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BLOOM by Anna Schuleit

After 91 years, in 2003, the headquarters of the prestigious Massachusetts Mental Health Center ( MMHC ) was to be demolished to make way for new structures. The closure was also the occasion for a moment of reflection and remembrance for the people who worked and stayed in this building for years, whose lives were affected - often unconsciously - by its dimensions, directions, and traffic ways, whose memories still remain connected with the MMHC over the course of nine decades. But how to commemorate in some way with a building that is rich in history, hope and sadness, waiting to be demolished? The answer to that question was Anna Schuleit . The artist was commissioned to solve that problem and to pay tribute to the artistic MMHC . With a limited budget and only three months of planning, Schuleit and a huge team of volunteers, created a massive public art installation called Bloom . The concept, though simple, was difficult to build a large scale, it was installed about 28,000 flowers in vases in every square meter of MMHC including hallways, stairwells, offices and even in the pool, a veritable sea of flowers. The public was invited for a limited period of 4 days to visit the facility for a moment of reflection and rebirth.