Poetry to Grace Walls of New Hospital

October 23, 2012 -- Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center is creating a bit of buzz in local literary circles.

The buzz surrounds artwork created for the medical center, targeted to open in August 2013. Some of Oregon’s most acclaimed living poets created poetry especially for the hospital. Their work will overlay 9-foot-by-9-foot panels printed with nature images.

The poetry and images will let viewers’ imaginations transport them, even if just for a moment or two. The artwork will hang next to the hospital’s main elevators, a natural stopping point that affords the minute or so needed to take in the poetry.

“Illness can be a time when people reflect on the larger meaning of life, and poetry can speak to us when we are in that state,” says Cindy Davis, chief nursing officer for Westside Medical Center. “We chose poems that bring to mind themes of healing.”

Kaiser Permanente long has recognized that art humanizes health care settings. In the 1950s, Kaiser Permanente Northwest Medical Director Ernest Saward and his wife, Virginia, supported young Northwest artists by purchasing original paintings for medical offices. Most of the pieces are now displayed at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland.

The Westside Medical Center effort marks the first time Kaiser Permanente has installed local literary art.

“Lots of businesses and civic places display graphic arts; commissioning literary art, however, really is quite rare,” Davis says.

Kaiser Permanente partnered last year with consultant Janelle Baglien of Studio Art Direct, the Oregon Poetry Association (OPA), and Western Oregon University creative writing Professor Henry Hughes, PhD, to collect and select the poems that best embody the themes of healing. Through a blind process, authors were not revealed until selection of the poems was completed.

All told, 93 poets submitted 400 poems. OPA winnowed entries to about 150, which Hughes narrowed to 26. From those, a Kaiser Permanente committee selected seven poems to display.

“It’s a privilege for me to have my work installed and on display at Westside Medical Center,” says Paulann Petersen, Oregon poet laureate.

“Kaiser Permanente’s desire to include poetry in its newest medical facility is very moving to me,” Petersen says. “Obviously, compassion is at the very center of Kaiser’s vision.”

In addition to the poetry, work by dozens of Oregon and Washington graphic artists will be displayed at the new medical center.

Poems are posted at: https://northwest-hospitals.kaiserpermanente.org/poetry-westside-medical-center-0#overlay-context=.