Christina Forrer | New Mural for NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler – Paint Party Event

Luhring Augustine is delighted to announce that Christina Forrer will paint a new mural with help from nursing home residents and staff at the NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler on Roosevelt Island in New York. The event will start at 11am on Thursday, October 31.

The mural’s design was developed by Forrer in collaboration with Coler’s residents, staff, and community members through a series of focus groups. The health system’s Arts in Medicine department adopted a creative aging approach, which recognizes that arts programs promote better cognitive processing and quality of life for aging patients. According to Forrer, her work investigates human relationships by considering the psychological meaning of fairytales and their mythical meaning. The mural showcases various plants, flowers, and animals to reflect the cultural richness and caring nature of the Coler community and brighten the high-trafficked hallway where it will be displayed.

During the party, participants will help paint the mural on sheets of polytab. Forrer will subsequently assemble these pieces together, applying additional detail as needed to complete the work, and later this year the final mural will be installed at Coler. This mural is one of 7 new murals coming to NYC Health + Hospitals this year through the Community Mural Project run by the health system’s Arts in Medicine department. This program is made possible through the generous support of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. The event on Halloween will also include a costume contest and live music from Sing for Hope.

For more information about the project, please visit the NYC Health + Hospitals website.

About NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler
NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler is an 815-bed skilled nursing facility located in Roosevelt Island, providing comprehensive skilled nursing, medical and rehabilitative care for more than 70 years. Coler is committed to serving New York City and the surrounding communities, while setting an example as a leader in memory care programming and rehabilitation. Rated as a “Best Nursing Home” by Newsweek, with a ranking of 5th best in New York State, the facility earned a Five-Star CMS rating which designates them among the top 10 percent of skilled nursing facilities in the country. The facility also ranks in the top 1st quintile in the New York State Department of Health Nursing Home Quality Pool. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/coler.

About NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine Department
The Arts in Medicine department at NYC Health + Hospitals seeks to foster the emotional well-being and promote healing and wellness for all patients and their families, employees, and the greater community by utilizing the arts, including literary, visual, and performing arts throughout the health care system. In addition to managing the system’s significant visual arts collection, the Arts in Medicine department encourages evidenced based practices and provides technical assistance to all of the system’s health care facilities and clinics. This is accomplished by combining artistic innovation and education into a comprehensive health care continuum that supports the healing benefits of the arts. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/artsinmedicine.

About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 43,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

About Christina Forrer
Animated by an interest in fables and folklore, Christina Forrer’s vibrant weavings and electrifying works on paper explore the depths of human emotion. Depicted in her signature representational style of fantastical characters with cartoonish features, her work is rendered with a keen attention to boldness of color and richness of pattern. While many of her works showcase dramatic moments of explosive conflict, they also provide the viewer access into smaller, more personal terrors: private anxieties, internal tensions, and irrational fears. Her weavings are often enormous in scale, tableaux of psychological space populated by characters that may be human, animal, or vegetal. Retaining the figurative elements of her tapestries, Forrer’s drawing practice is more widely varied, ranging from quick sketches and notations to fully articulated, discursive paintings on paper. She is represented by Luhring Augustine in New York City and Corbett vs. Dempsey in Chicago.

About the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund
The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund is a New York City-based foundation that aims to improve access and opportunity for all New Yorkers and foster healthy and vibrant communities. In 2018, the Illumination Fund launched Arts in Health, a multi-year initiative to support organizations utilizing the arts as a tool for healing and building understanding in communities across New York City. The initiative’s areas of focus are stigma, trauma and aging-related diseases as well as supporting organizations addressing mental health in communities disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019 the Illumination Fund supported the creation of NYC Health + Hospitals Arts in Medicine department, expanding programs serving health care staff, patients, and communities in sites across the City. For more information, visit www.lmtif.org or follow @LMTischFund on Twitter.