Project Title: Drawn Together
Recipient Organization: Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center
Lead Artists: Helena Keeffe
Genre and Data Awarded: Visual Arts, June 2007
To Be Completed: July 2008

Artist Helena Keeffe will engage long-term patients at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center (LHH) in a series of drawing and printmaking workshops that will result in linens and hospital scrubs designed by residents for use in the LHH facility. LHH’s long-term residents have little influence on the aesthetics of their surroundings. As an artist, Keeffe wanted to help change this relationship. “In a culture where few people have a hand in the making of the products they are surrounded by,” writes Keeffe, “I believe this act of patients designing custom scrubs for nurses offers a uniquely empowering experience.”

The project entitled, “Drawn Together,” will provide an opportunity for the patients to express their own perspectives on daily life at LHH. Using photographs, objects, and group reflections on hospital life for inspiration, the residents will explore their interpretation of the environment using the basic drawing and printmaking skills Keeffe teaches them. Their designs will be turned into patterns with the assistance of a professional textile designer, then printed on fabric at local printer Zoo-Ink and sewn into scrubs and pillowcases by a local garment manufacturer LSW.

The completed work will be unveiled at a community celebration and fashion show in summer 2008 and made available to LHH staff and to the public through the hospital gift shop. The project also will be documented in a printed booklet with photographs and text. In allowing the residents to make a contribution to their hospital and give something back to their caregivers, “Drawn Together” will invert and expand the possibilities of the standard patient-caregiver relationship.

Keeffe’s inspiration for “Drawn Together” came from her time as a volunteer at Creativity Explored, a local art studio serving adults with developmental disabilities – including some who live at LHH. Keeffe’s past work has involved collaboration with people in a variety of communities, reflecting her interest in creating situations and exchanges and in encouraging vulnerability and intimacy where one might otherwise expect a formal authority. Many of her projects explore ideas of generosity and economies of exchange that function outside standard economic models.

As part of the City of San Francisco Department of Public Health safety net, the mission of LHH is to provide high-quality, culturally competent rehabilitation and skilled nursing services to the diverse population of San Francisco. Often it is a hospital of last resort for people who do not have family to care for them and cannot afford to pay for full-time intensive care. It has been a part of the San Francisco community since its origins as an almshouse in 1866 and has over 1000 patients and 1600 staff members, including 1100 nurses. LHH is in the midst of a replacement project and it is anticipated that residents will begin moving into the new facilities in early 2009. The project will travel with them as they move into the new buildings.

Resume Highlights

Exhibitions

• “Who’s on First, What’s on Second,” City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs, San Jose, California (2007)
• “Talking to Neighbors: Jim in West Oakland,” Invisible Venue, San Francisco, California (2007)
• “Muni Mapping,” San Francisco Arts Commission Market Street Kiosks, San Francisco, California (2007)
  
• “Collective Foundation” (in collabortion with Joseph Del Pesco and Scott Oliver, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California (2007)
  
• “Sound in Art/ Art in Sound,” Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, Minnesota (2007)
  
• “Living Proof,” www.helenakeefe.com/livingproof/, web (2006)
  
• “Dial-A-Story,” Peer Pleasure 2: Red76 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California (2006)
  
• “The Past Is Over,” Service-Works, San Francisco, California (2006)
  
• “Bay Area Now 4,” Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California (2005)
  
• “Commission ’05,” San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, California (2005)
  
• “Dress: Clothing as Art,” Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California (2005)
  
• “Feel at Home,” 375 South Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, California (2005)
  
• “Garment Remake Exchange,” Queen’s Nails Annex, San Francisco, California (2005)
  
• “White Box,” Triple Base, San Francisco, California (2005)
  
• “Red76 Arts Group: Dim Sum,” 16 Beaver, New York City, New York (2003)
  
• “Jerome Fellowship Exhibition,” Minneapolis College of Art Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2003)
  
• “Untitled (Library Intervention),” Minneapolis College of Art Design Library, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2003)
  
• “Scope Art Fair Los Angeles,” Robert Blackson and Kelley Taxter (independent curators), Los Angeles, California (2003)
  
• “Comfort Food,” Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2003)
  
• “Fringe of the Fringe,” Center for Independent Artists, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2002)
  
• “Bookmobile,” traveling the United States and Canada (2002)
  
• “Art Inside/Outside Space XV,” Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2002)
  
• “How to Hold,” The American Leigion, Wausau, Wisconsin (2001)
  
• “Inside Out Nicollet,” Youth Art Project with LNB Community Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2001)
  
• “Visual Language,” Calhoun Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2000)
  
• “The Landscape Within/Without,” Minneapolis College of Art Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota (1999)
  
• “Pressed, Pulled, and Bound,” Calhoun Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota (1998)

Related Experience

• Visual Arts Instructor, City Arts and Tech High School, San Francisco, California (2005)
  
• Artists in Education Program Director, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, California (2004)
  
• Art Inside Outside Space Program Director, Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2003)

Awards/Grants

• “Who’s on First, What’s on Second,” City of San Jose Temporary Public Art Commission (2007)
• Service-Works Project Grant (2006)
  
• Minnesota State Arts Board Grant (2003)
  
• Jerome Foundation Artist Fellowship (2003)
  
• COMPAS Community Arts Program, McKnight Foundation Grant (2002)
  
• Intermedia Arts – Art Inside/Outside Space XV, Jerome Foundation Grant (2002)
  
• COMPAS Community Arts Program, McKnight Foundation Grant (2001)
  
• Minnesota College of Art and Design Fine Arts Merit Scholarship (1998)

Visiting Artist/Lecturer

• Guest Lecturer, UC Berkeley Art Department, Berkeley, California (2007)
  
• Guest Lecturer, California College of the Arts, Oakland, California (2007)
  
• Visiting Artist and Guest Lecturer, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California (2006)
  
• Visiting Artist and Workshop Instructor, Creativity Explored, San Francisco, California (2006)
  
• Guest Lecturer, California College of the Arts (2005)
  
• Visiting Artist, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California (2005)
  
• Guest Lecturer, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California (2004)
  
• Visiting Artist and Workshop Instructor, Walker Art Center Art Lab, San Francisco, California (2003)
  
• Visiting Artist and Workshop Instructor, Soo Visual Art Center, San Francisco, California (2002)

Web links

www.helenakeefe.com
www.dph.sf.ca.us/chn/LagunaHondaHosp/default.htm