Donors Share Art With LMH

| 2016 Q3 | story by MICKI CHESTNUT, Lawrence Memorial Hospital

Bill Snead, award-winning news photographer, donated several of his photographs to the Oncology Center at LMH, where he receive treatment during his long battle with cancer. Courtesy Lawrence Journal-World.

A few months after their youngest child graduated from the University of Kansas, Dr. Chuck Loveland and his wife, Mary, decided to take a spontaneous road trip to Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico. At an art gallery, they discovered and purchased a statue of a boy with his nose in a book, a stack of books next to him.

The couple couldn’t resist the statue because it depicted one of Dr. Loveland’s goals as a pediatrician: To champion the importance of books in a child’s life. Their attraction to the sculpture was further reinforced by Dr. Loveland’s comment that it reminded him of their son, a voracious reader.

When Dr. Loveland died in October 2014 after practicing pediatric medicine at Lawrence Memorial Hospital (LMH) from 1976 to 2013, Mary Loveland used a portion of a memorial fund set up in his honor at LMH to purchase an identical statue and add to it a second statue, of a little girl reading. .

She worked with the LMH Endowment Association team to place the statues on the rooftop garden. It’s fitting that the statues are visible from the entrance to the Family Birthing Center, where new babies come into the world ready to grow and discover, just as Dr. Loveland would have prescribed.

“Chuck always encouraged reading as an important parent/child opportunity,” Mary Loveland says. “When you look at the statue, you know how important children were to this man’s life and how important he was to young people.”

The hallways, treatment spaces and patient rooms at LMH are filled with artwork donated by patients and their family members, as well as LMH associates. The donated works are as diverse as the community members who receive care at the hospital, and the art collections cover the spectrum from modern and classical paintings to photos, textiles and sculptures.

For LMH patients and visitors, the artwork makes the hospital feel warmer, friendlier, more approachable, says Kathy Clausing-Willis, LMH vice president and chief development officer. For the artwork donors, each piece is an expression of gratitude for the care they or their loved ones received at LMH.

ART THAT CELEBRATES LIFE

When visitors enter the hospital, they are greeted by “Triumphant Dawn,” a large, colorful mural painted by local artist Zak Barnes. The painting, dotted with ribbons that symbolize different kinds of cancer, is dedicated to cancer fighters and survivors, including his father, Dr. Rod Barnes, a retired physician and cancer survivor who received treatment at LMH.

The entrance to the Oncology Department is accented with a collection of sculptures created by Lawrence artist George Paley. Inside the department, galleries include photos by award-winning news photographer Bill Snead, who worked for The Washington Post and National Geographic, and returned home to Lawrence to work for the Lawrence Journal-World. Snead, who received treatment at LMH, donated the work. He and Paley died earlier this year following long battles with cancer.

The waiting area of the Family Birthing Center is the site of a sculpture depicting a mother holding her son, donated by Connie Pelham Oliver upon her retirement from working as a nurse at LMH for more than four decades. “Connie spent her career here and wanted the hospital to have this statue,” Clausing-Willis says.

ART THAT HONORS LOVED ONES

Often, when people experience the loss of a loved one, they struggle with how to honor their family member’s memory, Clausing-Willis says. Sometimes, the gift of art helps them find healing while honoring their loved one’s life.

Clausing-Willis remembers a young couple whose child died at birth. “They didn’t want to lose sight of that life, so they took the memorial funds and talked with Jan Gaumnitz (a Lawrence artist), who created this wonderful portrait of families in South Park,” she recounts. The large, colorful painting, located in the third floor waiting room of the Family Birthing Center, depicts a typical summer day in Lawrence, with children playing in the fountain and people riding bicycles, strolling and even painting.

ART THAT OFFERS RESPITE AND RENEWAL

Walking down the busy corridor that leads from the hospital’s entrance to a surgery waiting room and other treatment areas can be intimidating for patients awaiting treatment or for friends and family who are supporting a patient. So the LMH team filled the long hallway and several others with a phalanx of 118 beautiful photographs taken by LMH associates and members of the medical staff, many during their travels.

The photos allow patients and family who feel worried or anxious to stop and escape for a few minutes, then feel restored and encouraged, says Lauren Cobb, student coordinator for LMH’s Volunteer Services and a member of the LMH picture committee, which oversees the competitive selection process to find images appropriate for a hospital setting.

Mary Loveland agrees. “Environment is very important. It can be conducive to healing and to coming to peace with a situation,” she says. “Pieces of art included in that environment can make you think or remind you of something.”

Now, every time Loveland visits the rooftop garden at LMH, she is reminded of a special trip with her husband and the delight of finding a piece of art that helped summarize his life and his commitment and dedication to the children and young people of our community. Through it, she says, “This amazing man lives on.”

HOW TO DONATE

If you’re interested in donating artwork to Lawrence Memorial Hospital:

• Contact Tiffany Hall, of LMH Endowment, at 505-3318; or email tiffany.hall@lmh.org.
• Internal Revenue Service rules govern the deductibility of donations of artwork. Generally, if the claimed deduction is more than $5,000, donors must get a qualified appraisal and complete a special tax form, and other special requirements must be fulfilled before donations of artwork can be accepted.