I’m excited to announce that a winter themed display full of my wee folk characters is on view until March 15th at Boston Children’s Hospital, which has been named the country’s #1 pediatric hospital for 9 years in a row.

The 8 ft. long case is located in the Mini-Museum in the Hale lobby, not far from the main entrance to the hospital at 300 Longwood Ave., Boston, Massachusetts. The exhibit, which is sponsored by the Art Program at Boston Children’s Hospital is for patients and their families, staff, and visitors to enjoy.

I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to show my work in the hospital and hope that it provides a bit of comfort and joy to the children and their families who pass by on their way to appointments and treatments.

The snow scene is populated with sample dolls from the Winter Play chapter of my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures. The book includes instructions for making the dolls and stands like the ones I used in this scene.

After being invited to show my work and consulting with the hospital’s art program manager, I drew up this sketch that showed how I envisioned the display case. We agreed that placing the 3-dimensional snow scene at child height on the bottom shelf was important.

I constructed wood and chicken wire supports for the snow bank and trees, which I tested out on the big oak table in my studio. Bayberry branches, with their densely packed branches are the perfect scale for a scene like this.

For the free-standing trees, I made weighted stands from plastic wire spools and a stack of metal washers, which I padded with stuffing and covered with white felt.

This video shows the practice set-up of the winter scene in my studio.

I packed everything up and drove to Boston to set up the scene. Some of the figures aren’t really dressed for cold weather, but they wanted to come along anyway!

Also in the case, above the snow scene set up, are printed enlargements of Frosty Morning, Winter Play (from Felt Wee Folk) and Snow. All 3 are available as cards in my shop.

Here’s a video of the installation in Boston Children’s Hospital.

Most of the figures and houses are from other projects, so I was able to reuse them for this display. I did make something new, though – an adaptive sled for riders with disabilities. I took lots of photos of the process of creating the sled, which I’ll share in a future post.

I’ve already been contacted by several people who encountered the exhibit while going to a doctor’s appointment with their child or grandchild. Hearing their reactions warms my heart and makes it feel like the effort was worth it! If you’re in the area, please stop by the Boston Children’s Hospital’s Mini Museum.

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