With the goal of creating unique, Chicago-centric healing environments throughout their new facility, the new Lurie Children's Hospital recruited Creative Partners from the Chicago Arts community.

For the 15th Floor Regenstein Cardiac Care Unit, Creative Partners Lookingglass Theater Comapny and Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) personally selected Kinc to develop installations based on their 2010 co-production of Peter and the Wolf.   

With responsibility for design, fabrication, and overall project management, Kinc embarked on a year-long journey, resulting in one of the company’s proudest accomplishments to date.

Realizing that the 2010 production did not provide enough visual reference to support a floor-wide design, Kinc expanded on concepts devised by Lookingglass' Phil Smith and CSO's Jon Weber to develop an entirely original Peter and the Wolf-based “production” unique to the Lurie project.

 

Starting by creating a storyline with characters, and designing virtual props and costumes for them, Kinc then used the completed original "production" as the basis for a  series of art installations throughout the CCU.   

 

The installation includes a "forest" with an oversized discovery box, a "meadow" featuring fantastical photos illustrating the new Peter and the Wolf- inspired story, and a Peter-themed  information hub where patients can contribute their own artwork to the Floor. 

 

“What made this project exceptional is that in addition to ensuring that the artistic visions of both of the Creative Partners were realized, the pieces had to conform to the operational requirements of the hospital, while still providing an inspiring environment to support the children as they move towards recovery,” states Kinc founder Katherine Ross.

 

The end result is an engaging environment that invites curious young minds to explore, motivates physical and creative engagement, and inspires them to preservere and prevail, just like the story’s hero, Peter. 

 

“Some of the children will spend months at a time in the Cardiac Care Unit,” adds Ross. “Kinc is going to make sure that they’re always in a space that engages and uplifts them and contributes to their recovery.”