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By TABITHA GOODLING
Sentinel correspondent
BEAVER SPRINGS – When a patient or family member is sitting inside a waiting room designed for critical care situations, he or she may just stare at the walls.
But what if there was something worth staring at and thinking about – even for a micro-second?
Valerie Moyer is one 10 artists whose work was chosen to be part of an ongoing exhibit inside Penn State Milton Hershey Medical Center.
Moyer, from Beaver Springs, recently became part of the Farm Preservation Artists of Central Pennsylvania. This joint enterprise of the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania and Centre County Farmland Trust “promotes the preservation and appreciation of farmland through the visual arts,” Moyer explained.
The preservation arts group was contacted by Claire De Boer, director of Center Stage in Hershey and promoter of live performance and visual arts in health care. It ran from Nov. 1 to Feb. 1, and was extended to run three more months.
De Boer said the program was extended because the Farm Preservation Artists’ work was outstanding and appropriate for what the hospital wanted.
“This group’s work suits our criteria very well. It’s inspiring. The artists have high quality skill,” noting the art features landscapes that may be familiar to patients.
Moyer’s two pieces, which include a round barn in Milheim and an octagon school house in Montandon, were chosen to be hung in the neurological medicine waiting room.
Moyer, a freelance acrylic landscape artist who does custom paintings of personal homesteads, barns, churches and historic buildings, had to be accepted into the perseveration program from Centre County.
“I was incredibly privileged to be part of this,” she said, noting the other artists involved who have art in the medical center, “It’s the best I’ve seen in all of Pennsylvania.”
Other artists include Brienne Brown, Tom Berner, Milt Trask, Anne Kenyon, Barb Pennypacker, Jeff Matheson, Denise Wagner, Cindy Kostyak, Jen Shuey and Susan Nicholas Gephart.
De Boer noted Moyer’s work is top-notch.
“It’s soothing, and at a high level. It’s finely done.”