Bon Secours Hospital Unveils Mural from Catonsville Donor, Joan Plisko

On Friday, March 2, Bon Secours Hospital unveiled a new, 75 foot, floor to ceiling mural in its dining rooms.  The mural is a small world Catonsville story.

Catonsville resident, Joan Plisko, became involved with The Samaritan Women through her role as co-chair of the Grants Committee of the Catonsville Women’s Giving Circle.  Plisko and Grants Committee co-chair, Siri Svaeren, attended The Samaritan Women’s gala find-raiser last year where Plisko bid on and won a mural painting by artist Kirk Seese.  That evening, Plisko also had a conversation with hospital CEO, Dr. Samuel Ross, about Bon Secours’ efforts to serve more healthy food and to promote community gardens in vacant lots, work that she had been aware of through her professional role as Technical Director of Maryland Hospitals for a Healthy Environment.

Plisko decided to donate her mural to Bon Secours to further inspire healthy eating and gardening in the hospital’s West Baltimore community.  The mural covers the three room dining area at Bon Secours and depicts scenes of community gardening:  preparing the earth, sowing and growing, and harvesting the bounty. 

Among the almost fifty people who gathered to see the unveiling of Plisko’s mural donation were fellow Catonsville Women’s Giving Circle members Almarie Wood, Siri Svaeren, and Meg Tipper. 

Wood, who is Program Director of the Annual Campaign for Bon Secours Foundation, commented, “The urban farming theme of the mural helps to drive home the ideas of eating locally produced food and making healthy food choices. Bon Secours continues to be a force in the West Baltimore neighborhood and strives to bring health and wholeness to the community in a holistic manner.”

For Plisko, “The mural represents a convergence of my professional and personal lives.”  Her passion for her work with the Catonsville Women’s Giving Circle and The Samaritan Women, her love of gardening, her belief in the power of urban farming to transform a community, and her profession with Maryland Hospitals for a Healthier Environment, all came together in the mural.

In a final connection to wrap up the story, mural artist, Kirk Seese, will be putting aside his paintbrush for a while to become the Greenhouse Manager for the community garden at . . .  The Samaritan Women!  Look for their produce this summer at the Catonsville Farmers’ Market.