Fort Lauderdale, FL - The Broward Health Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Broward Health, one of the ten largest public healthcare systems in the nation, recently unveiled the first donor recognition wall in a series of four contemporary, non-traditional works of art.
The first wall was recently installed in the lobby of Broward Health Medical Center, located in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Entitled "Be The Donor,” the wall is designed to engage visitors through interactive projection. A short-throw projector casts a cycle of hospital donors’ names directly onto the wall where they bounce off each other and the constraints of the wall. When visitors approach, a camera sensor picks up their image and projects the names into a real-time mask of their silhouettes. The program constantly updates itself to maintain the placement of the names within the visitors’ silhouettes as they move, pose, play and are joined by friends.
Within the next year, three more donor walls will be installed at other hospitals in the Broward Health system, including Broward Health North, Broward Health Coral Springs and Broward Health Imperial Point.
"As an organization, we are dedicated to the integration of art in the workplace as an integral part of the healing environment and used this opportunity to recognize our most generous donors in a way that not only enhanced this philosophy, but also integrated art with technology,” said Dennis Stefanacci, president & CEO of the Broward Health Foundation. "It provided us with a unique way to illustrate the role philanthropy plays in supporting the programs that are offered at each hospital as it serves the community while engaging all those who enter the lobbies of these hospitals in a way that enables them to see that they, too, can be part of ensuring the future of that hospital through philanthropy. For us, it was a natural extension of how Broward Health prides itself in being cutting-edge when it comes to healthcare technology and patient service.”
The Broward Health Foundation collaborated with Art+Light+Space Studios on the donor wall project. "Our goal was to recognize major donors in a creative way that helps promote the spirit of philanthropy, as well as to visually demonstrate the impact of donors on patients and to provide a source of entertainment for visitors,” said Leah Brown, who is a creative partners of Art+Light+Space, along with Peter Symons.
The following is an overview of the concept of each donor wall to be unveiled next year at Broward Health hospitals:
Broward Health Imperial Point:
The artists used the cell structure of actual hearts as inspiration for creating this donor recognition art. The heart is the organ most associated with life and love. When Broward Health’s donors support the community’s public hospital system, they are giving from their hearts, ensuring that others can get the care they need. Inspired by the delicate geometries of the voronoic cell structure of the heart, the effect on the acrylic both day and night will be similar to light shining through a stained glass window, with refracted color splashing onto the floor and passers-by.
Broward Health North:
Inspired by Neuronal Fiber Imaging, a short-throw projector projects a looped, animated, custom program onto a low relief, topographical wall sculpture of a human brain. The projection is of a randomly generated arrangement of all recognized donor names, and over the course of the animation, each of the donor names will send out "fibers” similar to ones seen in neuronal fiber imaging representing the number of people served yearly through the Broward Health system
Broward Health Coral Springs:
This donor wall uses looped animation inspired by cell division that originates (to the viewer) as a colorful light source for the donor nameplates. It then comes to life as the light divides again and again, transforming into birds that break free of the wall, and with the aid of the projector’s moving head, fly around the space. The names, themselves, remain a constant on the wall, and are lit from within, so even when the projected animation is elsewhere in the space, the names still have a sense of light and presence.
These donor walls take donor recognition to the next step – moving from the staid presentation that often is used to recognize generosity, to a vibrant, interactive, and embracing illustration connecting philanthropy and the vitality and quality of Broward Health. Instead of the audience just viewing the names of donors who have made a difference, it provides the visualization that they, too, can be part of the life and mission of the organization. It is certainly an unusual approach to such recognition and one Broward Health believes will become the standard moving forward.
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The Broward Health Foundation is the fundraising arm of Broward Health. The mission of the Broward Health Foundation is to improve the health of the community by providing resources to promote, support and enhance the programs and initiatives of Broward Health.