CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL AT MONTEFIORE

The Artists at Jerard Studio worked with kid artists to create finished pieces of art that were permanently installed into niches or glassed in boxes distributed throughout the patient floors of the Reconstructed Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. There were 56 projects total.

We included all kinds of kids in this project. Kids that were inpatients at the hospital, kids from the North Bronx Community surrounding the hospital and also kids from other boroughs. We tailored the projects according to difficulty and subject matter and offered the kids in the different workshops a choice of what they would want to do that day. The most involved projects were done in workshops held at our studio. The studio itself was a learning experience for the kids who came out, and the kids at the community center and the hospital were no less enthusiastic.

We tried to have the kid artists develop their ideas ahead of time and we worked with them to realize their designs. We helped the kids to accomplish their sculptures and compositions successfully without compromising their aesthetic. The finished artworks were fresh and poignant and they humanized the hospital environment.

Not only did the participating children learn from this but also the children who viewed the art in the hospital. Whereas the work of adult “professional” artists can seem to kids out of the reach of their capabilities; another child’s work opens a door to the viewing child: this is something he or she can achieve as well. Since the hospital’s mission is the care and nurturing of children, this seemed an ideal way of integrating them into this environment designed for them.