Our recently published story on the amazing NYC-based organization RxART - which commissions prominent artists to create artworks for the purpose of brightening pediatric care spaces - got us thinking about the intersection of art and health. After all, the therapeutic qualities of art have become a significant topic of conversation amongst the creative classes of late, who are beginning to better understand how they can have a genuine impact at a time when our collective mental health seems more vulnerable than ever to outside forces.

Fittingly enough, out on the other coast, an exhibition titled 'Hospital of Emotions' is examining how art can illuminate the visceral aspects of a hospital stay. Curator Yaara Sachs, via her pop-up company House of Art & Dreams, has collaborated with producer Oshri Elmorich, and designer David Knudsen to create an elaborately immersive experience, which employs the work of more than 70 contemporary artists, woven directly into 80 rooms across four floors within the historic, but defunct since 2020, St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles.

“'Hospital of Emotions' begins with the space itself," Sachs explains. "A hospital is where we confront fear, but also recognize what matters. Here, the building becomes a journey - shifting the focus from treating the body to experiencing and processing emotion."

Each artist was tasked with "decorating" an individual room based on the themes 'Joy', 'Sadness', 'Fear', 'Hope', 'Compassion', 'Love' and 'Resilience'. In Room 55, for instance, Greg Corbino depicts 'hope' by creating a fantastical forest of trees around a hospital bed, as if providing sylvan protection for the patient; in Room 19, Nathalie Auzepy imagines 'compassion' as an abundance of plush arms reaching down towards the patient, with what would seem to be outstretched hands of empathy; and particularly powerful is Santa Gross' installation on the theme of 'love' in Room 66 (above left image), with a weeping yet comforting eye looking down on a gurney, whose bright red fabric matches the color of the surreal but tranquil painted setting surrounding it, a color which may just contain a metaphor or two upon contemplation.

The exhibit has already drawn tens of thousands of visitors, and talk is that it may be extended beyond its original July 31 closing date. So it seems to have struck a chord, especially with the Covid pandemic not yet too far in the rearview mirror, and so many health facilities around the country confronting financial challenges in the face of changing national legislation.

One visitor summed it up poignantly: “I didn’t expect an art experience to affect me this deeply. Walking through 'Hospital of Emotions' — especially inside a former hospital — brought up so much around grief, healing, and medical trauma in a way that felt surprisingly safe and human. It gave me space to reflect and release things I didn’t even realize I’d been carrying.”

Of course, some people love airports, some people hate them. But rarely do you ever hear anyone say that they were happy to be confined to a hospital bed. In fact, more than half of Americans experience significant levels of fear and anxiety regarding their dealings with hospitals. Yet the doctors and healthcare workers who staff them are utterly vital to our continuing wellness and survival during this brief mortal existence. So using art to reimagine the emotional resonance of it all was surely an idea that was right for this moment, when our health is endlessly subjected to the vagaries of political machinations.

Notably, the complex will be finding a new life as the St. Vincent Behavioral Health Campus, the first phase of which opened in June, with additional phases debuting throughout 2027, and the new 800-bed facility scheduled to be fully functional by the opening day of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Don't be surprised if art finds its way into the treatment programs, considering its growing impact on contemporary mental health practices.