2012
May 3
Society for the Arts in Healthcare  2012 Annual Conference:
Arts & Health: A Global View
Hosted by Children’s Hospital of Michigan
May 2–5, 2012, Detroit, MI
at the Westin Book Cadillac
Aesthetics CEO Annette Ridenour will co-present “Partnering With Community Arts Organizations to Transform Hospital Spaces and Healing Experiences” with Executive Director, Children's Foundation, and Vice President, Development, Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, Theresa Pesch.

May 6–8
Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) Midwest Conference
Cincinnati, OH
“Advancing Health Care Through Philanthropy”

2011
July 6–10
The 7th World Congress on Design and Health
Boston, MA
The International Academy for Design & Health and the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health brought together an international group of elite practitioners, scholars, and policy makers in the fields of medicine, public health, and design to discuss today’s rapidly changing landscape.
Annette presented on: The inside process of transforming the healthcare experience through the arts.  

September 21
Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo
Chicago, IL
Leaders shared ideas about healthcare delivery improvement and how the physical space directly impacts the staff, patients and their families.
Presentation on: Co-creating a Culture of Possibility – about Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota with Vice President and Executive Director of the Foundation, Theresa Pesch
Annette presented at the Pre-conference Workshop

October 14–15
National Summit: Arts in Healing for Warriors
Bethesda, MD
Stimulating and interdisciplinary dialogue that highlighted important elements of the future of arts and medicine in the military.
Annette’s presentation: 10 key components of creating arts and healing experiences for wounded warriors

October 30–November 2
Planetree Annual Conference
Nashville, TN
As a global catalyst and leader, Planetree promotes the development and implementation of innovative models of health care which focus on healing and nurturing body, mind and spirit.
Presentation: “10 Simple Projects to Support Your Planetree Journey”
Annette Ridenour & Kortney Schemidt in person at booth #205
Aesthetics, Inc. is one of Planetree’s newest certified Visionary Design Network (VDN) members (Sept. 2011); Annette Ridenour is a founding VDN member.

December 7–9
Healthcare Design Exchange
Del Mar, CA
Annette is attending this special invitation gathering, which connects health care designers, planners, suppliers and purchasing agents. Through education and networking, this exchange will offer strategic insights into the important advancements in healthcare design from the world's most innovative designers and suppliers.

Welcome to Aesthetics, Inc.

Aesthetics is a holistic healthcare design firm that embraces multidisciplinary systems and strategies for wayfinding programs, interior architectural design, regional arts programs and interpretive displays.

Since 1980, the company's innovative work has transformed built environments and created healing experiences using evidence-based, patient-centered and holistic design principles.

Our extensive success in collaborations with more than 400 companies includes some of the largest and best-known healthcare and educational organizations in the United States and Canada, and has involved numerous major artists and architects from around the world.

Through a multidisciplinary team approach, we assist organizations in creating physical environments that reflect their history, culture and aspirations.

Aesthetics produces customized environments that are unique to each installation. Our commitment is to create spaces that inspire the human spirit, promote health and wellness, and respect human dignity.

NASHVILLE, TN—At the recent Planetree Conference in Nashville, Aesthetics Inc. was honored to become a certified member of the Planetree Visionary Design Network. This certification further establishes Aesthetics as a specialist in evidence-based health care design, as it officially recognizes the firm for following the Planetree patient-centered philosophy and its core components of healing design.

Aesthetics CEO Annette Ridenour is a founding certified member of the Visionary Design Network and is gratified that her has been added to the network, and can help Planetree affiliates — hospitals, long-term care, and Veterans Administration facilities — to successfully align their comprehensive care of both hospital patients and long-term care residents with the Planetree model.

Connecticut-based Planetree is an international organization, recognized as a leader in patient-centered, holistic approaches to health care. The Planetree model advocates that physical environments can enhance healing, health and wellbeing, and be welcoming and accessible to patients and families.

How do you maximize healthcare outcomes?
Aesthetics, Inc., provides designs that engage the senses and break down barriers, and encourage healing partnerships with caregivers. Aesthetics uniquely implements the Planetree philosophy in maximizing positive health care outcomes. The firm’s expertise includes multiple disciplines, such as wayfinding, interior design, values and donor displays, healing arts programs, and music programs. It brings art and nature into the healing environment as healing gardens, sculpture gardens, and labyrinths.

“Members of Planetree Visionary Design Network are leaders in the field, serving as catalysts for change in healing design. They fully embrace Planetree’s philosophy of building and designing healing environments that provide the greatest opportunity for caring of the body, mind and spirit from the perspective of the patients, families and caregivers who utilize the facility,” said Planetree Director of Design Consultation Kim Montague, AIA, EDAC, LEED AP. “Additionally, the certified firms exhibit a healing environment within their own organizations through the integration of sustainable practices and staff-friendly working environments.”

Aesthetics currently is the interior designer and Planetree specialist on a large project for the VA San Diego, which has been on a Planetree journey for the past several years. Ridenour explained, “The project involves bringing Aesthetics’ multiple years of expertise with the Planetree principles to the design of a new addition that will house the Spinal Cord Injury Program and a new Community Living Center.”

For more information about bringing the experience and benefits of healing design to your organization, send an email to info@Aesthetics.net, or contact Aesthetics Marketing and Communications Manager, Claudia Previn, at 619-683-7500 ext 255.

Providing a sense of place and welcoming community – through art and design
A recent article in the November/December 2011 issue of Medical Construction & Design magazine describes how the expansion and modernization of Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus serves its community by giving it a renewed sense of place, and connectivity within into the surrounding culture. Read the article here.

Aesthetics, Inc. has been an integral part of the project team, and has helped Children’s implement a vision for an Arts & Healing Urban Renewal Project with the local arts community that includes visual, presentation and performing arts organizations. Aesthetics’ art and interior design themes imbue a sense of discovery and wonder to the hospital and instill an identity in each level of the building. See more pictures on the Aesthetics website, for interior design, customer experience design, interpretive displays and wayfinding.

For more information about bringing a welcoming sense of place to your health care facility, please call 619-683-7500 or email info@aesthetics.net.

Lessons in the Healing Arts
Aesthetics completed two projects for San Diego’s Rady Children’s Hospital nearly two decades apart, as an arts consultant initially and, most recently, involving all of the firm’s disciplines—arts programs, interior design, wayfinding and interpretive displays—to make award-winning Rady’s Acute Care Pavilion a showcase of successful experience-based, patient-centered, holistic design.

In this article by Aesthetics CEO Annette Ridenour, published in the April 2011 issue of World Health Design, a leading international resource among healthcare design journals, Annette shared what she has learned about the relationship between the arts and healing. To read the informative article and see photographs of the beautiful hospital facility, click here.

The Culture of Possibility
An article by the same name appears in Healthcare Design magazine’s November/December 2011 issue, written by Aesthetics, Inc. CEO Annette Ridenour. Read an excerpt of this informative and timely article below or, to savor the entire piece at once, jump to the last paragraph and click on the link to the magazine’s site.

Hospitals are—as they should be—bastions of practical, pragmatic thinking. Because virtually every major decision can have profound consequences for patient health, fiscal soundness, staff engagement, and institutional identity, those decisions are generally weighed with great care and analytical rigor.
… [H]ospitals also represent some of the highest and most idealistic human aspirations: the healing of not just the body but also of the mind and the spirit; renewal of hope; and service to others.

To read more about The Culture of Possibility click here.