WHEN: 1 p.m., Friday, May 19
WHO: Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., chancellor, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Daniel J. DeBehnke, M.D., M.B.A., CEO, Nebraska Medicine
Dale Chihuly, artist who designed The Chihuly Sanctuary
Walter Scott, lead donor for The Chihuly Sanctuary
WHERE: Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center
A collaboration between the University of Nebraska Medical Center and its clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine, 45th and Dewey Avenue, Omaha, Neb.
NOTE: We have a state-of-the-art television studio and an LTN connection that allows us to do live remote media interviews.
CONTACTS: UNMC – Tom O’Connor, W-402-559-4690, C-402-650-7063
Nebraska Medicine – Taylor Wilson, W-402-559-7037, C-402-871-8338
Chihuly Studio – Jay Picard, W-206-781-8707, C-206-276-6225
On Friday, May 19, the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer will unveil The Chihuly Sanctuary by world renown artist Dale Chihuly. The Chihuly Sanctuary is the cornerstone of the Healing Arts Program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and its clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine. The sanctuary was made possible by a lead gift from Omaha philanthropists, Walter Scott and his late wife, Suzanne.
The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center – a 615,000-sq.-ft. building that cost $323 million – will open its doors to its first patients in early June.
The UNMC/Nebraska Medicine Healing Arts Program will include the most motivating and meaningful works of art to help heal the human spirit. It will seek to reduce pain perception, anxiety, stress, loneliness and depression to provide new insight and clarifying feelings about a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
The Healing Arts Program is expected to feature more than 200 pieces of original works of art, which reflect a diversity of cultures and perspectives, create an oasis of calm that provides pleasant distractions from the anxiety of visits and treatments, and provide patients, staff and visitors opportunities for introspection that will motivate, rejuvenate and build endurance to fight against cancer on all fronts.
The Chihuly Sanctuary will provide a place of respite and reflection for patients, families and staff dealing with cancer. Chihuly and his team have worked closely with UNMC/Nebraska Medicine to create a space where patients and their families, researchers and caregivers can find a moment of peace and beauty during the highly stress-filled life events of cancer treatment.
Ten site-specific art installations will be on-view within The Chihuly Sanctuary. The idea of the sanctuary so inspired Chihuly, he began creating a new body of work he calls Glass on Glass, which will premiere as part of The Chihuly Sanctuary experience.
Glass on Glass is both painting and sculpture, two and three-dimensional, transparent and opaque. To create these pieces, Chihuly paints with vitreous-glass enamel on glass panels – glass on glass. He then creates overlapping compositions that are encased within a frame. When lit, they come to life as dynamic, multidimensional paintings in color, light, and glass.
The organic shape and wave-like design of The Chihuly Sanctuary was inspired by the artist’s iconic Macchia series, which sets itself apart from the surrounding architecture. One of the highlights of The Chihuly Sanctuary is a cone-like structure that is intended to provide comfort, peace and meditation. Natural light will pass through the glass and cast shadows that will shift and change throughout the day.
Dale Chihuly is an artist whose vision is centered around color, shape, light and transparency. Over his 50-year career, he has become known for his iconic glass sculptures but glass is just one of the media he employs to realize his vision – he also draws, paints and sculpts using other materials. He is globally renowned for his ambitious site-specific architectural installations in public spaces, and in exhibitions presented in museums and gardens worldwide.
The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center – a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center – is a collaboration of Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb. The new cancer center will open in June 2017 with cancer research at the Suzanne and Walter Scott Cancer Research Tower and clinical treatments at the C.L. Werner Cancer Hospital.