The UNMC College of Dentistry recently added a touch of color to its entrance area.
A series of hand-painted stained-glass windows, created by artist Ann Tarantino of State College Pennsylvania, are spaced about on the south facing windows that overlook the building atrium, where patients sit while waiting to get into the clinic. Called “Field Trip,” the work is designed to create a pleasant and soothing atmosphere, Tarantino said.
She worked with dental college leaders and the selection committee to come up with the design, which hints at circuits, obliquely speaking to the research efforts and cutting-edge technology at the college.
“It was a challenge to think of, ‘How are we speaking of innovation and research?’” she said. “This abstract circuit image that travels through the piece speaks to movement, energy change and dynamism.”
Tarantino, who taught for many years in the landscape architecture department at Penn State, draws and paints, but in the past five to 10 years, she’s also been building a practice in public art.
“There can be a lot of solitude as a visual artist, so I was interested in engaging in the worked in a different way,” she said.
She responded to an RFQ from the Nebraska Arts Council and, once selected, worked with college leaders to capture their vision for the piece.
“These RFQs generally come with a description of what the client is looking for, and it’s an interesting challenge for an artist,” she said. “I’m pursuing my interests and focus, but I’m also thinking about how I can make this theme resonate with what the client is looking for.”
Colleen Heavican Cass, curator of UNMC’s Healing Arts Program, chaired the selection committee.
“We were looking for artwork that was refreshing, calming and had some forward progression, similar to always looking forward to new research and technology in the dental health industry,” she said.
The committee also wanted the artwork to be inviting and make patients feel more comfortable and soothed.
“‘Field Trip’ does just that through its progression and gradation of colors and with its interior linear design representing technology and the future of dentistry,” she said.
Per the RFQ, the art was designated for the atrium area, but it was not necessarily a window piece. Tarantino had never worked in glass before but found a fabricator who made her a sample that she brought to Lincoln as “proof of concept.”
Tarantino, who has seen the completed installation at the college, said she was pleased with the effect.
“You know you’re going to get this effect with stained glass, the color projecting on the floor, but I wasn’t anticipating how the light really becomes the medium of the piece, seeing it integrated into the building,” she said.
