collaborated with each facility’s staff and the surrounding communities to create 26 murals – one in each of the system’s eleven hospitals, all five of the rehabilitation and long-term care facilities, nine neighborhood clinics that are a part of H+H’s Gotham Health community health center network, and the health system’s new headquarters at 50 Water Street in Manhattan. Each of these projects is documented in our book; Healing Walls: New York City Health + Hospitals Community Mural Program.
The Community Murals Project builds upon a mural tradition that started in the 1930s when the depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) supported the creation of murals in virtually every New York City public hospital. The tradition continued decades later with murals by world-famous artists such as Romare Bearden, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf. The Community Mural Project is the country’s largest public hospital murals project since the WPA.
In 2023, building on the success of the Community Mural Project and the other NYC Health + Hospitals Arts in Medicine programs, the Illumination Fund increased its support to expand arts-based programs throughout the system and underwrite the creation of an additional 20 murals in hospitals across the city.
The NYC Health + Hospitals Community Mural Project has become a model within the international arts and health field and is the focus of an evaluative study with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, a partnership between the World Health Organization, (WHO), the Steinhardt School at New York University (NYU), Community Jameel, and CultuRunners: Hospital Murals Evaluation (HoME) |… | Jameel Arts & Health Lab.
Under the leadership of Larissa Trinder, assistant vice president of Arts in Medicine, the Arts in Medicine department is part of a larger systemwide strategy to support workforce wellness led by Dr. Eric Wei, [past] vice president and chief quality officer, currently CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. Embedded in the Quality and Safety Cabinet, the department fosters emotional well-being and promotes healing for patients, families, and caregivers through the arts. This is accomplished by developing evidence-based activities and programs that utilize visual, literary, and performing arts throughout the Health + Hospitals system.
NYC Health + Hospitals holds more than 7500 works of art, including important murals dating back to the 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA), as well as modern and contemporary paintings, prints, and sculpture. Arts in Medicine stewards the collection, curates’ exhibitions, integrates works into programs, and creates greater access to the arts for patients, staff, and the community.
The program continues to be generously supported by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. Philanthropist Laurie recently commented on the program;
“The most visible arts program at NYC Health + Hospitals has been the Community Mural Project, which is one of the first new programs launched in 2019. It is one of the best, most exciting and fun projects that I have seen in my close to 50 years in philanthropy. It is specifically designed to bring the communities, the hospital staff, and patients together to imagine and then create artworks that become a permanent part of the facility. The activity of creating murals breaks down barriers and it’s also just a lot of fun. It makes people happy, it relieves stress, it builds teamwork, and it bolsters pride in the hospital. The Community Mural Project was an enormous success from the very first mural.” The Community Mural Program works closely with Residency Unlimited to help coordinate the RFQ and artist contracts. Typically, the RFQ goes out in December/January of each year.
Learn more about some of our recent Community Mural Project installations: