Artist Linda Covit on her MUHC-commissioned work, Havre
Jeanette Kelly | CBC News | Posted: April 20, 2015 9:30 AM | Last Updated: April 20, 2015
Sculpture positioned at the gateway to the new superhospital
The Glen campus of the MUHC now houses one of the largest collections of public art in Quebec.
- Infographic:The new MUHC by the numbers
- Before and after: The Royal Victoria Hospital
- CBC's coverage of the move to the MUHC superhospital
The MUHC's collection includes 11 pieces and shows the range of work done by Quebec artists working on public commissions.
The centre piece of the collection is Havre by Linda Covit. It's a 13-metre-high, 16-metre-wide grey, aluminum tube structure that looks like a flower open to the sky.
Havre is set at the main entrance to the hospital and visitors and patients can walk through it on their way to appointments.
Around $4.3 million was spent on art at the new MUHC as part of the requirement for public buildings to devote one per cent of the budget of to artwork.
Other works outside the building include a giant teddy bear balancing on a ball and an enormous stethoscope listening to the surrounding city.
Inside the hospital, other works reference molecular structures and even haemoglobin.
The hospital collection will include art that is being moved from former locations like the old Royal Victoria and a collection of historic medical equipment.
It also includes items like the dishes and flatware that nurses used in their quarters when they were required to live at the hospital during their training.
These works of art and artifacts will be displayed throughout the hospital as a reminder of the tradition and history of medical care in the city.