MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Has Added Nearly 300 Artworks Since 2025
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, a hospital and research centre in Houston, Texas, has added nearly 300 works to its art collection since January 2025, The Art Newspaper reported on 26 October 2026.
The collection already held about 9,000 objects before those additions. The buying push began in January 2025, when the hospital launched a contemporary art initiative focused on acquiring ambitious fine art. Contemporary art means work made by living artists or those working in recent decades.
The art is meant to be seen. MD Anderson runs an Art Experience Program that puts contemporary work on display in its hospital buildings, where patients, families and staff pass by every day. The programme is led by Jennifer Finkel, the hospital's associate vice president for art experience. Before joining MD Anderson, Finkel worked at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
The art push is part of a US$2.9 billion expansion across the hospital's buildings in the Texas Medical Center, a cluster of hospitals and labs in central Houston. Construction projects tied to that expansion are scheduled for completion between 2027 and 2032. The hospital's new Colorectal Center, which treats cancers of the colon and rectum, opened in February 2026.
Money for the art comes from several places. One is a percent-for-art model, a rule that sets aside a share of construction costs for artwork. Philanthropy and qualifying art donations also contribute. The total budget for the collection effort has not been publicly disclosed.
Separate from the art work, MD Anderson launched a US$2.5 billion philanthropic campaign, a fundraising drive, in November 2025. In May 2026, the Untitled Art fair in Houston announced four new prizes, one of which supports the Art Experience Program.
For patients facing long treatment stays, the artworks are part of the daily setting rather than a separate visit. The hospital has not said how much the collection effort will cost in total, and that figure is still unknown.
