The Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) announced a new exhibit of work from the State of Georgia Art Collection at Elbert Memorial Hospital. Seventeen pieces from the State Art Collection will be on exhibit throughout the hospital for the next year. “We believe deeply in the essential role that hospitals play in our rural communities not only as a care center, but as a nexus of well-being and community building,” said Karen Paty, executive director of Georgia Council for the Arts. “It has been an absolute privilege to launch this project placing pieces of Georgia’s art collection in front of Georgians in places that they may least expect to find it. We are confident that the collaborations we are building with our rural healthcare partners will create increased opportunities for us all to think about the role of the arts in health and wellness.”

The inspiration for the exhibit arose from the desire to serve Georgia’s rural hospitals and provide citizens an opportunity to interact with original pieces of art from Georgia artists. This pilot program, created by Georgia Council for the Arts, will loan exhibits of art from the State Art Collection for a one- year period of time to a select number of hospitals in rural communities in the state. The Council for the Arts will work with each hospital to display the work in locations that can contribute to reducing stress and anxiety and to work with other community partners to bring additional arts programs into the facility.

Georgia Council for the Arts had the honor of working with the Elbert Memorial Hospital as the first rural hospital to house the exhibit. Since opening its doors in 1950, Elbert Memorial Hospital has been providing local healthcare needs in the community. Fully accredited by the Joint Commission, and for the second year in a row, the Georgia Trend Magazine has recognized the hospital as one of the Top Ten Small Hospitals in Georgia. Elbert Memorial Hospital offers state-of-the-art inpatient care as well as surgical, outpatient and emergency services. Elbert Memorial Hospital infuses approximately $25 Million into the local economy and provides over $1.5 million in indigent care, bad debt and charity care each year.

“We are extremely proud to have been selected as the first Rural Hospital in Georgia to showcase Georgia Council for the Arts collections of art,” said hospital CEO Kerry Trapnell. “We invite the community to come to the hospital on Feb.28, 2019 from 5-7 p.m. to see the art displays throughout the hospital - in the Hospital Lobby, the Outpatient Waiting Room, and the 3 D Mammography Suite. In addition, we are extremely pleased to have art projects on display in the lobby from the Elbert County Comprehensive High School Art Classes and the National Arts Honor Society.”

Georgia’s State Art Collection is an extensive, vibrant chronicle of work created by Georgia artists and collected by the State from the 1970s to the 1990s. The collection incorporates a diversity of media, including etchings and drawings, jewelry, mixed media, paintings, photographs, pottery, sculptures, textiles, and wooden bowls and toys. The story of the collection begins in the late 1960s, when the Georgia Council for the Arts launched the Georgia Art Bus Program, sending a bus transformed into a traveling exhibition space to venues around the state. Though the Art Bus program ended decades ago, the intent to bring original works of art by Georgia artists to people throughout the state has endured. It is in this vein that GCA has placed works from the State Art Collection throughout Elbert Memorial Hospital.