El Mirador Project is a visionary public arts program that recognizes the transformative power of art in the education and training of compassionate, committed health care professionals, infusing the University of Arizona Health Sciences campus with art and related programming to nurture creativity and empathy in our students, faculty, staff and community.
"El Mirador Project offers an extraordinary opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our students outside the classroom. By bringing arts and humanities into the health sciences space, we help create an environment for students to develop the critical thinking, empathetic and intuitive skills they will need to form meaningful connections with their patients." — Michael D. Dake, MD, Senior Vice President, University of Arizona Health Sciences
Become a Patron
By supporting El Mirador Project, you can help us continue to develop an environment that encourages creative thought, collaborative learning and compassionate care. In addition to supporting future acquisitions, contributions to El Mirador Project will be used to advance educational opportunities focused on the intersection of health and humanities, including lectures, community engagement activities, and docent-led tours. Funding also will be used for collection care and maintenance to ensure the pieces in the collection remain on display as the artists intended.
Our Next Planned Acquisition
Jim Campbell is one of the most exciting contemporary artists at work today. His elusive, ephemeral constructs of light, shadow and movement have been compared to “dreaming in public.” The San Francisco-based artist pushes the boundaries of perception through the radical transformation of technological hardware into nuanced narrative.
In a world where crisp high-definition has become the holy grail, his electronic sculptures draw on computer software, custom electronics, LED projectors, multiple exposure photographs, diffusion screens and moving images from daily life. He experiments with finding the exact amount of information for an image to be identifiable.
Campbell’s internationally acclaimed works range from physically sweeping public projects that redefine city landscapes to more intimate constellations of tiny projected lights that fall in and out of focus with each blink of eye and change of position. In 2018, he captured the world’s attention on a grand scale with “Day for Night,” an ever-changing visual display of 11,000 LED lights atop the six-story crown of San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower. Visible from 20 miles, the low-resolution magic begins at nightfall when gently lit shapes suggestive of clouds, ocean waves, dancers, birds and rippling water begin to drift across the tower.
Campbell’s works are now widely exhibited and in the permanent collection of most major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Intrinsic to Campbell’s art – great or small – is the subliminal message that we need to slow down to truly see. By asking viewers to work harder to decipher and interpret his images, he inspires us all to see ourselves more clearly.
Support Our Next Acquisition
As the Association of American Medical Colleges recently noted, there has been a growing recognition that studying the arts and humanities can help develop qualities such as professionalism, self-awareness and communication skills that are increasingly important for physicians.
With your help, we can continue to expand the influence of the arts and humanities on the future health care providers serving Arizona and beyond. Please thoughtfully consider supporting this effort.
Support Jim Campbell Art Acquisition