Christina Forrer
A section of Fable Vine, the new mural by artist Christina Forrer at NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler, features the nursing home’s resident therapy dog, Momo, and other animals.
Luhring Augustine is delighted to announce that NYC Health + Hospitals unveiled a new mural by Christina Forrer as part of the Community Mural Project run by the health system’s Arts in Medicine department. The mural, Fable Vine at NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler, was developed by Forrer through a series of focus groups with residents. Staff and community members brought the project to life at a paint party where they were invited to create the mural together. The design process incorporated a creative aging approach, which emphasizes the importance of integrating arts and cultural programming into the quality of life for residents. Fable Vine is one of 7 new murals that will be created this year, adding to 37 murals created at NYC Health + Hospitals since 2019. The first wave of the Community Mural Project is featured in a book, Healing Walls: New York City Health + Hospitals Community Mural Project 2019-2021. This and other murals at NYC Health + Hospitals can be viewed on the free Bloomberg Connects app. The Community Mural Project is made possible through the support of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. This and other murals at NYC Health + Hospitals can be viewed on the free Bloomberg Connects app.
Forrer brings together diverse artistic traditions in this vibrant community mural. Inspired by the frescos of her Swiss upbringing and the intricate needlework of 19th-century American samplers, Fable Vine flows into a garden of pattern and color. She infused the artwork with flowers, plants, and animals—both realistic and abstract—reflecting the warmth and diversity of the Coler community. Additional artworks co-curated by Forrer and focus group participants surround the mural, extending the beauty of nature throughout the space. These pieces, created by Coler residents Jean Jacques Anthony and Yvonne Smith alongside artists from the Arts in Medicine collection, such as Nancy Graves, Ansel Adams, Kyu-Baik Hwang, and E.A. Seguy, transform the corridor into an immersive and welcoming space, brightening the hallway for residents, staff and visitors alike.
“Christina Forrer’s beautiful mural celebrates the stories and traditions of the Coler community and the staff’s compassionate care for patients,” said Laurie Tisch, founder and president of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. “It will spark joy and provide inspiration to all who enter the facility, and we are proud to have supported its creation.”
“The arts are a proven method that support aging populations,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Assistant Vice President of Arts in Medicine Larissa Trinder. “Arts in Medicine’s creative aging strategy promotes cognitive functioning through participatory engagement activities, which are the basic framework for our community mural program. Christina had a thoughtful and compassionate approach that made our patients feel valued and included in the artistic process. We know this mural will brighten the spaces and hearts of our staff and residents at NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler for days to come.”
“Art can provide significant benefits to residents in a nursing home,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler CEO Stephen Catullo, LNHA, MBA. “It can be therapeutic and contribute to emotional stability. It can help trigger memories and maintain cognitive abilities for longer periods. Art activities can foster a sense of community and encourage residents to interact with one another. Art may encourage mindfulness and relaxation. Ultimately, engaging in art activities can provide joy and make lives more fulfilling.”
“We set out to dispel perceptions of aging through mythmaking,” said artist Christina Forrer. “Creating this mural evolved into crafting a new myth itself: by weaving together folklore traditions and the voices of Coler residents, it transcended our initial vision and took on a life of its own. It has been a great experience collaborating with NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler to bring something vibrant and caring that is reflective of the community.”
Animated by an interest in fables and folklore, Christina Forrer creates 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.
The Community Mural Project is believed to be the country’s largest public hospital mural program since the 1930s, when the depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissioned murals in public buildings, including virtually every hospital in New York City’s public healthcare system. The WPA murals were the start of NYC Health + Hospitals art collection, which now is the city’s largest non-museum public art collection and includes more than 7,500 pieces of art of multiple disciplines. The art collection is used to enhance the healthcare environment, inspire creativity, promote wellness, increase access to the arts, and engage staff.
Coler’s predecessor, Goldwater Hospital, was the site of four important WPA murals that are included in the Illumination Fund’s book, Healing Walls: The NYC Health + Hospitals Community Mural Project. Two of the WPA murals still exist at Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island.
The Community Mural Project creates opportunities for hospital staff to collaborate with each other and with neighbors, relieve stress, and enhance the physical environment of the facilities. Healthcare worker burnout is a national health crisis, and mental health challenges are especially common in low-income, immigrant, and historically excluded communities, which are significant patient populations for NYC Health + Hospitals.
About NYC Health + Hospitals/Post-Acute Care
NYC Health + Hospitals Post-Acute Care is comprised of five skilled nursing facilities (SNF), a long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) and adult day healthcare program. There is a total of 2,099 inpatient beds in the SNFs and LTACH. Carter, Coler, Gouverneur, McKinney, and Seaview have all consistently earned Four- & Five-Star Ratings awarded by CMS. In addition, Carter, Gouverneur, McKinney and Seaview have been recognized by US News & World Report as one of the Best Nursing Homes in 2024 for long-term care and short-term rehabilitation; Newsweek ranks Carter, Coler, Gouverneur, and Sea View in the Top 10 of Best Nursing Homes 2024 in New York State; McKinney ranked in the Top 30. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/postacutecare.
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 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.