Patients, staff, and community residents crowded near a triad of first floor elevators inside North Central Bronx Hospital (NCBH) as they awaited the unveiling of a collaborative mural dubbed “The Cycle of Caring” on Nov. 25.

A component of the New York City Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine program, the project was funded by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, a 12-year-old organization that offers supportive grants to tackle long-term issues in the city.

“[NCBH] is a wonderful place to work but inherently working in a hospital is stressful,” says Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund executive director Rick Luftglass, who notes the power behind artworks inside hospitals as a means of handling a hospital’s daily rigors. “Art has the opportunity to relieve that stress and to create bonds that often are hard in sort of, regular day-to-day work.”

About 100 artists among eight city hospitals applied for the grant. NCBH believed artist Carla Torres was the best fit for illustrating their vision and the Tisch Illumination Fund decided the partnership should be the first of many in the city’s Arts in Medicine program. A second round of applications are on the way, according to Luftglass.

The mural is a collection of figurative metaphors, including a sand clock that embodies how the hospital nurtures patients from infancy to elderly age, a rooted tree growing from a concrete floor representing NCBH’s resiliency, and vegetables promoting health and wellness. All images are centered around a heart “because without love, no caring is possible,” says Torres. “I love doing this kind of work because it is where I can feel like art in action; the power of art in action where the power transcends the image.”

First promoted with an awareness day in early October, the project was conceptualized through multiple focus groups. After listening to community input on the mural, Torres presented her designs for approval. Kicked off with a paint party, Torres shepherded about 50 people through a tight deadline of one week to complete the painting, first beginning on several panels of paper before transferring to the final canvas.

“I felt a little bit like a plastic surgeon,” Torres says with playful laughter. She enjoyed easing amateur painters’ apprehensions about ruining the mural. “There were some that were like talented; there were some that were like a disaster.”

Born in Ecuador and based in Washington Heights, Torres’ specialty as an artist lies in illustration. This is her second mural in the Bronx, the first being a 7,500 foot project at P.S. 69 Journey Prep School in Soundview.

“Everything that was in the mural was exactly how people felt,” says NCBH executive director Cristina Contreras. “This is going to be here forever and the staff can see it and appreciate it, and the community and the patients.”

A secretary named Ms. Singleton, who’s worked at the hospital since 1982, worked on the mural alongside fellow staff. “It’s very relaxing and a de-stresser,” she says, noting it was the first time she ever worked on a collaborative painting.

“I was able to stand side-by-side with doctors, nurses, and staff to really make a difference that’s gonna be displayed here, in front of everyone who walks through these doors,” says Dio Then, a patient at the hospital, “I felt all my stress literally melt away and be put on a piece of paper.”