Appalachian artist Becca Joy Allen creates art that reflects the landscape she grew up enjoying. photograph by Tim Robison

Sunlight breaks through scudding clouds and caresses the Blue Ridge Mountains, those undulating indigo waves cresting in the distance. It’s the view you see through the floor-to-ceiling windows in the intensive care unit waiting room at Mission Hospital in Asheville — and it’s the view that artist Becca Joy Allen has captured in the painting that hangs on the waiting room wall. Titled Calling Me Home, the large acrylic landscape reflects both the skyline and the painter’s own memories of growing up in Hendersonville.

“It’s so nostalgic for me because I grew up running around in those mountains,” Allen says. “It’s that comfort, the innocence of childhood. When I see those mountains, I think of home. And I hope that the painting offers patients and families a comfort and a refuge, a reminder of the beauty on the other side of those white walls.”

Calling Me Home is among the 659 artworks that the hospital commissioned for its North Tower, which opened in 2019 to serve patients and families facing health challenges. Occupying 12 stories and more than 600,000 square feet, the building houses Mission’s emergency department, surgical oncology floor, and general surgery floor in addition to the ICU.

The Seven Sacred Clans by Joshua and Lauren Adams. photograph by Tim Robison

Art is displayed throughout the tower, from the dangling sculpture of glass panels that catch the light around the soaring ground-floor atrium to paintings and prints that bring color to patients’ rooms. Every piece was created by a maker from one of the 18 counties that Mission Health serves — and every piece was chosen to bring peace and perspective to those who see it.

“Nobody wants to be in the hospital, but we can offer them beauty and a serene and comforting space while they’re here,” says Nancy Lindell, Mission Health’s director of public and media relations. “And as the hospital in Asheville, we wanted to celebrate the art and artists that our area is known for.”

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Light in the Water by Thor and Jennifer Bueno photograph by Tim Robison

Through a call for submissions, more than 150 artists across multiple media were selected to create works for the tower. Many, like Allen, chose to celebrate the Appalachian landscape. Kenn Kotara’s Land of the Noonday Sun represents the Nantahala River in hammered copper over wood panels, with the metal’s emerald patina tracking the course of the waterway, and a poem in braille that visitors are invited to touch. Down the hall, more than two dozen glass elements as round and smooth as river stones make up Light in the Water, an installation by Mitchell County artists Thor and Jennifer Bueno.

Other artists created connections to the people of the region. Joshua Adams, a wood-carver, multimedia artist, and member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, crafted seven clan masks that hang together on the main entrance floor. At the center is a Blue Clan mask, associated with medicine. The piece acknowledges both the healing mission of the hospital and its location on land that was long home to the Cherokee people.

The North Tower showcases works by western North Carolina artists, including My-gra-tion by Lara Nguyen …  photograph by Tim Robison

… Pinwheels by Valerie Berlage … photograph by Tim Robison

Personal history is represented in the Mission collection as well. My-gra-tion sends a flock of origami birds soaring across the wall of the entrance lobby; its name is a reference to sculptor Lara Nguyen’s mother, My, and her arrival in the United States. The artist herself was a patient in the North Tower before losing her fight against cancer in 2023.

Some of the pieces were created with the hospital’s youngest patients in mind. Valerie Berlage’s Pinwheels brings color and fun, in the form of wooden sculpture, to the walls of a children’s waiting area, and joyful animals — a hummingbird, a snail — appear in spaces that pediatric patients pass through. Julian Cate, the Child Life supervisor, says that some of the art serves a practical purpose: Playing I Spy with images around the room can help soothe children’s anxiety about being in the hospital and even during procedures.

… and Girl with Flower by Joseph Pearson. photograph by Tim Robison

“Speaking as someone whose sole job is helping children and their families experience the least amount of stress possible during their time here, it means a lot that Mission Hospital placed artwork in these areas,” Cate says. “The artwork is playful and fun. Even in the middle of experiencing something scary and unfamiliar, it’s important to encourage the children to feel playful, too.”

Allen shares that understanding of art’s ability to comfort in times of crisis. She’s a registered art therapist as well as a painter, and she points to the many studies confirming that art — whether that’s a landscape hanging on the wall of a hospital room or drawings by patients about their experiences — can speed healing, lower stress levels, and improve outcomes. But she also understands the power of art in medical settings on a deeply personal level. Her grandmother Jeannie was a cancer patient at Mission Hospital, not long after Allen’s painting was hung in the North Tower.

Among the artwork, The Root of Joy by Lori Portka casts bright, vibrant colors into the North Tower. photograph by Aaron Hogsed

“She was able to come and see it,” Allen recalls. “I remember her looking at my painting and being so proud. It really means a lot to me that it brought her some joy before one of the hardest parts of her journey.”

After Jeannie died, her siblings purchased a bench in her memory and had it placed underneath her granddaughter’s painting. “And now, there’s a place in space and time where we’re together,” Allen says. “It gives me comfort, too, to know that the painting is now bringing comfort to others.”