About 30 seconds into Jordan Lord’s short film “After…After…(Access),” it becomes clear that something is different about this work. As Lord visually documents the moments and days between learning open-heart surgery is needed and being wheeled in for the procedure, audio narration and written captions tell a larger story about access and indebtedness — and ensure people of all abilities can experience the film.

“This kind of access as a primary material is a very core ethical imperative,” Lord said.

The topic and accessibility of Lord’s film are reasons it was chosen to be part of an exhibit opening Friday at Colorado College’s Fine Arts Center. “Open-Hearted” showcases the work of 14 artists whose pieces touch on the themes of health, wellness, access and the systems of power that define them.

Katja Rivera, the Fine Arts Center Museum’s curator of contemporary art, hopes it helps viewers consider health and wellness as something collective. “I hope that some folks will be able to see themselves and their individual struggles in a larger context,” Rivera said.

“And I hope that art can become a way of thinking about these ideas in an expansive way.”

Rivera conceived of the exhibit several years ago as she was pondering the ubiquity of products and advice on how to achieve wellness. So much of it seemed focused on self-care, she noticed. And yet health and well-being are significantly shaped by people, spaces and institutions beyond our selves.

Rivera turned to artists to help her explore this paradox and found quite a few who were making art that centered on the spaces, architecture and language of the medical system.

“I think for many of these artists they are thinking about this as a more collective issue,” Rivera said, “thinking about public health and the systems of medical care rather than only an individual responsibility.”

The artists represented in the exhibit work in several media, from weaving to sculpture to installation, and were made in the era capped on one end by the AIDS epidemic and on the other by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The works on display are in conversation with one another; Lord’s film shares gallery space with a sculpture by Ben Gould constructed from a hospital gurney modified to hold flowers and a spine-like sculpture by Park McArthur titled “Rooms of Fantasy” made from unused bacterial filters — a product the artist actually relied on to assist her breathing.

These pieces are intentionally placed together to explore themes of the design and function of medical objects, agency within health care spaces, and accessibility

In another space, two of Kapwani Kiwanga’s linear paintings are abstract colors with surprising historical meaning; The spinach-green shade on one became the chosen color for hospitals after a World War One-era surgeon developed it as a preferred contrast to blood.

Kiwanga’s work, Rivera says, “is really challenging this assumed neutrality of interior spaces and architectures.”

On the opening day of the exhibition, attendees who pre-register will be able to get flu and COVID vaccines as well as listen to a roundtable discussion with Colorado College professors who engage with the show’s themes as part of their work.

“It feels very timely to think about these issues,” Rivera said. “I think the conversations around health and wellbeing as it relates to access to health Insurance, cost of care, access to help public health information is very much in the discourse right now.”