As the UConn Health community enjoys the first employee art show in recent memory, a second employee art show already is in the works.

It’s thanks to the ambition of UConn Health’s art curator, Andre Rochester, and the 15-member art committee he convened this summer.

“I’ve been allowed to use the wall in that connector hallway [between the University Tower and the Connecticut Tower] as a gallery, so I decided to give it a mission,” says Rochester, who joined UConn Heath last year.

It started in the spring with a collaboration with a program called Art Connection Studio, which works with individuals who have intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“After seeing how well received it was, I decided that as long as I have access to this wall, I’ll only show health care- or health and wellness-themed exhibits that ‘connect’ UConn’s work with organizations and programs in the region through art, or set up employee art shows,” Rochester says.

His art committee first met in August and its first order of business was to help select the pieces to display in the employee exhibit that went up Sept. 5 and runs through Nov. 7. The next employee art show starts immediately after that, and will be on display through Dec. 19, featuring works his committee also is helping Rochester select.

Employees can submit sample images of their original art through Oct. 29.

“I’m just continuing the tradition of having a committee of people who are interested in the arts and of course love UConn Health,” Rochester says. “There’s a lot of good energy around this. People are interested. People are ready to hit the ground running, sharing ideas and getting involved.”

Two of them are from the Health Sciences Library, Emily Ziemba and Jillian Silverberg.

“I’ve worked at UConn Health for about a year and a half, and I’ve always seen all the art around, and always been so curious about the stories behind the art at UConn Health,” says Ziemba, who’s an outreach librarian. “And when I saw the announcement for an art committee, I just wanted to join to be part of the art community here, and have a say on what’s on our walls and what our community is seeing.”

Silverberg, an instruction librarian, has been with UConn Health for two years.

“I enjoy the arts,” she says. “I enjoy walking around and seeing what we have here. But for me, it was the opportunity for collaboration and partnerships, not just between the art community and the library, but then other opportunities that the library might help facilitate, such as the art committee and student relations, having student art profiled and featured, things like that. It’s something unique that the library can offer.”

UConn Health’s art collection has more than 2,500 pieces, including some from former staff and faculty. Rochester says he’s discovered artists at UConn Health simply by having conversations at work.

“It was clear that this may be a great way to use art for employee engagement,” Rochester says, adding that in the few days since he opened the call for submissions for the next employee exhibition, he’s seen work from artists he hadn’t yet met. “It’s great to see that there is excitement around this. I look forward to the two solo exhibits coming after this. They are employees as well.”

Like him, some of Rochester’s art committee members artists themselves, including Christine McNally, associate director of curricular affairs in the UConn School of Medicine, who’s been at UConn Health for 14 years.

“I volunteered because art’s my passion,” McNally says. “I grew up wanting to be an artist. I do art myself, but I decided to go into education, and I feel like it’s kind of integrating the passion and beauty of art into a health center, and art’s very therapeutic. So I think it’s a great opportunity.”

Rochester says high among the art committee’s priorities is raising awareness.

“The fact that we have an actual art collection here is something to be noted, and it has some rather noteworthy artists in it, including the employees who are in the art show, might I add,” Rochester says. “Just making sure that there are people who are interested in it, people who understand that there is in fact a connection between art and health and wellness — it’s something that’s been going on for 45 years here at UConn Health. It’s not a new thing, and I just want to expand on that.

“I want to build on the legacy that’s been established.”