Knowing that visits to their offices can fill patients with anxiety and fear, administrators at Mankato area health care facilities have utilized local artists to help bring comfort to their customers when they arrive.
When folks at the Orthopaedic & Fracture Clinic completed replacement of office furnishings such as carpeting and wall covering, they realized they needed some bling to finish off the look.
Work was begun at the end of 2022, said Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Willaert. When they completed work on those essentials, they explored options for final decorations.
“We looked at (AJ Dahm’s) artwork and just instantaneously decided that was for us,” she said.
Research had told them that nature photography was good for health care facilities because such images are generally comforting for people in anxious situations.
“And I shared with them, too, that it was important for us that we really wanted to do the Minnesota theme or Mankato community theme,” added Julie Morgan, chief operating officer. “We knew we wanted to stick with that as well.”
Although now living in Iowa, Dahm is an image editor for Mankato-based Fun.com. While living in town, he would often head out after work into nature around Mankato and take photos of the current season that captured the local beauty sought by OFC.
“It’s nice to have some photos that can help give somebody something to look at that keeps them calm and gives them a sense of peace, or something that distracts them from what they might have going on,” he said.
Together, Willaert and Morgan went to Dahm’s website and selected photos. Dahm then went to former employer SPX Sports & Quality 1HR Foto and Brian Fowler to get images printed.
Printed on metal panels, photos are installed on the walls using standouts, said Beth Rohrich of SPX Sports. Ink is added directly to the aluminum substrate and cured using a UV light, Dahm added. It also gets a UV sunlight protectant to prevent fading.
“The day after it started, you could see all the employees walking through and looking at every single new (photograph), whether it was the exam rooms or the lobby. So, they enjoyed the process,” Morgan said. It even encouraged some to contribute their own photos, which join Dahm’s, with photographer signature and everything.
In total, more than 40 pieces of photographic jewelry have been added to the walls at OFC as of December 2023. Fowler and his crew helped determine best placement and sizing, Morgan and Willaert said, with the largest being 5-by-8 feet. Others are mounted as a triptych, with three separate prints making up one image.
A walk through the hallways reveals many subjects, from snowshoes and skis to barns and waterways. Some have colors that blend with the walls, others seem to burst from a subdued background with bright seasonal colors.
“We tried to capture all the seasons,” Willaert said. “Because, I mean, that’s a big part of what Minnesota is … and different pictures and photos resonate with different people differently.”
Curating art
Heather Clark-Esser is an interior designer for Olson + Hobbie Architects, but she also serves on the CityArt Sculpture Committee, the board of Twin Rivers Center for the Arts and had been an owner at Salvage Sisters. She uses those experiences and artist connections when curating art that hangs at Mayo Clinic Health System locations.
“I love art. I love art very, very much,” she said. So a few years ago when she was approached about helping with an art installation at the Mayo Imaging Center, “I jumped at that opportunity.”
In advance of the opening of the bariatrics space at Madison East Center, Clark-Esser weaved around last-minute work projects to artworks done by Minnesota artists who have previously been displayed elsewhere, including the Louvre Museum in Paris. Though concentrating on Minnesota artists, she likes to show off a variety of styles.
“I use the existing environment to help determine the mood, the color, the style (of the art), so that when somebody walks into a space, it really complements the interiors and doesn’t distract necessarily from them,” she said.
In addition, the curation of pieces — from abstract art to photography — should move naturally as you walk through the space, she said. She referred to a couple of pieces in the bariatrics space in Mankato.
“When you’re coming down the hallway, you can see both pieces at the same time,” she said. “The colors lend themselves to each other. Although the design of the pieces aren’t the same, they lend themselves to being in the same space.”
Also, when she has visited Mayo hospitals in Rochester, she uses distinctive pieces for way-finding from one office to another.
“I really feel like a well-designed space is something that you’re comfortable in, and there isn’t anything that bothers you. There isn’t anything that says, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to leave this space,’” and that’s what she strives for in her design.
Highlighting community
The Mankato Clinic was founded in 1916, is locally owned and has physicians who are deeply rooted in the community, said Marcia Bahr, director of marketing.
“We live and work here, and we are proud to highlight the places and people that make our area unique,” Bahr said. “We also like to support the work of local artists and photographers.”
One of those artists, who until recently was part of the Mankato community, is Sara Hughes. She grew up in Mankato and graduated from Mankato West High School, where she caught the photography bug from her mom, who was always documenting her and her five siblings.
Now living in Bellingham, Washington, she does specialty commissions, portraits and documentary work. She became interested while photographing her sister’s cross-country races and soon found herself working as a SPX Sports photographer.
“I am a documentary photographer and enjoy capturing moments as they happen,” she wrote in an email. “The (Mankato Clinic) North Mankato Clinic project required a mix of nature scenes, portraiture and candid images of people. My favorite subject to photograph is children because they are in their own world and I can be free to capture it.”
Photos featured in the clinic were captured that way. She keeps her eyes open at events and captures moments. If the photo is good, she approaches the parents and asks for permission to use the photo.
Just as OFC administrators sought all four seasons, she works to capture as many aspects of an event as she can to give a full depiction of the community. This allows anyone who visits the space to have something to relate to, she said.
“One of my favorite images is actually a posed image, which is very unlike me. However, it was an ode to the classic first day of school photos parents take of their kids, so it had a lot of meaning to me,” she said.
She found the photo while driving around lower North Mankato that day and happened upon a group of siblings outside their house, pristine school outfits embodying the first day.
The photo that gets the most response is one she referred to as “bubble girl,” which hangs in the lower level of the Children’s Health Center.
“People love it! The colors and the amazement on the child’s face is priceless,” and it is broken into three panels that hang as a triptych.
While the local artist images chosen for each of the health care facilities in Mankato is meant to help create a unified atmosphere, the people behind the selection and placement also hope they remind visitors of the incredible talent of their neighbors. And, perhaps, will encourage a personal purchase to help support those artists.