Raising Spirits and Saving Babies Through Color, Design and Community Effort

Waltzing vibrantly high on a wall, bluebirds and kittens chasing storks and butterflies appear to float in midair, all to delight viewers and evoke a feeling of whimsy.

“Those flights to the imagination are exactly what we are trying to produce,” says Ryan Mulligan, assistant professor of fine arts at UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. “We want to create an atmosphere of welcome and warmth in all 23 urban health care centers in Hamilton County, starting with this one.”

This one is the Price Hill Community Health Center (PHCHC) and Mulligan’s efforts to brighten the aesthetic appeal hopefully will increase the enrollment of newly pregnant mothers for their necessary prenatal care.

In Cincinnati, there are over 10,000 babies born every year and according to Mulligan, about half of them are born to moms on Medicaid. Because of long wait times and crowded waiting rooms in the urban health care centers, many moms simply avoid going for routine prenatal care altogether.

“This past year, we had about 800 women show up in the local ERs having had no other prenatal care or seeing any doctor during their pregnancy,” says Mulligan. “This presents the patients with a higher likelihood that their baby will be born preterm and a greater chance that their baby will not survive.”

As part of

Cradle Cincinnati’s

mission to improve the infant mortality rate in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Executive Director Ryan Adcock reached out to Mulligan. After learning about Mulligan’s other community outreach efforts, Adcock asked how he would help draw pregnant women into the center for more continuity in their prenatal care.

“I would start by making all the health care centers feel like a spa” says Mulligan. “Give me a tiny amount of money and I will do my damnedest to build you an army.”

And, and army he built. Mulligan has a team of UC, DAAP and local high school students, concerned residents and even staff members of the PHCHC who are giving their own time on weekends. They creatively design murals, paint walls and construct bookshelves inside the center on West 8th St. near downtown. That team energy is turning waiting rooms, exam rooms and nurses’ stations into visually stimulating happy places.

“The city and the health centers in the city are having to prioritize the critical needed care, which they are providing with all of their energy and resources,” says Mulligan. “Their aesthetic details have to take a second place to the medical needs of individuals, so obviously their priorities are in the right place. But, then so are mine.”

IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME

In an effort to make the prenatal experience a pleasant one, Mulligan and his volunteers are actively painting and redesigning the walls in all 23 community-based health care centers, including the nine that are owned by the city. And in usual Mulligan fashion, he has attracted the help of many local businesses to lend a hand.

Mulligan is no stranger to leveraging his artistic talents for various community efforts. In 2011, Mulligan created the Hero Design Company, where artists and designers come together to create unique superhero capes for long-term care patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He is also behind the video camera creating short-clip filmmaking projects for Hilltop Stories, a community-centered storytelling film festival about the residents of Walnut Hills.

“These outreach efforts help bring the artistic community together with local residents in ways where those opportunities may not otherwise exist,” says Mulligan.

CRADLING BABIES

While Cincinnati has had one of the highest infant mortality and pre-term birth rates in any city, those numbers may now begin to drop because of Mulligan and friends’ efforts and the improved prenatal education provided to new moms in these health centers.

“As part of Cradle Cincinnati’s mission, I think all children should be able to reach their first birthday and blow out their first candle,” says Adcock. “In terms of mom’s health, we’re not doing it.

“In 2014, 1,200 women in Cincinnati disclosed that they had smoked the entire second and third trimester of pregnancy.”

Mulligan and his students began the project at PHCHC in February by working with the staff helping them de-clutter somewhat and to think about how too much information is often overwhelming and can detract from what they are trying to do.

“When the prep work was done, the staff got excited because they could see we were here to do the things that they don’t really have time to do,” says Mulligan. “After the Cincinnati Health Department gave us full approval we went room-by-room, painting the pediatric wing, the lobby and we now have the murals completed.

“We even have nurses come in on weekends to help paint. In addition to the nurses and the 25 UC student volunteers, we also have area artists who are giving their time to create art works and to help paint walls. Everyone has been great, people really want to help – they want someplace to put their hands.”

Mulligan’s team is also going around the community collecting scrape wood and found objects to build a miniature relief sculpture of the neighborhood to hang on the lobby wall.

And

the encouragement from the Cincinnati and Hamilton County medical community has been very supportive for these collaborative outreach efforts.

“For now, this is the pilot program,” says Joyce Tate, CEO of Primary Care at the Cincinnati Health Department. “We want this to become a best-in-class model for the other health care centers so that eventually all of the centers will have a little bit of luxury.”

COMMUNITY EFFORTS BECOME CONTAGIOUS

DAAP’s Vincent Sansalone, assistant professor from the Department of Architecture and Interior Design, and a team of alumni are also involved building a custom welcome desk for the patient check-in area, and Formica is donating the countertops. And Cindy Damschroeder, co-op ProPEL representative for DAAP, has arranged to have corporate architects and interior designers provide them with décor donations.  

River City Furniture Group, the primary providers of furniture for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) has donated more than $20,000 in furniture, and Pottery Barn has agreed to take ownership of providing a waiting nook for expectant moms for privacy away from the general health patients.

“The mother’s nook will be much more family friendly with new furniture and donations of magazines and books by various organizations,” says Mulligan. “The children will have small work tables to sit and color and do activities so mom doesn’t have to worry about corralling her kids during their wait time.

“With the $10,000 seed money we got from Cradle Cincinnati, we were able to turn it into $100,000 worth of product.”

Mulligan has also lassoed the local community in the facelift. With the help of Samantha Messer, a grad student in art education who is coordinating the undergraduate students, together they are working with the families in the area to create art pieces for the exam rooms. The students set up a table in the center twice a week and invite people to participate in creating art that will become framed works to hang on the walls. Target has donated $100 in picture frames.

In the end, they will have over 30 pieces finalized to adorn the center walls. Mulligan hopes to make the family visits to the health center a fun event, something that parents and children will take advantage of and look forward to.

“All of these efforts to enhance the visual appeal of the health care centers are more than just to entice new moms in for their valuable prenatal care,” says Mulligan. “In addition to preventing as many birth issues as we can, we also hope to attract patients of all ages through our bright colors, comfortable furniture, TV monitors and areas for kids to play while they wait.

“If we can make the health care center actually feel like the heart of the community, then we have truly done our job.”

OTHER PARTNERS IN THIS EFFORT INCLUDE:

• Cincinnati Health Department
• Blue Manatee
• Community Matters
• River City Furniture Group
• Lowe's and Valspar
• Pottery Barn
• DPMT 7 Design Team - includes UC architecture faculty
• Rusty Bucket and Fresh Market for food for volunteer weekend events
  

Mulligan’s fine arts talents continually extend beyond the classroom at DAAP. His splashes of pastel linear cartoon-like characters have graced the interior of the Contemporary Arts Center as playful climb-on furniture and colorful figures on the wall. Aligning with the goals of

UC Forward

and

UC’s Third Century Initiative

, Mulligan continues to be involved in the

DAAP Cares

Initiative, a collective of faculty, students, alumni and organizations, who through design and innovative ideas are committed to improving the quality of life for individuals and communities in need, locally and around the world.

OTHER RELATED NEWS:

• Hilltop Stories – Ryan Mulligan
• Hilltop Stories: Community Through Film 
• UC Professor’s Project Is Labor Of Love   
• A Dinosaur Says Moo
• I’ll Just Ask Dad