About 75 pieces of art from more than 50 local artists will do more than just decorate waiting rooms, clinic rooms and staff areas in the new Nappi Wellness Institute.

The art will add a sense of calm and wellbeing and as such, contribute to the healing process taking place throughout the building, which opens officially June 2.

“There is a lot of literature and research that speaks to the fact that the environment helps with healing,” said Matthew Capogreco, ambulatory director of special projects. “How many of us have gone to a doctor’s office and seen faded posters of Monet paintings we’ve seen a thousand times? The days of cat posters saying “Chin Up” are gone. Our patients and staff will be in this building a lot. It’s part of their home and we think they deserve it.”

The focus on a natural environment and local art in the Nappi Wellness Institute building follow the success of the Cancer Center’s theme of Healing Through Nature.

With five floors and 210,00 square feet, the Nappi Wellness Institute has a lot of wall space to decorate. Capogreco said the process to identify and select artists and artwork has been a months-long process. Upstate put out the call for art to more than 300 artists and about 100 responded by submitting examples of their work. Parameters included no black and white photography or artwork, no people, no big splotches of red. Representatives from every department housed in the Nappi Wellness Institute came together to review artwork, decide on artists and then on their pieces.

“It is really important to have both trained and untrained eyes when it comes to art,” Capogreco said. “Trained eyes are great to point things out, but we need the untrained eye to say, ‘I just like that piece of art.’"

The committee looked for pieces with a variety of colors and styles, things that would complement each other and for the pediatric areas, pieces that are age appropriate. The pediatric floor will feature three murals done through RX Art, a non-profit out of New York city that provides world class artists to create unique pieces for hospitals. 

But everything else was locally made and purchased by Upstate. The building features ceramics, mosaics, oil painting, fabric and quilts behind plexiglass, murals and encaustic pieces, which are painted with pigmented wax.

“We are in an area rich with art,” Capogreco said. “Central New York is bursting with local artists. We have a corporate obligation to be part of the community and being part of the community means being part of the art scene.” 

Local ceramic artist Margie Hughto has artwork across the Upstate campus, including in the Cancer Center. She said she often hears from patients there about the impact of her artwork on them and one couple just commissioned a piece from her after seeing her work during treatments.

“I have emails from patients telling me they saw my artwork while they were waiting for their chemo and it was so beautiful it made them feel better,” said Hughto, an art professor at Syracuse University who has a national and international following. “They thank me for making it.”

Hughto has two pieces on the second floor in the new building, “Water Reflections” and “Water Garden.” They measure three by five feet and four by six feet, respectively, and they hang in the waiting area for radiology. Both feature calming blues, greens and earth tones.

With so much hand selected artwork, Hughto said walking into the Nappi Institute is like walking into a museum.

“Upstate has gone to great lengths to make the hospital feel less like a hospital,” Hughto said. “They spent a lot of time choosing the work, so it makes the environment inviting and makes people feel better.”

In addition to the artwork, the Nappi Wellness Institute also features upwards of 150 photographs taken by about a dozen local photographers.

Caption: Two large ceramic works by local artist Margie Hughto are among the 75 pieces of art that are display throughout the Nappi Wellness Institute.