If you’re walking through a hospital, you may notice a ton of artwork on display. You may think to yourself, “Oh, that looks nice!” However, there is more of a purpose of the artwork other than just looking nice.

All while being something pretty to hang on the walls, it has been said that artwork for hospitals actually has healing powers. Hospitals can often seem like a place of sadness and grief. However, adding art design to the walls can help to make the building seem a bit more peaceful and can aid in stress relief.

So, how do hospitals choose the perfect pieces for their walls? Let’s take a look.

How Does a Hospital Determine How Much to Spend on Art?

Like for many other needs, hospitals often have a budget for arts. This allows the team of hospital decision makers to see how much money they will have to spend on artwork. Artwork can range from many different prices, so it’s good to have an idea of what can be spent.

Who Chooses the Right Pieces for the Hospital Walls?

The arts budget also comes with a team of curators. The team is made up of people who are professionals in the art industry. They have the right “eye” and can decide what would be best, where.

If the hospital doesn’t have a team of curators, they may choose to hire a person or a group of people from healthcare art consulting firms. Healthcare art consulting firms do the same thing that curators do. However, there are some additional things that healthcare art consulting firms will do that curators won’t. For example, if you don’t have someone to install the artwork, healthcare art consulting firms offer hospitals the option to outsource for someone to do all of the work through the firm.

How can Art Help Heal?

Looking at art can cause many emotions. NBC News says looking at a soothing painting can help increase blood flow due to a feeling of joy. They say that following research on this topic, it was found that what a patient sees outside their window can help speed up recovery. Therefore, wall art for hospitals is said to act the same way. NBC News says those looking at a peaceful setting recovered a full day faster than those who were stuck looking at a brick wall.

Art can do many things for a person. It can make a person happy, sad, and it can aid in the recovery of a person in the hospital. For a person in a hospital, looking at something happy can, in turn, make them feel a sense of joy and bliss. A person sick in the hospital that has a positive spirit will most likely heal quicker than a person stuck in a negative rut.