The McGill University Health Centre, known as the MUHC, is one of two new so-called ‘super-hospitals’ currently under construction in the province of Quebec’s largest city, Montreal. The other, is the French hospital, the CHUM, the Centre Hospitalier de l’universite de Montreal.
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The MUHC is beginning the finishing touches on the interior of a vast complex that will bring together the former Children’s Hospital and the venerable Royal Victoria Hospital, which opened as a state of the art facility back in 1893.
One of these finishing elements is the inclusion of 11 works of art, commissioned for the unique architecture of the new centre. Pieces will be created for the interior and the exterior of the site.
A Quebec government program mandates 1 per cent of the budget for any public building must go to artistic work. The magnitude of this project has created the capacity to feature a variety of work, in various media from 11 Quebec artists.
Karine Raynor, is the Associate Director and Curator of the MUHC Heritage Centre. She says the value of art to health is becoming more apparent. She says “having appropriate art in healing spaces actually helps patients to heal faster, it reduces staff turnover, it reduces noise, so the benefits are really starting to show themselves.”
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