Client: Intarcia Therapuetics, Inc.
Location: Boston, MA, United States
Completion date: 2017
Artwork budget: $450,000
Project Team
Architect
Vincenzo Giambertone
ACTWO Architects
Other
Paul Decina
Structure Tone
Client
Diana Cooper
Intarcia
Artist
Kelly Milukas
Imagination Collaboration
Client
Kurt Graves
Intarcia Therapeautics
Artist
Anastasia Azure
Anastasia Azure
Artist
Stacey Frates
Stacey Frates
Artist
Sarah Ricci
SFG
Artist
William Gunn
Bill Gunn
Other
Kevin Koch
Colliers International
Art Consultant
Suzi Hlavacek
Boston Art
Interior Designer
Nicole Kearns
Total Office Interiors
Client
Ed Daly
Intarcia Therapeautics
Interior Designer
Anne Furey
PlaceLift
Overview
Intarcia engaged Kelly to acknowledge the talent, tenacity and patient stories within the pursuit of life changing medicines. Intarcia’s novel platform, the Medici Drug Delivery System™ features a matchstick-size mini-pump placed just beneath the patient’s skin. One implant is capable of delivering a continuous dose of drug therapy for 6 months up to a year. Intarcia’s first investigational therapy for type 2 diabetes, is currently under review. Once approved, this will represent a transformational leap forward for patients with diabetes. Intarcia aims to unleash disruptively innovative medicines for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, unlocking life’s possibilities for patients.
Goals
Kelly’s luminous “Keys to Cures” sculptures have been adopted as a powerful symbol for how the work of Intarcia teams is unlocking cures through innovation. Kelly’s art is a permanent installation at Intarcia’s new Seaport District, Boston headquarters. Intarcia also commissions Kelly to create “Key Awards” that honor outstanding staff efforts. The artwork and Kelly’s contributions on-site have led to many visible expressions of company culture and values. Kelly works in a flexible capacity as the resident artist and design consultant.
Process
A Boston-based biotech incorporates tangible art metaphors while ‘unlocking’ drug therapy advancements. “When first informed by Intarcia about collaborating with their in-house artist, I was grateful to be able to design in the pieces vs having them occur
incidentally about the space irrespective of the architecture. Typically, clients
will add artwork after we leave and the pieces are divorced from the
appropriate lighting, curatorial placement and irreverent to the architecture.
Once I met the artist and became familiar with her work and her dedication to
have the architecture and artwork become one, this led to one of the most
joyous professional experiences of my career. The ability to specify the
lighting, provide architectural moments where artwork could live an ultimately
have the artwork perform in the space to the same degree as the architecture,
has led to an unexpected experience both for me as a design professional but
more importantly for the end user that is enveloped in the environment. The
space feels like an art gallery where people work and provides an emotional
value atypically found in such workplaces.” -Vincenzo Giambertone, Architect
Additional Information
An exceptional experience, a full immersion collaboration: Intarcia's full team, the architect, the artist, and the partners. During the collaborative 3 week installation to suspend the keys, staff members were invited to pick "their" key, it's location, and help suspend it in the air. Now, each day the staff members arrive, they see their key, and even untangle it if needed. New employees have heard the installation story and they ask to be included. - More keys go up! The symbolism of the Keys serves as a constant reminder of the importance each employee holds in service to patients.