Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota Calls on Local Artists for New Arts and Healing Initiative

MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota is launching a major new initiative aimed at bringing work by local artists into the Minneapolis and St. Paul Hospitals.  This Arts and Healing initiative will feature partnerships with local arts organizations, and will work to foster a healing environment for patients and families at Children's.  The program will also study the impact arts programs can have on patient care.

A "Call for Art" has been released and is open to all Minnesota artists.  Details of the program are available on www.ChildrensMN.org.  Artists interested in learning more can also attend an Arts Forum on January 14, from 6 to 7:30 pm in the Pillsbury Auditorium at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN.  Children's executives and members of Children's Arts & Healing and Urban Renewal Task Force will be on hand to answer questions about the program and the opportunities for local artists.

Children's Arts and Healing Program will be brought to the community in partnership with The Children's Theatre Company, COMPAS (an artist-in-residency and arts education organization based in St. Paul), MacPhail Center for Music, the Minnesota Children's Museum and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  The program will be funded entirely through philanthropic donations and will include exhibits of two- and three-dimensional art, interactive art programs for patients, and evidence-based research about the role of art in helping patients heal.  Children's is already a leader in bringing arts programs to patients such as music therapy.

Phase one of the project in Minneapolis is scheduled to be complete in September of 2010 and will include more than 30 major commissions along with acquisition of hundreds of works of art.  This program is planned to be expanded system wide with the inclusion of the St. Paul Campus, scheduled for completion of fall 2011.

Attendees to the forum will have the opportunity to hear more about the project from Alan L. Goldbloom, MD, president and CEO of Children's; Mic Johnson, senior partner with Ellerbe Becket; Mary Ingebrand-Pohlad, an artist, a long-standing trustee of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and a member of Children's Arts & Healing and Urban Renewal Task Force; and Annette Ridenour, president of Aesthetics, an art consultant for the project.  Ridenour has recently co-authored a book, "Transforming the Healthcare Experience through the Arts," and will be giving a brief overview on the field as background information about evidence based arts programs.

Members of the five arts partners also will be present to discuss the collaboration.

The Arts and Healing initiative is part of Children's multi-year $300 million redevelopment, which was launched in 2007 on both the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses.  Children's has already opened several new facilities in Minneapolis, including a new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a five-story Children's Specialty Center and a state-of-the-art Emergency Department.

About Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota

Serving as Minnesota's children's hospital since 1924, Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota has 332 staffed beds at its two hospitals in St. Paul and Minneapolis.  An independent, not-for-profit health care system, Children's of Minnesota provides care through more than 14,000 inpatient visits and more than 200,000 emergency room and other outpatient visits every year.  Children's is the only Minnesota hospital system to provide comprehensive care exclusively to children.  For more information, visit www.childrensmn.org.

SOURCE Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota