Two local artists + Two blank walls = A Beautiful Display
June 06, 2025
The Winchester District Memorial Hospital (WDMH) Rehabilitation team spends some of their time with cardiac and rehab patients walking the hallways outside of the rehab department. ‘We conduct our cardiac walk tests in this hallway,’ notes Maryse O’Shaughnessy, WDMH Physiotherapist ‘Our cardiac rehab patients also walk the halls during their group exercise sessions’.
The walls outside the rehab department were blank providing little in the way of motivation for patients, so the Rehab team wanted to spruce things up. After a plea on social media for a volunteer to help paint a mural, multiple local artists stepped forward but two, Diane Munro and Jo-Anne Page-Côté, were selected to get the job done.
The planning group met and shared ideas of what the murals would look like. ‘We wanted to be inclusive and share the spirit of WDMH as much as possible,’ shared Maryse ‘We are thrilled with the results and can’t thank Diane and Jo-Anne enough for their masterpieces’.
Diane Munro is mainly a self-taught artist who has lived in the Winchester area most of her life. In the early 2000s, she took some oil and water colour lessons and has been creating art ever since. Diane enjoys doing commissions, but primarily paints landscapes, and more recently, mixed media abstracts, some of which are in the Winchester Iron Forge restaurant.
‘The night before we met to discuss the project,’ Diane says, ‘I had a vision which would mimic the stages of rehabilitation. It was a joy and a pleasure to work for the hospital and foster new friendships along the way’.
Jo-Anne Page-Côté, is a retired acrylic paint teacher who grew up in a small Southwestern Ontario town and now lives in Finch. She has painted with acrylics for over 40 years with her works in collections around the world and in gallery exhibits in Ontario and Quebec.
Jo-Anne enjoys creating many types of art. She has donated many pieces to local charitable organizations to raise funds and is known best for her landscape and wildlife paintings. ‘It was such great fun to create this landscape mural for the hospital walls.’
The project took several months to complete and the team is in preparations for their next mural project. Our heartfelt thanks to Diane and Jo-Anne for sharing their talents with us and brightening WDMH hallways with their art. We look forward to the next creation.
If you would like to provide comments or suggestions about hospital services, please contact Cholly Boland, President and CEO at 613.774.1049 or by email at cboland@wdmh.on.ca.
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Contact:
Lori-Anne Van Moorsel
Executive Assistant to the CEO & Interim Communications Contact
613.774.2420 ext. 6350
lvanmoorsel@wdmh.on.ca
Pictured left to right are WDMH team members Gail Henry, Physiotherapist, Christine Blais-Morency, Occupational Therapist, Maryse O’Shaughnessy, Physiotherapist, Suzie Brown, Physiotherapy Assistant, alongside Artists Jo-Anne Page-Côté and Diane Munro. Missing from photo are Joyce Smith, Physiotherapy Assistant and Paulette Dewar, Physiotherapist.
Cutline: Jo-Anne Page-Côté stands in front of her mural creation for the WDMH Rehabilitation department.
Cutline: Diane Munro stands in front of her mural creation for the WDMH Rehabilitation department.