University Hospitals Celebrates Artwork from Local Black Artists at Wellness Centers

CLEVELAND – University Hospitals (UH) is celebrating the work of local Black artists through installations at its two wellness centers where community members come to enhance their health and overall wellness.  

The mission of the UH wellness centers is to enhance the well-being of communities through trust building, health education, wellness programming, health screenings, and access to care. UH identified Bedford and the Glenville neighborhood in Cleveland as the first locations to invest in wellness centers. The community wellness centers serve as a destination for UH to address social determinants of health, deliver preventative healthcare and enhance general well-being.

The teams developing the UH wellness centers put much thought into the planning – not only about services provided, but also the feeling people would have inside the spaces.

“We want the wellness centers to have a clear distinction from the traditional clinic or medical building,” said Lena Grafton, PhD, MPH, CHES, director of community health engagement at UH. “Walking into the space to receive community health programming, we wanted people to instantly feel welcomed and inspired, and to provoke those feelings we decided one of the many ways was to change the space through art.”

UH recognizes the correlation between art and wellness and has a long tradition of emphasizing art. UH medical centers feature fine art and other locations house high-quality reproductions. UH even has an art curator on staff.

“We needed something unique and specific for the wellness centers,” said Tom Huck, Jackie and Fred C. Rothstein, MD, Endowed Director of Art Curation, the art curator at UH since 2011. “We knew we wanted to feature local Black artists, but we tried to think outside the box about how we could take that even further.”

“The novel idea regarding this particular project is that it goes beyond just using local artists’ work,” said Grafton. “We worked directly with the owner of an art gallery in the Fairfax area to identify and develop the artwork in the wellness centers.”

UH representatives coordinated with David Ramsey at Deep Roots Experience to purchase 21 pieces of art from nine different artists for the wellness centers.

“This was the first time we worked with a guest curator for one of our UH spaces,” said Huck. “David put together a collection of art for both spaces and our UH team was absolutely in agreement. It was a very rewarding project.”

Choosing the artwork took Ramsey and the team about six months. They needed to ensure the art represented the themes of the wellness centers like healthy eating and community. They wanted people to see themselves in the art.

“We ended up with a collection that does a good job of representing great artwork from some emerging artists,” said Ramsey. “Investing in living artists is the only way that art continues. As people see the artwork, we hope they’re inspired to invest in pieces for their own homes and that supports artists and art in general.”

The artists represented at the wellness centers are: Aldonte The Artist, Asia Armour, Bee1ne, Jae Capo, Dayzwhun, Pahpy@sammiedoesit, Bobbi Reagins, Vivica Satterwhite, and Emanuel Wallace.

This project fits into UH’s greater Community Health Investment Strategy which prioritizes economic opportunity, wellbeing, and maternal and child health.

“The art themes within the wellness centers reflect those priorities,” said Grafton. “The hope is that when members of the community participate in programs at our wellness centers, they have a sense of pride, inspiration and empowerment and this artwork helps us accomplish that.”