New Art Exhibit at Juilliard Features 27 Works from the NYC Health + Hospitals Art Collection
Works were selected by Juilliard students through programming by the health care system’s Arts in Medicine department
Sep 10, 2026
New York, NY – NYC Health + Hospitals and Juilliard today announced a new exhibition at the school featuring 27 works from the health system’s art collection, curated by the Arts in Medicine department. On view for the next two years, the exhibition includes works by Hannah Wilke, Joe Overstreet, Rafael Ferrer, and James Brooks. Part of the exhibition was curated by drama, dance, and music students at Juilliard through a series of workshops held by the Arts in Medicine department. After the exhibition closes, the works will be installed at NYC Health + Hospitals facilities across the five boroughs. The exhibition, open to members of the Juilliard community including students, faculty, staff, and affiliated artists, is presented in partnership with JuilliART, an initiative of the Office of the President at Juilliard since 2018, and reflects Curating for Health, the methodology established by the Arts in Medicine department at NYC Health + Hospitals.
The exhibition builds on Harmonizing for Health, an observational music pilot program for health care providers to help combat staff burnout and compassion fatigue. Led by faculty and musicians from Juilliard Extension, workshops offered time for music, dialogue, and personal reflection during the workday for about fifty hospital employees at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue over several months.
“This collaboration is especially meaningful to me because of our long standing support for both Juilliard and NYC Health + Hospitals,” said Laurie Tisch, president of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. “We are proud to have provided catalytic support for the creation of Arts in Medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals and to have been part of the creation of a wellness center at Juilliard, and to see these two extraordinary institutions come together to demonstrate the power of the arts to inspire and support health and well-being.”
“Curating for Health is our methodology for treating the art collection as clinical infrastructure,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Assistant Vice President of Arts in Medicine Larissa Trinder. “We assess a space before we place work in it, we co-design with the people who occupy it, and we evaluate what shifts afterwards. Juilliard students are under intense pressure to perform, and they helped choose artworks alongside our team to transform the practice room corridors into hallways of healing. When these twenty-seven works return to NYC Health + Hospitals in 2028, they will inform how we curate for the patients and staff we serve.”
“Juilliard has always believed in the power of artists and art forms to inspire one another,” said Juilliard President Damian Woetzel. “Music, dance, and drama are in constant conversation here, and bringing visual art into that conversation extends the creative possibilities even further. We are grateful to NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine department for the works on loan. When students encounter great works of art as they walk our halls, those works can spark curiosity, shift perspective, and inspire new ways of seeing and making. The visual arts become another source of creative energy that encourages them to think across disciplines and imagine what is possible.”
Curating for Health is the methodology through which Arts in Medicine pairs clinical insight with intentional design principles. By working directly with staff, the approach matches artwork to the specific needs of each space—be it a Pride Center, a busy hospital lobby, a pediatric behavioral health unit, or a women’s health clinic. This targeted approach transforms the collection from passive aesthetics into targeted public health tools, creating environments that support healing.
The NYC Health + Hospitals art collection dates back to the 1930s, when the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project hired artists to create works for government buildings. Its collection of more than 8,000 artworks includes paintings, mosaics, photographs, sculptures, installation art, and murals by both emerging and established professional artists. The collection includes works by some of America’s leading artists, such as Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Helen Frankenthaler, Mary Frank, Betty Blayton, Candida Alvarez, Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, and Keith Haring. More than an art collection, these works support the therapeutic milieu, build trust, engage staff and patients, and expand access to the arts for 46,000 employees and more than 1.2 million patients who receive care at NYC Health + Hospitals facilities.
In addition to managing the health system’s art collection, the Arts in Medicine department presents a diverse portfolio of arts programming, including: live concerts at healthcare facilities through the Music for the Soul Concert series; art observation and discussion for staff through HHArt of Medicine; songwriting with professional musicians for parents through the Lullaby Project; and an active Artists in Residence program. Many of the department’s initiatives are supported by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. A full overview of the Arts in Medicine department is available here.
Launched in 2018 by Juilliard president Damian Woetzel, JuilliART brings visual perspectives into common space, providing a rotating series of art works to advance the creative spirit at Juilliard. The initiative places visual art installations in spaces throughout Juilliard to support Juilliard’s mission to provide its community with an environment of continual thinking, inquiry, and inspiration. The inaugural exhibit featured works by American artist Keith Haring and subsequent exhibits have included works by artists such as Mohamad Hafez and Ahmed Badr, Nicholas Ma, Julie Mehretu, and Ellen Reid, as well as pieces loaned to Juilliard from the personal collections of Beth Rudin DeWoody and the late Agnes Gund.
The exhibition was organized by Ryan Patrick and Monica Mariño of Arts in Medicine in collaboration with Kendall Bottjer of Juilliard, working alongside a student curatorial panel drawn from Juilliard’s drama, dance, and music divisions.
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About NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine Department
The Arts in Medicine department at NYC Health + Hospitals integrates the literary, visual, and performing arts across the nation’s largest public hospital system to support patient care, staff quality of life, and community health. Grounded in research, the department is recognized as an international leader in the field, positioning the arts as a core component of care, advancing quality of life, resilience, and recovery for staff and patients alike. Drawing on a collection with more than 8,000 works, Arts in Medicine curates environments that foster trust, belonging, and connection. Through systemwide initiatives and partnerships, the department embeds arts and cultural experiences across clinical and community settings, creating spaces and programs that are culturally resonant and responsive to the communities they serve. Using partnerships and program innovation, Arts in Medicine strengthens care environments across New York City and establishes the arts as an essential part of healing and human connection. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/artsinmedicine.
About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlusHealth—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 46,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
About the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund
The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund is a New York City-based foundation that aims to improve access and opportunity for all New Yorkers and foster healthy and vibrant communities. In 2018, the Illumination Fund launched Arts in Health, a multi-year initiative to support organizations utilizing the arts as a tool for healing and building understanding in communities across New York City. The initiative’s areas of focus are stigma, trauma and aging-related diseases as well as supporting organizations addressing mental health in communities disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019 the Illumination Fund supported the creation of NYC Health + Hospitals Arts in Medicine department, expanding programs serving health care staff, patients, and communities in sites across the City. For more information, visit www.lmtif.org or follow @LMTischFund on Twitter.
About The Juilliard School
Founded in 1905, The Juilliard School is a world leader in performing arts education. The school’s mission is to cultivate excellence through the highest caliber of education in music, dance, and drama for gifted students from around the world, so they may achieve their fullest potential, expanding the reach and elevating the impact of the arts. Juilliard is led by Damian Woetzel, seventh president of the school, who has prioritized affordability and access to the highest level of artistic education while championing Juilliard’s tradition of excellence.
Located at Lincoln Center in New York City, Juilliard offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, drama (acting and playwriting), and music (classical, jazz, historical performance, and vocal arts). More than 800 artists from 42 states and 50 countries and regions are enrolled in Juilliard’s College Division, where they appear in more than 800 annual performances in the school’s five theaters; at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and David Geffen halls and at Carnegie Hall; as well as at other venues around New York City, the U.S., and the world. The continuum of learning at Juilliard also includes nearly 400 students from elementary through high school enrolled in the Preparatory Division—Pre-College and Music Advancement Program (MAP); MAP serves students from diverse backgrounds often underrepresented in the classical music field. More than 1,200 students are enrolled in Juilliard Extension, the flagship continuing education program taught both in person and remotely by a dedicated faculty of performers, creators, and scholars. Beyond its New York campus, Juilliard is defining new directions in performing arts education for a range of learners and enthusiasts through a global K–12 educational curricula and preparatory and graduate studies at The Tianjin Juilliard School in China.