RxArt taps top artists to help kids

For Dorkas Kaya and other young patients with HIV, seeing the walls of their residential treatment facility in New York transformed with broad splashes of color and graffiti-like scribbles brought a singular reaction: “Whoa!”

Artist José Parlá spent several days recently decorating bedrooms, hallways and common areas of the Incarnation Children's Center in his improvisational style, the latest project in a charitable effort that commissions top contemporary artists to make pediatric health facilities less intimidating.

“We were all like 'whoa,' yelling, 'cause it's so different,” said Kaya, 19. “I like the colors. It brings life to the place.”

RxArt's simple mission is to help children heal through the power of art by taking their mind off their surroundings, even for just a little while. They've brought in an impressive roster of artists to pediatric wards across the country to create original works on walls, ceilings, floors, even medical equipment.

Former art dealer Diane Brown founded RxArt 15 years ago after experiencing claustrophobia during a CAT scan. “I was terrified,” she recalled. Her only escape was thinking about a painting by one of her favorite artists.

When the test was over, she realized she had hardly been aware of it. She decided, “I'd like to do this for other people, but in case they didn't have my imagination or background, I would have to be more concrete.”

RxArt has since worked with such artists as Jeff Koons at Advocate Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill.; Kenny Scharf at Kings County Hospital Center in New York; and Urs Fischer at the Cedar-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Children's Health Center in Los Angeles. Thirty-two projects are complete, with seven more on the drawing board.