Hospitals are often seen as cold, clinical places, but in reality, they’re filled with moments of joy, fear, hope, grief, and love. Hospital of Emotions, a large-scale, site-specific exhibition at the historic St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, completely reimagines what a hospital can be. Seventy artists and designers were invited to each transform a room in the formal medical campus.
Presented by House of Art and Dreams in partnership with ROYVA Group and the St. Vincent Behavioral Health Campus, the exhibition features 80 immersive installations, each exploring a different human emotion. Former patient rooms, operating rooms, corridors, and nurses’ stations have been reimagined as playful, emotionally rich environments using everything from textiles and botanicals to light and sound.
The exhibition is organized like a working hospital, with each department dedicated to a different emotion, including fear, love, anger, compassion, hope, gratitude, sadness, joy, and resilience. As part of the Hope Department, multimedia artist Dmitry Kemell created Towards the North Star, a dreamlike installation featuring a hospital bed turned into a sail boat. Meanwhile, artist Dr. Maryam Trebeau explores sadness through a striking portrait mural created from interconnected strips of light. No two installations approach emotion in the same way, offering visitors a rich variety of perspectives.
With so much of today’s life happening online, Hospital of Emotions creates space for people to be fully present. Visitors are invited to wander through a series of immersive spaces designed to spark curiosity, reflection, and emotional connection. Together, the installations celebrate what makes us human, reminding us of the value of empathy and imagination in an increasingly digital world.
“What has surprised us most is the emotional response,” Heidi Johnson from Hijinx Arts PR tells My Modern Met. “We’ve watched children, seniors, veterans, healthcare workers, and complete strangers connect with the work—and with one another—in ways we never could have predicted.”
Check out some of the installations below and find out more about the project on the Hospital of Emotions website. The incredible show is open to the public until July 31, 2026.
Hospital of Emotions, a large-scale, site-specific exhibition at the historic St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, features the work of 70 artists and designers.
The exhibition features 80 immersive installations, each exploring a different human emotion.
Former patient rooms, operating rooms, corridors, and nurses’ stations have been reimagined as playful, emotionally rich environments.
Together, the 80 installations celebrate what makes us human, reminding us of the value of empathy and imagination in an increasingly digital world.
