Pictured: Joanne Cohen and Delos M. “Toby” Cosgrove
of the Cleveland Clinic
For art curators like Trudy Wiesenberger and Joanne Cohen, white walls are an inspiration, a blank canvas.So visitors to the hospitals where these women work — Wiesenberger at University Hospitals and Cohen at the Cleveland Clinic — will have a hard time finding any white walls. But they will have no trouble finding lots of intriguing art.
The art collections at the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals take an experienced eye and a committed organization willing to financially and philosophically support it. The Cleveland Arts Prize is proud to celebrate these art programs and the people who make it possible.
Trudy Wiesenberger found herself in a particularly advantageous position one evening in 1987 — seated next to Dr. James A. Block, the brand new president of University Hospitals.She had noticed the lack of art on the walls at University Hospitals, and she pointed it out to him.
“I was stunned that a place that cared so well for children was so visually unfriendly,” she says.
Block agreed to create a program and fund it and every president thereafter has supported that decision, including current President and CEO Thomas F. Zenty III. Without that support, the program would not exist.
Wiesenberger, who previously worked as an instructor at the Cleveland Museum of Art, joined the hospital system and put together a patient-friendly collection that today includes roughly 2,000 pieces. The art supports the hospital’s mission: “To Teach, To Heal, To Discover.”
Wiesenberger designed the collection to provoke thought and curiosity, to encourage reflection, to delight, uplift and comfort. Artwork is in virtually all the patient and exam and consultation rooms. “We’ve done this, in many cases, with good posters,” of fine art, Wiesenberger says.
The hospital’s collection includes not only paintings and prints, but ceramics, textiles, metal, wood and glass sculptures. Sometimes she commissions art for specific locations.