B.C. Children’s Hospital is inviting artists across the country  to create 400 different works of art  that will reduce pain and anxiety in children, when children visit the new Teck Acute Care Centre at the  hospital.

The 'Children's Healing Experience Project' is a part of an innovative program from the New Teck Acute Care Centre at B.C. Children’s Hospital.

The initiative seeks artists to cover the walls of the eight-storey Teck Acute Care Centre with art. The move aims to comforts and engages children, youth and their families with the art. It is expected that, the 640,000-square-foot building will be opened in November 2017.

According to the  foundation, research suggests that,  purposeful art in hospitals can be helpful to alleviate anxiety  up to 75 per cent in sick children.

Chad Farquarson, a parent of a B.C. Children’s Hospital patient, said that, “It is really important that we support the kids not just clinically but also emotionally and make sure they’re in the right head-space.”

“It’s so easy to be terrified,” said Farquarson. “Children are so quick to misunderstand what’s going to happen and it results in needing an extra level of medical attention just to calm them down.”

Nandini