Artlink Glasshouses Creative Hub

In addition to the many creative workshops on the wards and at the glasshouses and the hours and hours of organising and coordinating, we also held our annual Plant Sale, raising an amazing £682 to contribute to the planting and ground maintenance fund! Janet, a Glasshouses gardening volunteer, and a plant sale rookie, describes the weeks and weeks of planting seeds and repotting plants that led up to the sale. “It’s very labourintensive but you have to do it for the plant sale because then you want everything to look really good.”

Artlink has supported creative and growing activity at the Royal Edinburgh hospital since 1986 and we have had a base at the hospital since 1995. In 2010 we were invited to base ourselves at the Glasshouses and over the years we have developed them and the surrounding areas as a Creative Hub with focus on visual art, woodworking, growing and outdoor activity.

The Artlink Glasshouses Creative Hub is a focus for experimentation, collaboration and relaxation, where patients, artists, volunteers and voluntary organisations come together to be imaginative and productive in a friendly atmosphere with often a cup of tea on the go. The Creative Hub is a base for all the creative work that Anne Elliot and artists do on the wards throughout the hospital and as a creative drop in for studio based arts making and experimentation. On a Thursday a group of volunteers help support and maintain the hub so that it is always a lovely welcoming space.