Phoenix Children’s unveiled a 407-foot commissioned mural May 1 that has transformed a heavily trafficked corridor into a journey for children and their families.

After nearly two years of work, the art installation, “Wonder And Wander,” brings vibrant colors and designs to a major hospital hallway through which 70,000 children are transported each year.

The art installation is a collaboration between Phoenix Children’s and RxART, a nonprofit that aims to help children heal through the power of visual art, according to a press release.

Inspired by RxART’s mission, David Lenhardt, Phoenix Children’s board chair and RxART board member, worked with the organization to create an art installation at Phoenix Children’s – Thomas Campus. “Wonder And Wander” is the largest project ever completed by RxART.

“Our goal was not only to brighten a major corridor at Phoenix Children’s but also to reduce anxiety and create a calming environment for the thousands of children who are wheeled down this hall for surgery, imaging and other critical healthcare procedures,” Lenhardt said in the release.

His enthusiasm for the project was shared by the health system’s Children’s Advisory Board, a council of patients and siblings ages 12–18 whose perspectives directly impact the patient family experience.

The CAB members previously identified the hallway as an area of the hospital that needed to be more patient-friendly and uplifting. They knew the artwork would breathe new life into the space and bring hope to kids, the release stated.

Lenhardt worked alongside RxART founder, Diane Brown, to identify the right artist for Phoenix Children’s installation. They enlisted contemporary artist Shara Hughes, whose art has been displayed in museum exhibitions worldwide, to create the otherworldly landscape piece.

Hughes used colored pencil, oil pastel, watercolor, marker and crayon on paper — materials familiar to children — to create “Wonder And Wander.” The design was then enlarged and transferred to Acrovyn, a hospital-safe, custom wall-covering application.

“Sometimes, the installation feels immersive, like you are in the landscape, being hugged by the trees on either side and sometimes it is viewed as if you are a passenger looking outside of a window on one side,” Hughes said in the release. “The drawing shifts in materials and perspective of what you can and can’t see ahead and behind you. While the unknown is present in the drawings, I wanted it to feel like a safe, positive and hopeful space where kids could reflect, to find a moment of respite, and see a landscape change, move and grow. I wanted it to feel exciting and hopeful to move through.”

Natural motifs and patterned elements recur throughout Hughes’s pictures: snake-like trees, floating moons, distorted reflections in bodies of water, and stippled night skies appear in various permutations. Hughes lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.