ArtTimesTwo is a gallery within the offices of the Princeton Brain and Spine, 731 Alexander Road, Suite 200, Princeton, New Jersey. Exhibitions of art are mounted twice a year for the benefit of patients and their families. It is an excellent venue for regional artists to show their work, and visitors are welcome after the opening receptions by appointment.
Hard data from clinical studies, supporting common intuition and ancient wisdom, acknowledges the power of art and its healing effect. Hospitals and other medical settings are now being built based on the findings of “evidence-based design,” or EBD, and with spaces created specifically for paintings and sculpture because “research has shown that art has a measurable impact on the speed of patient recovery and reduces rates of infection.” Increasingly, highly respected hospitals are touting the healing benefits of art, and have begun acquiring art to provide a more profound healing environment for their patients, families and staff. These collections range from art that that has an explicit spiritual content to mainstream secular art that fits the definitions of affective art, primarily with nature motifs. Both abstract and figurative work can offer distraction from pain or stress, lead to an engagement that inspires, or even to an energy transmission that is received somatically. An audience does not have to be conversant with art, or aware even that they might be engaged by it, to benefit as they wait in or pass through the spaces containing art.
"The purpose of opening up our office to this exhibit is three-fold. First and most importantly, it provides a comforting, healing atmosphere for our patients who are frightened or apprehensive. Second, it gives local artists the opportunity to display, promote, and sell their work. And lastly, through commissions received on every sale, it benefits the Spinal Research Foundation– which ultimately benefits our patients and the improvement of spine health care."