Students create artwork for hospital
By Julia Cho Contributing Writer

ARHS senior Lindsey Bacon works on a mural for UMass Memorial Hospital. PHOTO/KATHLEEN LIVERNOIS

Northborough/Southborough - On a snowy afternoon before winter vacation, about 25 members of the Algonquin Regional High School's (ARHS) National Art Honor Society gathered to put finishing touches on a series of paintings destined to hang in the pediatric emergency department at UMass Memorial Hospital in Worcester. The paintings will hang in frames along a corridor that leads from the patient waiting room to the treatment rooms, creating a mural on both sides of the corridor, where currently there are empty walls.

The collaboration between the school and hospital started about a year ago when the hospital donated some of its old photography equipment to the school. Michelle Sheppard, the advisor to the National Art Honor Society and a teacher in the fine arts department at ARHS, has been working to promote the relationship between the two organizations.

"They gave us so much stuff , so this is a way for us to give back to them," Sheppard said.

In addition to the mural that will go in the pediatric hallway, students have decorated patients' rooms by painting windows at various times through the past year.

"It's [Our volunteer work there is] not a once-a-week thing with UMass, because they have other organizations that they work with," Sheppard said. "So some- times it's hard for us to schedule time based on their schedule, but it is definitely something we'd like to keep ongoing."

Two students who recently painted windows in the pediatric ward, Alyssa Bacon and Evan Dias, were also helping to complete the mural for the hospital. They both said that the window painting for the patients was a great experience.

"We painted lots of seasonal designs on the windows, like snowmen," Bacon said.

"One patient requested Yoda, so we did that," Dias added.

Personal touches such as the paintings help make the hospital more friendly and inviting, especially to young patients, according to Rob Wing, the director of Child Life Services at the hospital, who has helped facilitate getting the art installed there.

"Putting up something that is familiar … hopefully will help them [the patients] feel a little more comfortable in a strange environment," Wing said.

He has been very pleased with all the work the student volunteers have done for the pediatric patients.

"They've been great," he said. "We hope this is a relationship that will go into the future."

The work on the mural started back in October, when members of the society agreed on a theme and then worked as a team to complete the paintings. All have had a hand in the layout, design and painting of the mural. Each student finds ways to help, from touching up the color, looking up reference objects on the computer to help the painters with finishing details, mixing paint colors for others to use, and providing encouragement and feedback to one another.

Sheppard said that the goals of the National Art Honor Society chapter are "to recognize, support and raise awareness of accomplished artists in our school community through service, exhibition and fund-raising."

Working with the hospital has been just one way to get that message out. This year, the group has also produced a calendar of student art as part of fund-raising efforts to support upcoming projects.