Spending time with art, even just a few moments, can boost your mood and support overall wellbeing.
Use this page to discover artworks and their stories featured in the common areas of the UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville, FL.
Children’s Hospital Lobby Statues
by Roberto Britto
Romero Britto is a Brazilian artist, painter, serigrapher, and sculptor. He combines elements of cubism, pop art, and graffiti painting in his work, using vibrant colors and bold patterns as a visual expression of hope, dreams, and happiness.
He created this piece of a child and butterfly in honor of the Sebastian Ferraro Foundation. The bright colors typical of his work reflect to colorful panel on the exterior of the UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital and provide a welcoming entry into the children’s lobby.
Cranes
by Mary Lisa Kitakis Spano
Mary Lisa is a painter and mosaic artist based in Gainesville. She served as the visual artist in residence for Arts in Medicine for 25 years, focusing her work on pediatric patients and their families. Through her distinctive spirit of joy, color, and creativity, she touched the lives of children, caregivers, and hospital staff alike. Her remarkable mosaic installations can be found throughout the Children’s Hospital, helping to create a compassionate and uplifting clinical environment that supports both healing and exceptional pediatric care.
“Love. Curiosity. Imagination. Fun and Joy. I hope people who see the work know how much I loved my patients, their families and all those at Shands who supported them. My intention was to make them happy and uplifted supported through creativity, artistic collaboration and community. I am deeply grateful to all those who brought me to this program, helped me grow and supported me as an artist for this was the best journey of my life.” –Mary Lisa Kitakis Spano
Florida Eco Stories
by Koryn Rolstad
Digital print on Lexan Panels
Location: UF Health Children’s Hospital Lobby
This large-scale glass panel installation by Seattle artist Koryn Rolstad features digitally printed designs capturing the four ecosystems of Florida. Representational images of flora and fauna are blended with phrases from literature meant to inspire adults and spark the imagination in children. Three layers of imagery create a luminous and dimensional depiction of Florida’s four eco-regions: coastal, river, prairie and mangrove, using wallpaper and two layers of digital printed animals and factoids pertaining to each region printed on 7′ clear Lexan panels.
The visual language from the Rolstad piece is repeated on the touch screen interactive located near the lobby seating area, and terrazzo flooring and wall designs, providing a fully immersive experience throughout the lobby space.
Interactive touch screen designed to enthrall and entertain.
Hunting Horses
by Vivian Jenzio
Mixed Media on Paper
Gainesville artist Vivian Jendzio combines drawing and painting to create beautiful energetic images that speak to the life force behind the subjects of her work, which are primarily horses and sporting dogs. Animals very familiar to the people of North Central Florida.
Florida Palms
by Peter Carolin
Oil on Canvas
Peter Carolin is a landscape painter living in Gainesville Florida. His plein air style is reminiscent of the Impressionists’ work, but catches a contemporary feel and is fascinated with depicting Florida scenes. His body of work largely involves beaches, palm trees, skyscapes, and springs.
Linocut Print Series
by Molly Kempson
Molly Kempson is a printmaker and art educator living in Baltimore, MD. She served as an artist in residence with UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine for eight years where she created several legacy projects with patients and families, including the Arts in Medicine-published coloring book, Wild Florida.
“I want my viewer to feel connected to place while they are in a clinical setting; something I think the overall design of the UF Health buildings does beautifully. I want to show our local patients and families familiar and comforting images, while helping our many patients from other parts of the world what Florida is like outside of the beaches and theme parks the state is known for.” –Molly Kempson
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Photojournalism Series
by Charlotte Kesl
Charlotte Kesl is a photojournalist based in Maryland. She spent several years living in post-conflict countries working for humanitarian organizations focused on public health, girl education, and women’s issues. Her work focuses on the unspoken connections between people and narrates the broader picture of the human condition. She creates intimate family portraits as well as powerful images for news outlets like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
This series of photographs chronicles the love and care shown by family and staff to the most vulnerable among us, the babies born in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
NICU Graduate Portraits
by Randy Batista
All images are large scale, black and white, silver prints, composed and printed without digital manipulation. The images were taken at the Kanapaha Prairie in southwest Alachua County. This exceptional natural environment represents the true beauty of our area and features large, century old live oak trees, native flora, bountiful wildlife and, intermittently, hundreds of Sand Hill Cranes.
The prairie has been placed into conservation trust to protect its healing and inspiring qualities for all. Those qualities were perfectly matched to the subjects of these images, each of whom were born prematurely, some as early as 24 weeks, and thus entered life on a highly precarious path with no guarantee of survival. The images reveal that they not only made it through the gauntlet but grew on to live life in a beautiful, natural environment with hope and inspiration for their future.
Randy Batista was born in 1949 in Ybor City, Florida, and was raised on the generational family farm in Oriente, a rural eastern province of Cuba. After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Batista’s parents were not allowed to leave Cuba. They opted to send their 11-year-old son on an “Operation Pedro Pan” flight to live in the United States with his maternal grandparents in Mango, Florida. Randy studied at the University of Florida and opened his photo studio in downtown Gainesville where he developed a life long love of his community that is reflected in his work. In 2024, he was awarded the National Metal of the Arts.
Untitled
by Evan Poirier
Swamp Parade
Evan Poirier grew up in Miami in the 80’s and 90’s around a lot of wild tags, street art, and loud graffiti. He is a graphic designer, painter and muralist living in Gainesville, Florida. Evan knows the hospital both as an employee and an artist in residence. He worked side by side with pediatric art therapists, using his street style to help young patients describe themselves as superheroes. He also worked with the hospital interior design team to “tag” the renovated Pediatric Emergency Department, creating a vibrant space for treatment.
“The work I put together for AIM, I really tried to put myself in the place of the future patients or staff and convey a sense of trust, light and love. I know that many times folks who are seeing my work there are in need of those things at that moment. Ideally, it’s a small bit of support at a time and place where it’s needed.”