Client: Covenant Health's Joe Arrington Cancer Center

Overview

This Cancer Center is a ministry of Christian healing with a deep belief in God. The goal of our mural installations was multifaceted: to sincerely express God’s love to all who enter, to share the long history of this facility along with heartening stories of the Center’s values and care, to offer inspiring messages of faith, hope, to recognize the extraordinary devotion and care of staff, and to honor donors' generosity in supporting their neighbors’ healing. 1/2″ thick hand-carved and -etched polished crystal, 2 panels 8' x 4.5', 1 plaque 9″ x 23″. Custom lighting and programmed LCD screen.

Goals

The client initiated all aspects of the design of this Cancer Center Expansion to create a patient-centered HEALING ENVIRONMENT. They commissioned Amri Studio to do sensitive KEY pieces that reflect the love of neighbors for neighbors, the love and reassurance of God, and chapel-like niches or “pilgrimage stations” that express a warm welcome as well as invite moments of reflection and gratitude. Four Amri Studio illustrator/artists plus our engineer produced the artwork and candle-like custom lighting to create a reverent, chapel-like atmosphere. Many illustrated art and graphic elements, such as the beautifully interwoven, radiating threads of some lace-in-progress, express the story of the different beliefs, people, and institutions who came together to create this center. Expansive golden wheat fields with an implied path heading far into the distance can be seen as a “pathway to God.” The important element of LIGHT beaming through the carved crystal (via edge-mounted LEDs and halogen spotlights) creates a glowing presence to symbolize the presence of God and the philanthropic Acts of Light from this compassionate community. In addition, a gently dynamic, scrolling skyscape with hundreds of neighbors’ names in a custom-programmed and integrated LCD screen is easily expanded to up to 5,000 Annual Donors.

Process

Our collaboration began during the RFP process when we interviewed the client about their intentions and needs. Rarely have we had such an intimate and family-like set of exchanges. This allowed us to go to a much deeper level, having face-to-face interviews with leadership, clinicians, large lead Donors, the Foundation and actual patients. Our purpose was to understand on an emotional, heart, and spiritual level the core of what makes this Cancer Center and community unique. We proposed and sketched two expansive themes and deeply shared with our illustrators the intentions, symbolism, and spiritual nature of this project. This knowledge informed their illustrations as well as our custom lighting solutions. At heart, good design is potent and heartfelt. This extraordinary installation affords viewers the rare opportunity to reflect and meditate on life, gratitude, one’s own feelings and needs, and faith. It also powerfully promotes healing, an attribute of all our healthcare installations, for which we have twice won the prestigious Nightingale Award “for innovation and excellence in products that improve quality of care and contribute to patient healing.”

Additional Information

The three “entry experience” installations capture the essence of Covenant Health’s healing ministry in a welcoming, poetic, and jewel-like series of “waystations.” Design elements “speak” to one another and echo imagery, design vocabulary, color, and luminosity through the three areas and across the hallway from their respective niches. The niches end in a touching crystal Prayer Plaque carved with scriptural reassurance. Patients and families write a blessing or prayer onto small parchment-like scrolls and wedge them into our client’s sculptural metal prayer tree. The niche and waiting area thus expand into a powerful and soothing “Prayer Wall.”