Left: Hervé Tullet, Traits points taches giboullage (Lines dots stains scribbles), is located at 847 Main
Continuous Improvements Make the Campus a Destination, a Resource, and a Connector for All in Western New York.

BNMC Inc, the organization that operates the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and its innovation community, recently announced a range of initiatives to enhance the safety and beauty of the Campus.

In collaboration with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, BNMC has added three striking new murals to the area by internationally renowned artist Hervé Tullet and celebrated local artists Muhammad Zaman and Ashley Johnson. The Zaman and Johnson murals are being incorporated into pedestrian safety improvements along Ellicott Street that BNMC worked with GObike to implement. The BNMC will seek to expand its public art program and safety initiatives throughout the area in the coming years.

Jamie Hamann Burney, Director of Campus Planning and Implementation said, “Our Campus is a magnet for innovators, researchers, and healthcare workers, and sees over 1.5M patients and visitors every year. We’re also part of a larger surrounding community and we strive to create places where everyone can gather and connect in a safe environment.  Bringing great art to the Campus all the while making it safer for all who rely on its resources is a win-win for everyone.  Look for more exciting projects coming soon.”

This year’s largest mural is by the internationally renowned artist, performer, and beloved children’s book author Hervé Tullet, and was executed in tandem with his largest exhibition to date, Shape and Color, which was on view at Abright-Knox Northland this summer. The BNMC mural, entitled Traits points taches giboullage (Lines dots stains scribbles), is located at 847 Main Street and is the second-ever public mural by the artist. The site was selected in part because it will live on the Campus, a site for healing, but also because of the many diverse cultural activities that BNMC champions and supports. The artist’s design is based on original works that were included in the AK Northland exhibition. The mural outline was printed on polytab, a mobile and flexible non-woven fabric, and completed at Buffalo Arts Studio by Jump Start program students who learned Tullet’s techniques that allowed them to complete the mural while also helping them develop their own portfolios as they contributed to the production of a major work of public art.

In addition, two other new murals have been added to the Campus. These murals serve not only to beautify the area and highlight the voices of leading local artists, but also to improve crosswalk and intersection safety. They have been produced in collaboration with GObike Buffalo and the Albright-Knox, with funding support from the Ralph Wilson Foundation and the University at Buffalo. Christina Orsi, Associate Vice President for Economic Development at UB said “We are thrilled to continue to support improvements that make the BNMC campus a leading destination for our community of innovators. Together, we forge greater connections with the surrounding community in a place where our differences become our strengths to enable lasting impressions and impacts in Western New York and beyond.”

Ashley Johnson’s work at Ellicott and Virginia Streets

Let’s Walk Together (detail), Muhammad Zaman at the Innovation Center

The murals are designed by artists Ashley Johnson and Muhammad Zaman. Johnson and Zaman working at 640 Ellicott Street and the intersection of Ellicott and Virginia Streets respectively, have each wp-contentlied their signature styles to the spaces.

Walk Together is an abstract work by Zaman at the crosswalk and pathway to the BNMC’s Innovation Center at 640 Ellicott. It is based on the concept that sharing a path together connects people to one another, echoing the importance of the connections made in the building and throughout the Campus community every day.

Artist Ashley Johnson is working on an abstract design on Ellicott and Virginia that evokes BNMC’s role in leveraging economic development on the Campus for the benefit of the overall community. With shape and color, the work explores the connectivity and interrelationships that make communities thrive.

“Through our Healthy Streets Initiative, we have been able to work with institutions and residents across the city to inexpensively develop temporary traffic calming solutions to immediately address safety needs,” said Justin Booth, Executive Director for GObike Buffalo. “We were hwp-contenty to partner with the BNMC and Albright-Knox to deliver this innovative project to do more than improve safety but beautify our city while doing so.”

The BNMC also worked closely with the City of Buffalo to plan and implement additional complete street improvements on the Campus this year. The City reconstructed Virginia and Burton Streets, widening the sidewalks, adding bike lanes, and installing mid-block pedestrian crossings on both Washington and Ellicott Streets.