Casting Comfort
Posted on December 16, 2024 by Marketing and Communications
FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF patients, families and staff, USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital dedicated a new art sculpture on Nov. 1 created by internationally renowned artist Gay Outlaw.
The sculpture, called Bed of Flowers, was made possible through a gift from Arlene Mitchell, chair pro tem of the USA Board of Trustees and a longtime volunteer at the hospital.
“You are my new hero for positive energy,” Outlaw told Mitchell at the dedication. “I can’t thank you enough.”
The piece was constructed in San Francisco and Mobile and features 120 cast aluminum flowers in various shades of hot pink. The flowers are connected to a network of cast bronze stems. The sculpture now fills an oval-shaped concrete median in front of the hospital’s new Pediatric Emergency Center, which opened in March.
The expanded center is nearly 19,000 square feet — more than double the size of the former emergency department — and has more than 30 treatment areas, including 25 private treatment rooms. It provides more space for parents and caregivers to be with their children and offers sensory strategies to help calm and support patients during their emergency visit.
Outlaw grew up in Mobile and now lives in California. Her work recently has been exhibited
in Kyoto, Japan; Le Consortium in Dijon, France; and the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado.
She also has sculptures
on permanent display at San Francisco International Airport.