New Mural by Emma Kohlmann Unveiled at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue
The Community Mural Project is believed to be the country’s largest public hospital mural program since the 1930s
May 28, 2026
New York, NY — NYC Health + Hospitals today unveiled a new mural as part of the Community Mural Project run by the health system’s Arts in Medicine department. The mural, Before There was Asphalt / Gardens are Cities, is located in the South Lobby at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, and artist Emma Kohlmann developed the mural in collaboration with staff and the community. Today’s mural is one of over 50 murals that have been created at NYC Health + Hospitals since 2019. The first wave of the Community Mural Project is featured in a book, Healing Walls: New York City Health + Hospitals Community Mural Project 2019-2021. This and other murals at NYC Health + Hospitals can be viewed on Bloomberg Connects. Before There was Asphalt / Gardens are Cities is made possible through the support of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.
Before There was Asphalt / Gardens are Cities portrays overgrown plants as worlds within themselves—apartment buildings for insects, symbols of time, and the changing seasons. Hidden within the leaves are mysteries: small lives unfolding, shadows shifting, and worlds that exist just out of sight. The mural is a city of native New York plants, reimagining Bellevue Hospital as a living ecosystem and bringing the natural world indoors through the language of flora.
Milkweed, Great Blue Lobelia, Anemone, Roses, and Christmas Fern—all native to New York State—fill spring and summer with color and life. Milkweed, in particular, is essential food for the Swallowtail and Monarch butterflies depicted in the mural. Monarchs migrate up to 3,000 miles each winter, and butterflies have long symbolized the immigrant and migrant experience worldwide. Like people displaced by fractured homelands, they are driven by forces larger than themselves, yet also represent the dignity of belonging safely within one’s ecosystem—a belonging threatened by climate change, habitat loss, pollution, and environmental fragmentation.
The Thornless Honeylocust trees outside the hospital inspire the birds woven throughout the mural. Each bird reflects countries represented among Bellevue Hospital’s staff: the Hispaniolan Trogon (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Caribbean), the European Robin (Europe, parts of Russia, North Africa), the Oriental Magpie-Robin (Southern Asia, Thailand, Southern China), the Steppe Eagle (Europe, Asia, West Africa), and the American Barn Owl (New York, Massachusetts, Long Island). Like the butterflies, these birds carry their origins with them wherever they go, honoring the migratory nature of the people who work and heal within these walls.
“Before There was Asphalt / Gardens are Cities is a profound example of what the arts can do in a healing environment,” said Laurie Tisch, president of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. “Emma Kohlmann has created something that speaks to the full breadth of the Bellevue community, honoring the immigrant and migrant histories of patients and staff through imagery that is both scientifically grounded and deeply moving. The Community Mural Project has brought more than 50 original works of art into public hospitals across New York City, transforming spaces where people come in their most vulnerable moments into places of beauty, reflection, and connection. That is exactly the kind of impact our Arts in Health initiative was created to support. We are proud to make it possible.”
“At NYC Health + Hospitals, we believe the environment of care is part of the care itself,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Assistant Vice President of Arts in Medicine Larissa Trinder. “The evidence is clear — natural imagery reduces cortisol levels, supports emotional regulation, and promotes well-being for patients and staff alike. Before There was Asphalt / Gardens are Cities brings that science to life in the most stunning way, honoring the diverse communities who call Bellevue home while transforming the built environment into something that actively heals. What makes this mural even more extraordinary is the spirit Emma Kohlmann brought to every step of the process. Her thoughtfulness, curiosity, and deep care for the people of this community are embedded in every leaf and brushstroke. It was a true privilege to work alongside her.”
“Before There was Asphalt / Gardens are Cities is a wonderful addition to Bellevue Hospital’s growing art collection,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Chief Executive Officer Eric Wei, MD, MBA. “Thank you to Emma Kohlmann for sharing her beautiful, thoughtful artistry celebrating New York and bringing nature into our South Lobby. These murals and other artwork at the hospital help our patients, visitors, and staff connect to the world outside and provide opportunities to come together in artistic expression. We are grateful as always to Arts in Medicine and their Community Mural Project, and the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund for their ongoing support.”
“I’ve always envisioned Emma Kohlmann’s work as a perfect fit for public art,” said Silke Lindner, founder of the eponymous gallery, which represents artist Emma Kohlmann. “Seeing a mural of this scale realized is incredibly exciting. It’s wonderful to know that so many people will be able to engage with the work on a daily basis.”
“This mural was a true collaboration with the staff and team at Bellevue, and I feel lucky to have been trusted with this wall,” said artist Emma Kohlmann. “This is an imagined garden, one that could not exist exactly in this way in nature, but that feels true in every other sense. The plants are native to New York. The birds have come from everywhere – Haiti, Europe, Egypt, Southern Asia, West Africa, and right here in New York. Like so many people at this hospital, they carry their own origins with them wherever they land.”
Emma Kohlmann (b. 1989 in The Bronx, NY) lives and works in Western Massachusetts. She received a B.A. from Hampshire College and has exhibited in the United States and internationally. She has had solo exhibitions at Silke Lindner (New York, NY), Cooper Cole (Toronto, CA), Jack Hanley Gallery (New York, NY), and V1 (Copenhagen, DK). She has been included in numerous group exhibitions including shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson (Tucson, AZ), Venus over Manhattan (New York, NY), and Andrew Edlin (New York, NY). Her work is in the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. She publishes her own zines, and frequently collaborates with artists, writers, musicians and designers, most recently she collaborated on a dishware series with HAY. She co-founded Mundus Press with her sister Charlotte Kohlmann.
The Community Mural Project is believed to be the country’s largest public hospital mural program since the 1930s, when the depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissioned murals in public buildings, including virtually every hospital in New York City’s public healthcare system. The WPA murals were the start of NYC Health + Hospitals art collection, which now is the city’s largest public art collection and includes more than 7,000 pieces of art of multiple disciplines. The art collection is used to enhance the healthcare environment, inspire creativity, promote wellness, increase access to the arts, and engage staff.
The Community Mural Project creates opportunities for hospital staff to collaborate with each other and with neighbors, relieve stress, and enhance the physical environment of the facilities. Healthcare worker burnout is a national health crisis, and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic has created mental health challenges across New York City, especially in low-income, immigrant and historically excluded communities, which are significant patient populations for NYC Health + Hospitals.
###
MEDIA CONTACT: PressOffice@nychhc.org
#117-26
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 wellbeing, 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 emotional wellbeing, 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/Bellevue
NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue is America’s oldest public hospital, established in 1736. Affiliated with the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the 851-bed hospital is a major referral center for highly complex cases, with 6,000 employees including highly skilled, interdisciplinary clinical staff. The hospital is a Level 1 Trauma Center and annually it sees about 103,000 emergency room visits, and more than 520,000 outpatient visits. Clinical centers of excellence include: Emergency Medicine and Trauma Care; Cardiovascular Services; Bariatric Surgery; Designated Regional Perinatal Center and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; Children’s Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program; and Cancer Services. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/bellevue and follow us on Facebook and X (Twitter).
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.