B.C. Children's Hospital calling on all artists for healing art

Artists across the country are being asked to create art that reduces pain and anxiety in children as they visit the soon-to-be acute care centre at B.C. Children's Hospital.

The Children's Healing Experience Project seeks to cover the walls of the eight-storeyTeckAcute Care Centrewith art thatcomforts and engages children, youth and their families.

The foundation says research suggests that purposeful art in hospitals helps reduce up to75 per cent ofanxiety in sick children.

The 640,000-square-foot building is expectedto open in November 2017.

The hospitalsays projects could include anything frommurals that make MRI exams less scary to patient-controlled coloured LED lights inrecovery spaces.

Sculptors, painters, photographers and graphic artists can submit their applicationsuntil May 6, 2016.