New art display at Halifax hospital offers staff, patients break from intense environment - Action News
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Nova Scotia

New art display at Halifax hospital offers staff, patients break from intense environment

A series of artworks created by students from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design is now on display at the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax.

Colourful landscapes, dollhouse model were created by students at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design

Two women wearing face masks stand in front of an art display, looking toward the camera.
Jane Davies, CEO of Partners For Care, and Sara Hartland-Rowe, the lead artist for the art display, stand in front of an exhibit called Doll-house at the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax. (Alex Guye/CBC)

A series of artworks created by students from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design is now on display at the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax.

The art, which features a 10-metre long painting of several colourful landscapes and a three-dimensional dollhouse, is on display in the busy main hallway, near the entrance of the hospital.

It was created by graduating students Ran Jacob, Charlotte MacLean and Anna Halcrow, being led by Sara Hartland-Rowe, a part-time painting professor at NSCAD.

"There's something that people get from being in the presence of creative work or beautiful things, and we really like to let our imaginations play and in a hospital can't let your imagination play that much," Hartland-Rowe told CBC Radio's Mainstreet Nova Scotia.

"But having a place in your life where something unexpected and surprising and beautiful can happen is really, really important."

Four people add paper cutouts to colourful boxes inside a wall.
The dollhouse was constructed inside the wall of a hallway at the Victoria General Hospital. (David Clark)

The art display was put together in collaboration with Partners for Care, a non-profit organization that works with Nova Scotia Health.

Jane Davies, the CEO of Partners for Care, said Nova Scotia Health has been looking for a way to spruce up the old hospital since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This is an old, tired building that will be decommissioned in the coming years, but in the meantime, 500,000 patient visits happen and people do miracles here every day," Davies told Mainstreet.

"And so what Sarah was inspired by was the work that's happening and will continue to happen here at the VG [and] wanting to recognize that heroic work that takes place every day."

Different rooms of a large dollhouse with paper cutouts of people.
The dollhouse features different scenes that could be found inside the hospital. (David Clark)

She said the main hallway which previously resembled a blank canvas is likely the most highly trafficked area in the hospital because the pharmacy and cafeteria are close by, and it's a primary connector to many of the buildings.

That's why it was the perfect place for some artwork, she said.

The first piece is a large, three-dimensional dollhouse placed inside the wall at the end of the hallway, which features scenes that could be found inside thehospital. It's aptly namedDoll-house.

An artistic depiction of a patients in a hospital room with a nurse.
One of the rooms in the dollhouse features a patient and a nurse inside a hospital room. (David Clark)

Scenes include people cleaning, people delivering things, a patient undergoing dialysis, a nursing station with a trolley, lab technicians testing specimens, doctors consulting and of course, people visiting patients.

"We wanted to pay tribute to everyone that works, that is in some way part of the VG we wanted to show the gamut of health care at the VG," Hartland-Rowe said.

She said the second piece is aseriescalled Journey. The paintings, which wind down the long hallway, show familiar landscapes like a garden, a sunny meadow, a verdant coastline and even a Halifax street on a rainy evening.

Two people work on a piece of art hung on a white wall.
The art was created by graduating students from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. (David Clark)

Hartland-Rowe saidthe outdoor scenes are meant to connect people to the outside world, while inside the hospital.

"When I've been in hospital before and I felt closed off from the outside world, so something that would connect what's happening outside with inside, felt really important," she said.

She said the goal of the art is to make staff, patients and visitors stop and take a second.

Four large pieces of artwork on display on a white wall, in a hallway.
These colourful designs are part of a 10-metre-long art display featured in a busy hallway at the Victoria General Hospital. (David Clark)

"When you're working in a hospital, you're really busy, you're [doing] intense work that has to be done really, really well, and when you're a patient in a hospital, you're experiencing a completely other kind of world from the one you normally occupy," she said.

"We wanted the [art] to be a moment where you could just have a break from that kind of intensity and just have sort of sense of play and imagination and humour."

Davies said although the hospital will be decommissioned in the future, these works of art were designed to travel to a new location.

Hartland-Rowe said she hopes more hospitals will be built to include art in the first place.

With files from Alex Guye

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