Sentara Heart Hospital

Norfolk, Virginia
Architect: HDR, Inc.
324,000 Square Feet, Art Count: 284
Art Budget: $157,000
Timeline: December 2005 – February 2006

Sentara Heart Hospital’s art program needed to embrace the marriage of technology and humanity while specifically representing the unique community and family life of Norfolk, Virginia, home of the Blue Angles, a Naval base, ship builders, and many high tech companies. The “joy of life” became the underlying art theme for art throughout the Sentara Heart Hospital.

Life Dance, a larger than life sculpture in the main lobby, celebrates the importance of life while joyfully greeting visitors. Requirements for the design of the sculpture were specific: Complement the contemporary design of the hospital, represent the joyful human spirit and be bound to neither race nor gender.

DAS led the art committee through the selection of locale and family focused multimedia artwork that helps heart patients focus on the healthy road ahead of them and the changes they must make to get there.

Throughout the hospital contemporary art combines commissioned works with original photography celebrating the joy of life in Norfolk, Virginia.

Life Dance Sculpture