Our Artists-in-Residence (AIRs) provide fine and expressive art encounters at patients’ bedsides and in clinical settings. Since January 2011, Boston Children’s Hospital has employed AIRs who offer creative writing, video making, painting, cartooning, arts history, and visual arts activities.
Together, AIRs provide artistic opportunities on all inpatient units, all intensive care units, dialysis, out-patient infusion center, primary care, the ninth-floor family resource room, inpatient psychiatry unit, the Martha Eliot Health Center, and Boston Children’s Hospital at Waltham.
Current projects include creative writing, poetry, video art, origami, digital art, cartoon art, collage and mixed media art, sculpture, and jewelry-making to name a few.
Our Artist-in-Residence team
Tim Estiloz, Cartooning
Tim has an Associate Degree in Illustration and Graphic Design from the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh. His illustrations and cartoon work have been published in The Boston Phoenix, NH Tele-graph, El Planeta, Bay State Banner, NOW Comics and numerous other publications, as well as by a variety of greeting card and comic book companies. He is a published children's book illustrator where his skill with traditional hand-rendered art has been highlighted. Tim is also very active in the comic book art community; often exhibiting and creating his artwork at comic book conventions throughout New England for a growing following of fans of his illustrations.
Ginny Lewis, Creative Writer
Ginny is a writer and a local educator. She holds a BA in English and romance languages from Georgetown University, and an MA in child development from Tufts University. In addition to her 15 years of experience as a classroom educator, Ginny is a certified child life specialist and is currently working towards a certification in narrative medicine through Columbia University. She has 4 years of previous experience facilitating hospital-based writing and storytelling opportunities—she created original, award-winning writing and publishing programming for a local pediatric hematology-oncology program. Ginny is a member of the advisory board for Fundacíon PLAY, an early education initiative within Andalusia and Spain. She is also the founder and executive director of Writers Incorporated, a nonprofit dedicated to providing hospital-based writing and book publishing opportunities to patients and families.
Laki Vazakas, Video Making
Laki is a video maker and an Artist in Residence at Boston Children’s Hospital. From 2006 to 2019, he was Video Artist-in-Residence in the Arts for Healing Program at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. He has been instrumental in developing the digital storytelling process with patients and families at both locations. He has also created collaborative video projects with women in recovery, refugees, adults living with mental illness, and returning veterans. His videos have been screened at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Cinematheque, and the Venice Biennale's Retrospetiva.
Our work
View From Here: Vol. 1 View From Here: Vol. 2
Hospitable Hearts Coloring Book
