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Want to get your art into the new Campbell River hospital?

Committee will select work to be made into ‘decals’ using re-launched Public Art website submissions
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This set of doors in the current hospital are wrapped in a similar way to what is planned for the initial art installation process in the new facility for its opening this fall. The work to be installed will be selected from the new Campbell River Public Art website, so local artists are being encouraged to get their work up there so it can be considered.

The Campbell River Public Art Committee has relaunched their public art website and is encouraging local artists to get signed up so their work can be considered for upcoming projects – like the work that will be going up in the new hospital for its opening this fall.

Ken Blackburn, chair of the Public Art Committee and executive director of the Campbell River Arts Council – who also sits on the Art in the Hospital Committee – says the arts council is taking the lead on the art going into the new hospital and will use the new online platform to decide which works will be transferred onto vinyl wraps to be installed within the new facility.

“We’re using what we’re calling the decal approach,” Blackburn says, “and we’re asking artists who are interested in being considered for image transferring to register on the Public Art website, because we’ll be using that directory when we’re looking for appropriate images for the hospital.”

The reason they have chosen to go with the “decal approach,” for the first phase of the hospital art call, Blackburn says, “is because at this point, we’re place-holding high-priority areas during the start-up of the new facility, including the lobby, the café, the hallway that connects the lobby to the café, the chemo ward, those kinds of places. The hospital has identified what their priority is for the opening and we want to place-hold those areas with the concept of what we want to eventually do in terms of putting actual art in those environments.”

Instead of doing a traditional “call-for-artists” for the hospital project – at least for the first intake – Blackburn and the committee will be selecting work that has been uploaded to the Public Art Artist Directory on the website. Artists can choose to have their work considered for the hospital project or not, but should know there will be some restrictions on the types of work being considered.

“At least for this project, we’re going to be looking for work that is positive and lends itself to a theraputic atmosphere and to a positive work environment for the staff of the hospital,” Blackburn says.

“There are certain genres of art that are not considered great for hospitals. Abstraction is generally not looked at as being a positive for theraputic environments, for example, but it really depends on how ‘active’ the work is, and it might be okay for some staff areas.”

Blackburn notes the artists will be paid for the rights to reproduce their work if it is selected to be made into decals for the hospital’s opening, but that amount has not yet been determined.

“We’re also going to be looking for work that reflects the community so that when you’re in the hospital, you’re not isolated and still feel like you’re part of the community,” Blackburn says.

The new Public Art website is located at campbellriverpublicart.ca