Children’s Minnesota

Children’s  Minnesota is the destination for pediatric care for children and families throughout the Upper Midwest. The people come from a rich array of cultural backgrounds, reflective of the community’s growing diversity. Along with the most significant development in its history, to renovate and expand outdated facilities, Children’s has embraced an unprecedented opportunity to merge architecture, interior design, landscape design, science and art in a way that will ultimately transform the health-care experience of the people who come to the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Mother Baby campuses.

Aesthetics, Inc. was hired to help Children’s implement a vision for an Arts & Healing Urban Renewal Project with the local arts community. Partnerships with the arts community drove the building’s interior art and design themes. These themes add discovery and wonder to the patient journey and lend an identity to each level of the building. In tandem with the interior design concepts, these themes create a consistent, branded experience throughout the Minneapolis campus. Color, texture, art, graphics, and displays all support the organization’s presence in the community.

Aesthetics immediately assisted leadership to create The Arts & Healing and Urban Renewal Task Force to develop a vision to transform the healing journey for children, families and the community and launch an urban renewal unlike any other in the country through a unique collaboration with the local arts community, including Children’s Theatre Company, COMPAS, MacPhail Center for Music, Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Minnesota Children’s Museum.

In addition, they created a Healing Environment Committee that creates policies and procedures, and a Research Committee which identifies areas for evaluation and metrics to measure the impact of the art program.

Phase One of this project was installed in 2010. Funding the art program’s price tag of $2.5 million was raised entirely within the local community. The collection includes more than 425 original pieces of art. A robust website that tells the story of the art program and sponsorship opportunities was directed by Aesthetics, and is viewable at www.childrensmn.org/Giving/ArtsandHealing/.