Creative Care: Arts at Imperial Health Charity by ImperialCharity

Creative Care

Arts at Imperial Health Charity

Creative Care

Arts at Imperial Health Charity

Published in 2024 by Imperial Health Charity

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by means, electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Images © The Artists or their representatives

Edited by Lucy Zacaria and Kate Pleydell

Contributors: Delphine Allier, Joey Mason, Lauren Humphries and Eve Annesley

Printed by Swallowtail, Norwich, UK

ISBN 978-1-3999-8070-8

Imperial Health Charity 11th Floor, 5 Merchant Square London W2 1AY

imperialcharity.org.uk

T: 020 3857 9846

E: arts@imperialcharity.org.uk

Instagram: arts_at_imperial

Working in partnership with

Imperial Health Charity is a charity registered in England and Wales, no. 1166084

Paterson Centre at St Mary’s Hospital with artworks by Matt Smith

Step Change Studios dance workshop for patients at St Mary’s Hospital

Foreword

I’ve been connected with Imperial Health Charity for many years, both as a member of the arts committee and as someone who is passionate about the synergies between clinical care and the visual and performing arts. From my own experience as a clinician, I’ve been acutely aware of the physical environments and the impacts — positive and negative — that hospitals can have on the people within them.

Following a long career as a surgeon and GP, I changed direction joining Imperial College London to develop the field of surgical education. I’ve had my share of serious illness too, so I’ve seen clinical care from the inside. That experience underlined the vital role of the arts during my recovery, a time when horizons can all too easily become constricted by symptoms, anxieties and uncertainty.

I believe that good clinical care must align scientific knowledge with craftsmanship and artistic expression to help sick people with their recovery. Yet hospitals can be soulless places. Imperial Health Charity has a unique role in making the visual arts integral to its buildings and places of care. The works it selects and commissions are carefully curated, shaping the experiences of patients and NHS staff, and creating an environment designed to heal. By combining the perspectives of patients, families and clinicians with the professional expertise and inspiration of the arts team, Imperial Health Charity has revolutionised its hospital buildings with works by some of the world’s leading artists. These transform the settings of clinical care and form a continually changing element in our hospitals’ visual landscape.

Alongside these curatorial activities runs a dynamic programme of performative, creative engagement experiences, which draw on a wide range of traditions to enhance the experience of hospital care for patients.

Imperial Health Charity’s work is never static. Alongside its collection across five hospitals runs its rolling programme of exhibitions and the continual acquisition of new works. During the Covid-19 pandemic, when so much ground to a halt, the charity worked closely with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust to design innovative responses to an unprecedented challenge and create a permanent tribute to that harrowing time.

Being part of the arts committee and experiencing the charity’s

commitment and enthusiasm has been a unique privilege. I hope you will find Creative Care as inspiring as I do.

Roger Kneebone Professor of Surgical Education and Engagement Science

Department of Surgery & Cancer

Imperial College London

Lullaby Hour, a musical workshop for families in the Neonatal Unit at St Mary’s Hospital, in partnership with Music in Hospitals and Care.

Henry Moore, Working Model for Reclining Figure (Lincoln Center) 1963–1965. Charing Cross Hospital Gardens

The Sanctuary Garden

Designed by Dario Pizzi Design with additional support from Gardencraft and Allgreen.

The garden was created to offer a quiet, calm and peaceful space for friends, family and visitors who have suffered a bereavement.

History

At Imperial Health Charity, we believe creativity is key to our health and wellbeing.

Our collection comprises over 2,500 objects on display across the five hospitals which form Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Through a programme of permanent and temporary displays, environmental projects and bespoke commissions we aim to improve the environment, transforming the often stark and clinical areas into homely and welcoming spaces. Alongside our curatorial activities, our comprehensive arts engagement programme brings music, dance and creativity to patients and NHS staff through artist residencies and creative workshops — both at the bedside in our hospitals and increasingly in our local communities for the continued health and wellbeing of all.

Before the collection existed in its current form, individual arts programmes were managed by volunteers at each of our hospitals. Hammersmith Hospital was the first site to establish an arts committee, doing so in the late 1980s. In 1994 Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust was formed, incorporating all hospitals in the borough, including Charing Cross. This led to the expansion of the Hammersmith Arts Committee into a Trust-wide Arts Committee. It was supported by an Arts Administrator and a retired Tate curator who together initiated the first temporary exhibition programme at the hospital and started cataloguing its works.

In 2007, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust was formed, bringing together the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust and St Mary’s NHS Trust. Two years later Imperial College Healthcare Charity (now Imperial Health Charity) was established, and management of the various art collections was brought under its responsibility. During this period several important site-specific commissions were made, including by David Mach, Bill Woodrow, Julian Opie and Bridget Riley.

David Mach Elevator, 2005–06

The Charity’s collection was granted museum accreditation by Arts Council England in 2016, evidencing the high standards of collection programming and care.

The expansion and success of the arts programme has led to deeper involvement in interior design principles for healthcare settings. In 2018 we partnered with Ab Rogers Design to create style guidelines for our children’s services at St Mary’s. Utilising Ab Rogers’ skill in exhibition design, these spaces are gradually being re-imagined as a colourful and interactive experience for all ages.

The arts programme is managed by a specialist team and oversight is provided by the charity’s trustees, hospital staff, artists, educators and art world professionals. Our work is made possible by the incredible generosity of artists, donors and organisations. We wholeheartedly thank all those who have contributed.

Excerpt from the Style Guidelines for Children’s Services at St Mary’s Hospital by Ab Rogers Design

Children’s Services at St Mary’s Hospital, Summer 2023

Bridget Riley Corridor commission for St Mary’s Hospital, 1987 and 2014

Riley developed her distinctive style in the 1960s, moving from making figurative and semi-impressionist works to abstract works that consisted of black and white geometric patterns. Riley creates visual experiences that challenge our senses and perceptions by using a carefully selected range of colours and abstract shapes arranged in repeated patterns to explore movement and form. Her work is deeply engaged with the act of looking — both at the natural world and paintings of the past.

In 1987 Riley was commissioned by the architect John Weeks to create two murals on the 8th and 9th floors of the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother building. They take inspiration from a visit she made to Egypt in the early 1980s, and echo the fixed colour palettes and decorative

style of architectural painting used by the ancient Egyptians. For 3,000 years they drew from only seven colours — turquoise, blue, red, yellow, green, black and white — bright, flat colours that give light and create a strong sense of visual unity. The third mural on the 10th floor was completed in 2014.

Riley has described how creating a decoration, rather than a painting, requires a more passive rhythm and arrangement of colour and lines, anticipating the movement of a person walking through a building space and absorbing the design, rather than looking directly at a canvas. We are incredibly grateful to the artist for her support of the project, without which the final commission would not have been possible.

Bridget Riley

St Mary’s Hospital Commission, 2014

Julian Opie

Lindo Wing, St Mary’s Hospital, 2011

Opie’s work frequently turns familiar people, objects and landscapes into dramatically simplified symbols. His visual language draws on a diverse range of sources, including computer graphics, road signs, Egyptian hieroglyphics and corporate logos to create arresting images that question the nature of representation. By reducing, for example, the human face to a circle and the body to a series of graphic strokes, Opie powerfully invites us to question the ways in which we represent identity, and what we understand a portrait or likeness to be.

The works in the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital exemplify the complex techniques Opie uses to depict the human figure. He first films individuals in motion, before drawing them repeatedly to create refined animated sequences that portray the essence of movement.

Opie created an installation of over 40 works that respond to the design of the Lindo Wing, located throughout all five floors of the building. His concept is inspirational in its focus on the human body. Opie explains how he has drawn together “a troupe of images and individuals to please and engage” the viewer, adding “the people I have drawn are real people including friends and family”. Paul and Bibi, both aged five, for example, run together around the top floor. They are depicted in stark black pictograms that when combined suggest animated movement throughout the corridors. On each floor a slightly different cast of people and a different type of composition is played out on glass panels that are either integral to the interior or attached, like public information panels, to the walls.

Julian Opie

Lindo Wing Commission, 2012

Art in Focus exhibition at St Mary’s Hospital. Sunil Gupta Songs of Deliverance Part I, 2022

Art in Focus

An important aspect of our work is a rolling display of short-term exhibitions, Art in Focus, which presents work by established artists or explores a central theme through visual art. On display in prominent public areas, these exhibitions are freely available for the enjoyment of patients, visitors and hospital staff.

Art in Focus runs across three of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s hospitals: Charing Cross, Hammersmith and St Mary’s. We use these spaces to showcase a lively and varied series of exhibitions featuring works from outside the collection. Exhibitions run for a year and are displayed at each hospital for around four months.

We have developed the programme to become increasingly reactive — a space that can be used to respond to current events, to communicate with the community, to pose questions and to showcase our work in other areas, including exhibitions showcasing artwork by staff and patients.

The Furthest Lands: A Journey to the Western Shores by Norman Ackroyd at St Mary’s Hospital

Linear Meditations Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, 2018

In partnership with the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust and the charity Paintings in Hospitals, we devised a project to work with an emerging curator on an exhibition that would support the curator’s development and show Barns-Graham’s art to a new audience. With Linear Meditations, curator Briana Oliver chose to explore the use of art for the practice of mindfulness. The selection of work drawn from the Barns-Graham Trust focused on the artist’s representation of water in a variety of forms, from glaciers to seascapes, taking a mindful interpretation of the fluid movement of energy, water, and lines. The exhibition was accompanied by guidance through four specific mindfulness activities in the interpretation and a downloadable sound guide. Following its tour of our three exhibition venues, Linear Meditations toured nationally through Paintings in Hospitals’ network.

Linear Meditations by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham at St Mary’s Hospital

Pots and Podiums IntoArt, 2019

Innovative south London studio IntoArt champions their founding vision, which is for “people with learning disabilities to be visible, equal, and established artists and designers”. We worked with two of their artists, Mawuena Kattah and Yoshiko Phillips, for their first major collaboration. Pots and Podiums brought Yoshiko Phillips’ bespoke vinyl wall-based designs of podiums and plinths, inspired by gothic and medieval ironwork, masonry and woodwork into direct conversation with framed prints, drawings and paintings of pots by Mawuena Kattah, many of which were drawn directly from works from the V&A Collections following her residency in their ceramics studio.

Pots and Podiums showing artworks by Mawuena Kattah and Yoshiko Phillips at Charing Cross Hospital

Looking Back, Looking Forward Bindi Vora

and Alys Tomlinson, 2021

During the Covid-19 pandemic, our programming shifted to reflect the changed world we were living in. Artists respond to and comment on the world in innovative, arresting and often surprising ways, and we wanted to share this in our hospitals by showing a selection from two series created in response to the pandemic.

We presented the art of Bindi Vora and Alys Tomlinson in late 2021. Both artists use photography in their work, and the bodies of work shown

– Mountain of Salt by Vora and Tomlinson’s Lost Summer blossomed organically from observing what was happening in their lives and the lives of those around them, whilst we grappled to make sense of what it meant to live in a society under such unusual pressure and restraint. These two portfolios look at the wider effects of Covid-19 and raise questions around the long-term ramifications of a year of solitude, anxiety and sorrow that touched us all.

Looking Back, Looking Forward showing artworks by Alys Tomlinson at St Mary’s Hospital

Kindred Studios

Sara Choudhrey and Sue Thompson, 2022

We are fortunate to be part of an extremely dynamic and creative local community, and actively seek ways to showcase and highlight this in our hospitals. In 2022, we exhibited the work of two residents of Kindred Studios, a complex of artists and crafts peoples spaces by Shepherd’s Bush Market.

Although their practices are dissimilar, both Sara and Sue share a keen awareness in the value of presenting art in a healthcare setting. For Sue it was a natural progression to show her work in this context, having worked as a nurse for a number of years. Sara had already shown work in a hospital environment with a digital commission for Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, which opened her eyes to the possibility of art aiding healing.

Sara Choudhrey and Susan Thompson at Charing Cross Hospital

Rock Against Racism

Syd Shelton, 2023

To mark the beginning of a new collaborative partnership with Autograph, London, we selected a group of photographs from their fascinating archive of works by Syd Shelton.

Syd Shelton: Rock Against Racism captures one of the most exciting and turbulent political periods in British post-war history. Active between 1976 and 1981, Rock Against Racism (RAR) was a groundbreaking movement formed by a collective of musicians and political activists to confront

racist ideology in the streets, parks, and town halls of Britain through music.

Under the slogan Love Music, Hate Racism, RAR showcased reggae and punk bands on the same stage, attracting large multicultural audiences. At a time when the fascist attitudes of the National Front were gaining support, RAR marked the rising resistance to violent and institutionalised racism.

Rock Against Racism by Syd Shelton at Charing Cross Hospital

Family room within the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at St Mary’s Hospital With artworks by Josef and Anni Albers

Commissions

A growing and exciting area of work is our commissions programme. Whilst we have significant site-specific installations dating back to the 1980s, with Bridget Riley’s dazzling murals in St Mary’s Hospital, our ambition is to enhance new developments and refurbishments across the Trust’s hospitals. We work on a number of small and larger scale commissions every year. The following examples show how varied these projects can be when artists engage directly with the clinical environments and the patients and staff within them.

Charing Cross Hospital Dialysis Unit with artworks by Rose Darling as part of the Vineyard Nursery Commission – designed by Sable & Hawkes

Melanie Smith of Smith & Wonder Commission for the Paedatric A&E Unit at St Mary’s Hospital, 2021

Children’s Intensive Care

Josef and Anni Albers, 2018–19

The works of legendary artists Josef and Anni Albers were used as the inspiration for the stunning interior of the children’s intensive care unit at St Mary’s Hospital. The design was developed as part of an exciting collaboration between Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Imperial Health Charity and The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. The partnership started after the birth of Nick Fox Weber’s grandson at St Mary’s Hospital. Fox Weber is the director of the Albers Foundation and was keen to support the creation of a unique artist collaboration in keeping with the Albers’ vision of art as a means of visual refreshment where the universal qualities of colour and pattern transform human lives. Josef and Anni’s artworks were used

creatively throughout the space. Murals and prints of Josef’s iconic ‘Homage to the Square’ works run through the unit and Anni’s prints and patterns have been translated into wallpaper, bed screens and textiles. The wall colours throughout the space are perfect matches to Josef’s paintings and when options were limited for items such as seating covers, the foundation were sent swatches of material to match to Josef’s prints.

Anni Albers’s belief that art should be a “visual resting place” and an absorbing source of relief from life’s intrinsic difficulties, and Josef’s constant desire to use “minimal means for maximum effect” while revealing the magic of colour and line, are richly realised in the use of their art throughout.

St Mary’s Hospital Paediatric Intensive Care Unit with wall colours matched to artworks by Josef Albers, 2018

We Work Together Mark Titchner, 2020

Following an extensive refurbishment of the Accident and Emergency department at Charing Cross Hospital, we commissioned Mark Titchner to create a bespoke artwork for the newly configured space. Titchner created We Work Together after spending time with hospital staff hearing their ideas and ambitions about how it feels to work there, what they hope for patients and what it means to be part of the wider community the hospital serves.

In addition to using the words of the staff to carry their voice through the work, Titchner wanted to form a connection between the work of the

hospital and the calming influence of the natural world, and so began to look at how plants are used in the production of modern pharmaceuticals. The 14 plants used in the designs are all used for this purpose.

There are other intentional connections with the hospital and medicine in these works. The font used throughout is from the Nimbus Sans family, designed during the 1940s around the same time the NHS was formed in 1948. The resulting 11 artworks are situated across the entire department and convey messages of hope, pride and unity.

Charing Cross Hospital Emergency Department with artworks by Mark Titchner, 2020

Flows

Frea Buckler, 2020

We commissioned Frea Buckler to transform the look and feel of the refurbished positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET CT) unit. The brief was to create a welcoming, calming and reassuring space for patients and staff.

Buckler is an artist known for her abstract geometric work and wonderfully adventurous approach to using colours in often unusual combinations. A deep interrogation of the interaction between colour and response is integral to her practice, and she used her unique approach to create a space in which the walls, floors, murals and prints work together to make a soothing, immersive environment.

Compiling a colour palette for the whole space, Buckler took inspiration from the natural world, from sage greens and sea blues to flashes of vibrant coral and sunflower yellow. The colour combinations have been carried throughout the space, peaking in the murals in the corridors and the scanning room itself. As well as the tonal differences on the walls themselves, there are a number of bespoke prints hung in the cubicles to provide some quieter, more reflective moments for those using these smaller private areas.

Charing Cross Hospital PET CT Unit (Imaging) with artworks by Frea Buckler, 2020

A New Day Laura Gee, 2023

The Lighthouse provides a space for patients who require emergency care for their mental health in a more therapeutic environment. The aim of the centre is to help improve mental health outcomes for patients presenting to St Mary’s A&E and reduce demand on A&E services at the hospital. We collaborated with staff from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Central and Northwest London NHS Foundation Trust to select an artist who could think about the particular needs of this space and produce a harmonious, sensitive collection of artworks to enhance the environment.

Gee wanted to create a sense of calm and comfort using scenes of landscapes and nature, both real and imagined. These are scattered through the space as framed paintings and digital renderings placed directly on the walls in the patient rooms. The depictions of nature, countryside walks, parks and coastal locations, as well as the palette of colours used in conjunction with the tones on the walls, are designed to work together to change the feel of the environment, making it calm, welcoming and safe but also providing moments of interest and invigoration.

St Mary’s Hospital Specialist Mental Health Unit (The Lighthouse) with artworks by Laura Gee, 2023

Wondering Islands

Cara Nahaul, 2023

Between 2022-23 London-based artist Cara Nahaul created a bespoke group of artworks for the Elderly Care Unit on the 8 South ward at Charing Cross Hospital. The unit had been refurbished with particular consideration to patients with dementia, and that focus continued through the art.

Nahaul explores ideas around memory and identity through her artwork, depicting landscapes from travels around the world, including visits to her parents’ home countries of Malaysia and Mauritius. Scenes of sun-drenched beaches and lush vegetation, combined with an exciting and vibrant use of colour, were selected to bring a freshness and brightness to the walls of 8 South. Nahaul worked with staff and the dementia care

team to select a palette that would invigorate the space, resulting in a ward with quite a different look and feel to the softer colours used elsewhere. Blocks of rich maroon, peacock and azure blue, as well as deep jade and bright yellow, punctuate the walls, and were selected to create strong interest particularly for patients with dementia who might struggle to discern more muted tones. The colours not only complement each other, but are echoed in the frames of the prints stationed throughout the corridors.

The main mural on the reception area wall is referenced throughout the smaller artworks, each of which depict motifs featured in the main image — boats, palm trees, a burnished orange sun.

Charing Cross Hospital Specialist Dementia Care Ward with artworks by Cara Nahaul, 2023

Sumuyya Khader, 2023

This beautiful commission was specially created for the busy ground floor corridors of Charing Cross Hospital. From her base in Liverpool, Khader works with a combination of illustration, painting and print that predominantly explores place and identity. With a strong belief that our surroundings have a significant impact on our wellbeing, Khader often features restorative green spaces, relaxed interiors and still lives into her paintings, as a way to celebrate the life-giving properties of plants and greenery.

In Khader’s own words: “Everything I do is about engaging in conversation through visual language. Whether it’s a print, a painting, or a commercial piece of illustration, I’m hoping to start a conversation that sometimes, verbally, I find difficult.”

The commission invites us to explore and benefit from the luscious greenery whilst simultaneously celebrating the diverse audience of patients, staff and visitors interacting with the artworks themselves.

Charing Cross Hospital, ground floor corridors with artworks by Sumuyya Khader, 2023

St Mary’s Hospital, Maternity Unit with artwork by Adrian Wiszniewski, 2019

The Collection

Our permanent collection comprises over 2,500 objects, the vast majority of which can be found on display in waiting rooms, clinical areas and offices throughout our five hospitals. Artworks in our Arts Council accredited collection include paintings on canvas and board, works on paper, prints of various types, photography, stained glass, sculpture, digital art, murals, and vinyl installations.

The purpose of the collection has always been to enhance our visitors’ experience by bringing the best of British art into the healthcare environment. Generous donations from artists, galleries and former patients greatly enhance the collection, as do the treasured artworks kindly loaned to us for long-term display. Many unique works now also enter the collection as a result of our expanding artist-in-residence and commissioning programmes.

In the clinical environment of the hospital, art serves to humanise the space providing opportunities for visitors to feel stimulated and engaged. We collaborate directly with clinical teams and visitor groups to acquire and display artwork that reflects our service users and, where appropriate, responds sensitively to clinical services provided within our hospitals. The collection is a positive distraction offered when it is needed most. The following pages feature a selection of acquisitions made between 2018-2023, demonstrating the breadth of styles that visitors to our hospitals might encounter.

Left: St Mary’s Hospital, Maternity Unit with artworks by Jess Wilson, 2022

Top: Charing Cross Hospital, 1st floor lift lobby with artworks produced for the 70th Anniversary of the NHS. Artworks by Peter Blake, Chris Orr and Jeremy Deller

Sandra Kantanen

Untitled (Lake 12)

Top: Ellie Davies Between The Trees 1 2014

Simon Roberts Trough House Bridge, Eskdale, Cumbria 2014

Top: Chris Steele-Perkins

St Vincent and the Grenadines

Right: Katherine Jones

Soft Feather Hutch

Opposite page: Tamsin Relly

Flower

Sadie Tierney Les Réflexions 2020

Charlotte Evans There Were Trees on Both Sides 2022

Below: Anthony Frost Future Hit 2005

Yinka Shonibare Mayflower, All Flowers

Right: Rachel Gracey Following Marston Brook, Cherwell 2022

Fran Giffard Blue Tit 2016

Left: Matt Smith Cyprus: Section 171 2019

Top: Jason Hicklin Hammersmith W6 2020

Right: Paul Morrison Night Pond 2020

Vanessa Jackson

Sonia Boyce I’m With Her Too 2019

Below: Eddie Peake Opinel Hoard Shadow 2017

Top: Peter Blake

Rupert The Bear And Friends

Left: Sue Arrowsmith

The Stars Can Only Get Brighter

Chris Orr

Paddington Shuffle

Emma Haworth

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Millenium Pink 2000

Below:

Lubaina Himid

The Sweet Sharp Taste of Limes 2018

Hugh Hamshaw-Thomas Drawing (Biro) 2022

Mychael Barratt

Hockney’s Dog – The Biggest Splash 2023

Below: Jo Bruton Landing Girls 2017

Yuki Scholl

Right: Anna Marrow

Magic

Katy Binks Friction

Left: Ian Davenport Uplift

Top: Rana Begum No. 861

Right: Yinka Ilori Here Today, Here Tomorrow 2023

Collection care

Collection care is a key part of our arts programme. We work closely with art technicians, framers and conservation specialists in order to ensure the works in the collection can be enjoyed long into the future. Each year we deliver several special restoration projects, alongside the annual maintenance of our most significant and vulnerable works. Celebrating the history of our hospitals, we also care for a number of historic portraits, commemorating staff who have contributed to the advancement of healthcare services.

Chris Plowman, Farmyard Cut-out, 2004 – Before

Chris Plowman, Farmyard Cut-out, 2004 – After

Harp music being played for patients at St Mary’s Hospital

Arts Engagement Programme

Bedside art workshop in the Renal Dialysis Unit at Charing Cross Hospital

Spanning Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s five hospitals and its wider communities, our arts engagement programme has grown significantly. Alongside wider shifts in the art sector, including Arts Council England’s focus on socially-engaged art and the all-party parliamentary report into Creative Health (2017), recent developments have brought into focus the acute need for creative interventions.

The programme positions art as an essential tool within healthcare, embedding art practice within the complex socio-political structure of an NHS trust. From therapeutic arts projects to more critically-engaged residencies, participatory arts offer a unique opportunity to support our patients, hospital staff and communities. Throughout the programme, we collaborate closely with our NHS colleagues to curate impactful projects, thinking carefully and responsively about the important role art can play.

Creative Acts

Our core hospital-based programme, Creative Acts, brings arts, crafts, music and dance to wards across Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Responding to the needs of each clinical area and patient group, the programme works with specialisms including Paediatrics, Cancer Care, Stroke and Neurorehabilitation, Dialysis and Medicine for the Elderly. We work with freelance artists, professional musicians, art and music psychotherapists, and other partner organisations to deliver the programme, alongside developing outreach programmes with museums and galleries.

workshop

Bedside museum handling

by The Wallace Collection

CASE STUDY

Bedside workshops in renal dialysis

Carol, who has end-stage renal failure, has participated in weekly creative workshops at the bedside ever since the programme was first established on the Dialysis Unit at Charing Cross Hospital. Carol had previously spent three years in hospital, waiting for and recovering from a heart transplant.

After the transplant she was paralysed from the neck down, her kidneys stopped working, and she had to learn to write again. But the art sessions have helped her build up the strength and flexibility in her fingers.

She said: “Doing things where I’m picking up little pieces, like gems and paper, is good for me. Using the pencils helps my hands and flexes them. I never used to be able to do that.”

The workshops also offer Carol a distraction from the dialysis treatment, which requires her to sit for several hours on the ward. “Doing the art has been really therapeutic and I look forward to it every week.”

Edwin, head nurse at the Renal Satellite Unit at Charing Cross, has also seen the positive impact of the arts sessions. “Our renal patients come here two or three times a week, but when they’re sitting on the machine busy doing artwork, it helps them to forget that they are here for treatment.”

Bedside art workshop in the Renal Dialysis Unit at Charing Cross Hospital

Beyond our Walls

The Beyond Our Walls programme focuses on three strands of creative programming, supporting people who are: receiving long-term outpatient care; recently discharged back into the community; or at risk of becoming a hospital patient due to ill health. This is a growing programme, and will continue to develop as the NHS shifts to a model focusing more on community support and preventative work.

One of our longest-running projects is our Art and Wellbeing group — a monthly art workshop run for long-term outpatients living in the community. Run by artist Marenka Gabeler, the sessions offer patients the opportunity to come together in a relaxed, creative environment.

We have also worked closely with our children’s services department to develop a series of workshops supporting young people living with chronic conditions. In collaboration with clinical staff, we worked in partnership with Autograph, an arts organisation dedicated to championing the work of artists using photography and film to highlight issues of race, representation and social justice. We commissioned artist Aida Silvestri to deliver workshops offering photography as a medium to explore the major challenges the young people have faced, in particular thinking about issues around identity, pain, stigma and isolation.

Artwork by a young person from the project Me: Past, Present, Future, in collaboration with artist Aida Silvestri and Autograph

What does creativity mean to you? Comments shared by our Art and Wellbeing group:

Creativity means to me to do what you want to do, try something new, don’t be afraid of mistakes and follow your imagination.

Drawing brings meaning to my life.

Creativity represents feelings and imagination (…) Creativity leads me to a world where nothing is impossible, full of surprises and energy, giving me a young heart.

When involved in being creative my mind ceases to wander so much and ceases to be troubled by unwanted thoughts, worries etc. I am in the present moment. At times my fears, worries etc have found expression in art and this has proved helpful in allowing me to recognise them, especially when words fail or when I have not felt able to express them to others. At times being creative has simply been fun, joy in the actual use of brush and paint or the tactile feel of the clay.

Bedside textile workshops

Artist in Residence Programme

Our artist in residence programme draws on the long tradition of residencies at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Focusing on a particular clinical area or research question, artists are invited to work in close partnership with hospital staff and patients. Led by the needs of the hospital, the residency programme addresses themes such as race, stigma, aging, sexuality, gender, the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis. Often delivered in partnership with likeminded arts institutions, the residency programme interrogates the unique viewpoint an artist can offer within a healthcare context.

Relaunching in 2016, we worked in collaboration with local gallery The Showroom to bring artist Navine G. Dossos to children’s services at St Mary’s Hospital. Over six months, Dossos collaborated with children and young people across our wards to reimagine the colours of the ward spaces. Together, they created a series of collages, colour palettes and designs, forming a functional colour palette.

During the pandemic, as our hospital wards closed to most visitors, we reorientated our residency programme. Responding to the physical disconnection we were all experiencing, Keith Jarrett’s project ‘In Touch’ brought collaborative poetry workshops to 195 staff and patients to creatively think through their experiences of the pandemic. Inspired by these sessions, Jarrett

created an activity pack that was shared with inpatients, enabling those with limited digital access to take part. The final ‘super poem’ was inspired by poems by patients and staff across the Trust’s hospitals, distilling the shared ideas and recurring themes. This project was generously supported by the National Lottery Community Foundation.

Sunil Gupta spent a year working in residence at St Mary’s Hospital and Charing Cross Hospital, in collaboration with Studio Voltaire. Recruited via an open invitation, LGBTQIA+ people from the adult HIV clinic and gender affirmation surgery service were invited to collaborate and spend time with Gupta. The resulting series of photographic works presents portrayals of his collaborators’ lives, their experiences of receiving care and the relationships and transformations that occur in the process. Each work incorporates a colourful accompanying text panel, referencing the work of artist Ken Lum. Some fictional, some personal — they explore family, community, stigma and the lived realities of individuals who access these vital services. With tenderness and insight, Songs of Deliverance explores how public health systems shape private modes of belonging. This project was generously supported by additional funds from Arts Council England.

Top: Sunil Gupta, Untitled, 2022

Left: Navine G. Dossos, detail of Polychromy Plays, 2018

Staff support

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust employs over 15,000 members of staff. With the growing pressures facing our workforce, creative support offers staff a vital opportunity to relax, connect and try something new. Through residencies, commissions and our Staff Arts Club, we offer staff a rolling programme of creative activities to enhance both their working day and free time.

The Staff Arts Club, established in 2015, offers NHS staff the opportunity to visit exhibitions at several major cultural institutions for free, alongside access to a box at the Royal Albert Hall, which was gifted to one of the Trust’s hospitals in the 1940s, and taken on by the charity subsequently.

New partnerships have enabled us to expand our staff support, including a programme of work in collaboration with Performing Medicine. An initiative by theatre company Clod Ensemble, Performing Medicine offers NHS staff practical, hands-on workshops to tackle key issues across our hospitals, such as wellbeing and improving communication skills.

A Performing Medicine workshop for staff

I highly value my membership in the Staff Arts Club. It has enabled me to enjoy exhibitions I would have otherwise found to be financially prohibitive.

Staff member

A Staff Arts Club tour at Autograph

In the summer of 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic we worked with awardwinning photographer Dana Popa to showcase the wonderful people who work tirelessly for the benefit of others. Whether it’s directly treating patients or helping to keep our hospitals clean and tidy, we saluted the roles that many people

may not even know about such as the plumber who fixes the showers or the postman that delivers internal mail. Whilst working on the project, we learned about roles that we had never considered such as the technician who designs and builds prosthetic limbs and the psychologist who supports staff with their mental health.

Dana Popa. A selection of images from A Portrait of Our Trust, 2020

Held in Hope exhibition, Installation view at Charing Cross Hospital

Our pandemic response

It’s impossible to reflect on our programming without thinking about the Covid-19 pandemic. In March 2020, as the nation went into lockdown, our entire programme was brought to a standstill. In close collaboration with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, we adapted our methods of delivery and began acquiring key artworks documenting our shared experiences.

Held in Hope exhibition, Installation view at Hammersmith Hospital

Creative Links

As our wards closed their doors to art-making, dance, music and collaboration, we quickly began to experiment in new ways to bring people together, supporting them through creativity. The new programme, Creative Links, invited our roster of talented artists to create an online library of creative resources. From an e-magazine for hospital staff, to online art classes, Zoom music workshops and printed activity packs, we worked with our artists and partners to persevere. Wonderful moments of togetherness were created through innovative projects such as Melodies and Massage,

a baby massage class delivered in collaboration with the charity Music in Hospitals and Care, bringing together recently discharged families who could no longer access community baby classes. Working in collaboration with our renal and respiratory teams, we initiated our first ever postal project, Positive Post. We delivered a beautiful set of wellbeing cards, created by illustrator Erin Aniker, to over 6,000 shielding outpatients. Our first ever poet in residence, Keith Jarrett, brought poetry to staff and patients.

Erin Aniker, Hug, 2021

Thank you! exhibition

During the first lockdown, we curated Thank you! an exhibition of art applauding the incredible work of our hospitals and those throughout the country who kept us going during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The swell of support for the NHS during the pandemic manifested in all sorts of unusual ways. People showed their appreciation for healthcare professionals and other key workers using many creative approaches, resulting in an explosion of artwork, poetry, photography and more as people used art to articulate their feelings during this time, cheer themselves up or communicate in a socially distanced world.

Thank you! featured artists such as Erin Aniker, Rose Blake, Antony Burrill, Nina Cosford, Adam Dant, Damien Hirst, Morag Myerscough, Supermundane, Mark Titchner and Emily Williams. It presented a joyous and hopeful collection of art that had been created to raise money, brighten up our streets or purely to show gratitude and unity in a vibrant, visual way.

Thank you! exhibition, Installation view at Charing Cross Hospital with artworks by Ruby Taylor and Yukai Du

Held in Hope

Held in Hope is a series of three permanent exhibitions across Charing Cross, Hammersmith and St Mary’s hospitals. The exhibitions explore the impact the pandemic had on our hospitals and communities, and how art and creativity served as a powerful tool for many to help navigate through such a difficult time. The displays feature photography, paintings and drawings, alongside two commissioned artworks produced in collaboration with staff at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust — collaborative poetry by

Keith Jarrett and Aida Silvestri’s Coronaquilt Silhouette project. The concept and design of the exhibitions was developed in close collaboration with design studio Kellenberger White. Other artists featured in the exhibition include Hannah Deller, Bindi Vora, Thompson Hall and Susie Hamilton. The displays seek to offer the hospitals a space to reflect on our collective experiences during the pandemic, acknowledging the particular challenges and hardships they faced.

Held in Hope exhibition, Installation view at Hammersmith Hospital with artworks by Bindi Vora

A staff member enjoying a close look at artworks by Ellie Davies during her Art in Focus exhibition at St Mary’s Hospital

Photography and artwork credits

Front cover

Frea Buckler

Flows, 2020

Installation view at Charing Cross Hospital

Imaging Department. Hand painted mural.

Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 4-5

Paterson Centre at St Mary’s Hospital with artworks by Matt Smith Silkscreen prints from the series Losing Venus, 2020

Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 10-11

Henry Moore

Working Model for Reclining Figure (Lincoln Centre) 1963-65

235 x 372 x 165cm

Bronze

Presented by the artist to Charing Cross Hospital in 1978. On long term loan from Tate. Reproduced by permission of the Henry Moore Foundation.

Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 12-13

The Sanctuary Garden, designed by Dario Pizzi Design, 2023

p. 14

David Mach

Elevator 2006

2.74m

Acrylic paint on fibreglass

Image: ArtUK

p. 16-17

Excerpt from the Style Guidelines for Children’s Services at St Mary’s Hospital 2020.

Children’s Services at St Mary’s Hospital, Summer 2023.

Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 18

Bridget Riley

Wall Decoration (Pink) 2014

Hand painted mural

Image: Peter Cook

p. 19

Julian Opie

Lindo Wing, St Mary’s Hospital, 2012

A commission for the whole building, comprising 39 glass panels, 1 LCD screen, 4 staircase panels and 2 vinyl designs.

Image: Peter Cook

p. 20-21

Sunil Gupta

Songs of Deliverance Part I, 2022

Installation view at St. Mary’s Hospital. Commissioned by Studio Voltaire and Imperial Health Charity.

Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 22

Norman Ackroyd

Art in Focus exhibition at St Mary’s Hospital, 2017. All images on view by Norman Ackroyd.

p. 23

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham

Art in Focus exhibition at St Mary’s Hospital, 2018. In partnership with the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust and Paintings in Hospitals.

p. 24

Mawuena Kattah and Yoshiko Phillips

Art in Focus exhibition at Charing Cross Hospital, 2018. In partnership with IntoArt, an organisation that champions adult artists with learning disabilities.

Artworks © Mawuena Kattah and Yoshiko Phillips

Image: Joseph Konczak

p. 25

Alys Tomlinson and Bindi Vora

Art in Focus exhibition at St Mary’s Hospital, 2021. All images on view from the series Lost Summer, 2020.

Courtesy of the artist and Hackelbury

Fine Art

Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 26

Sara Choudhrey and Susan Thompson

Art in Focus exhibition at Charing Cross Hospital, 2022. All images on view by Sara Choudhrey.

Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 27

Syd Shelton

Art in Focus exhibition at Charing Cross Hospital. All images on view from the series Rock Against Racism, 1977– 1981 / 2015.

Courtesy of the artist and Autograph, London

Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 28-29

Josef and Anni Albers

Interior view of the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit with artworks by Josef and Anni Albers. Interior design and artwork interpretation by Sable & Hawkes

All artworks courtesy of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation

Image: Daniele Reiber

p. 30

Rose Darling The Vineyard Nursery, 2020 Commission for Charing Cross Hospital

Renal Dialysis Unit.

p. 31

Smith & Wonder (Melanie Smith) London Transport Through The Ages Campaigners, Inventors and Scientists, London is a Forest, 160 x 441cm each.

Vinyl installation.

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 33

Mark Titchner

We Are Part Of Something Greater Than Us (detail from We Work Together, a commission comprising 11 panels), 2020. Installation view at Charing Cross Hospital 172 x 319cm. Vinyl installation.

Image: James Gifford-Mead

p. 34

Frea Buckler

Flows, 2020

Installation view at Charing Cross Hospital

Imaging Department. Hand painted mural.

Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 35

Laura Gee

A New Day, 2023

Installation view at The Lighthouse, St Mary’s Hospital. 302 x 605cm. Vinyl installation.

Produced by Lucentia Design

p. 36

Cara Nahaul Wondering Islands, 2023 Commission for Charing Cross Hospital 8 South Ward. Hand painted mural.

p. 37

Sumuyya Khader

Commission for Charing Cross Hospital, 2023. Installation view at Charing Cross Hospital. 146 x 3670cm. Vinyl installation.

Produced by Lucentia Design Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 38-39

Installation view showing:

Adrian Wiszniewski Crail II, 2017

85 x 88cm

Lasercut, woodblock print

p. 40

Charing Cross Hospital, 1st floor lift lobby with artworks produced for the 70th anniversary of the NHS. Artworks by Peter Blake, Chris Orr and Jeremy Deller Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 41

Installation view of St Mary’s Hospital Maternity Unit, with artworks on display by Jess Wilson

Study 22, 2021 and Study 45, 2021 Each 61 x 61cm

Screenprint

p. 42

Sandra Kantanen Untitled (Lake 12), 2021

56 x 46cm

Pigment print

Image courtesy of Purdy Hicks Gallery

p. 43

Ellie Davies

Between The Trees 1, 2014

60 x 80cm

C-type lightjet print on Fuji Crystal archival paper

Image courtesy of the artist

Simon Roberts

Trough House Bridge, Eskdale, Cumbria, 2014

61 x 77cm

Archival digital c-type print on Fuji Crystal paper

Courtesy of Flowers Gallery

p. 44

Katherine Jones

Soft Feather Hutch, 2020

40 x 33cm

Collagraph and block print

Image courtesy of the artist

Chris Steele-Perkins

From St Vincent and the Grenadines, Temora Providence-York, in the white top, and her English husband Daniel York. Temora's sister Temitia ProvidenceAmir, and the sisters' mother, Neadla Providence. In green striped top Temitia's husband, whose family is from Pakistan, Imran Amir, and their son Zayn Amir, 2019

51 x 41cm

Archival print

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 45

Tamsin Relly

Fire Flower, 2021

56 x 41cm

Water-based monotype on Somerset paper 300gsm

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 46

Sadie Tierney

Les Réflexions, 2020

56 x 38cm

Woodcut on Somerset satin

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 47

Charlotte Evans

There Were Trees on Both Sides, 2022

17.5 x 17.5cm

Gouache on paper

Image courtesy of Candida Stevens Gallery

Anthony Frost

Future Hit, 2009

33 x 35cm

Screenprint with woodblock

Printed and published by Advanced Graphics London

p. 48

Yinka Shonibare

Mayflower, All Flowers, 2020

Paper and Image: 111.5 x 103cm

Relief print with woodblock and batik fabric collage

Courtesy the artist and Cristea Roberts Gallery, London

p. 49

Fran Giffard

Blue Tit, 2016

38 x 42cm

Watercolour, ink, gouache and pencil on paper

Image courtesy of the artist

Rachel Gracey

Following Marston Brook, Cherwell, 2022

76 x 104cm

Lithograph

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 50

Matt Smith

Cyprus: Section 171, 2019

74 x 54cm

Five colour screenprint on handmade

Indian Khadi cotton rag paper

Image: William Pearce

p. 51

Jason Hicklin

Hammersmith W6, 2020

25 x 30cm

Etching

Image courtesy of Eames Fine Art

Paul Morrison

Night Pond, 2020

60 x 40cm

One-colour screen print with blind emboss on Somerset Satin 300gsm

From the HELP portfolio, 2020

Proofed and editioned at Jealous Studio, London.

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 52

Vanessa Jackson

Tilt II, 2018

67 x 56cm

Screenprint

Image courtesy of Advanced Graphics London

p. 53

Sonia Boyce

I’m With Her Too, 2019

38 x 50cm

Print with silkscreen glaze Commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery, London.

Image: Andy Keate

Eddie Peake

Opinel Hoard Shadow, 2017

44 x 51cm

Unique screen print on Somerset 410gsm using hand torn stencils placed by the artist. Commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery, London.

Image: Andy Keate

p. 54

Sue Arrowsmith

The Stars Can Only Get Brighter, 2020

67 x 55cm

Three-colour screenprint onto handapplied copper leaf on Somerset White 410gsm paper

From the HELP portfolio, 2020

Proofed and editioned at Jealous Studio, London.

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 55

Peter Blake

Rupert the Bear and Friends, 2018

59 x 78.5cm

Archival inkjet print

p. 56-57

Chris Orr

Paddington Shuffle, 2017

71 x 182cm

Watercolour, pencil and collage

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 58

Emma Haworth

Autumn, 2018

54 x 69cm

Watercolour on paper

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 59

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham

Millenium Pink, 2000

24 x 30cm

Screenprint

Lubaina Himid

The Sweet Sharp Taste of Limes, 2018

45 x 64cm

Giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag. Commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery, London.

Courtesy of the artist/Hollybush Gardens

Image: Andy Keate

p. 60

Hugh Hamshaw-Thomas

Drawing (Biro), 2022

67 x 56cm

Archival digital Giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm paper.

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 61

Mychael Barratt

Hockney’s Dog – The Biggest Splash, 2023

50 x 50cm

Original silkscreen print

Image courtesy of Eames Fine Art

Jo Bruton

Landing Girls, 2017

191 x 161cm

Acrylic on paper

Original preparatory work for a site specific commission within the Outpatients Unit at Charing Cross Hospital.

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 62

Anna Marrow

Summer Magic, 2020

76 x 56cm

Screenprint

Image courtesy of the artist

Yuki Scholl

Elements #1, 2022

70 x 84cm

Carborundum print with chine collé

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 63

Katy Binks

Friction, 2019

50 x 35cm

Unique silkscreen print

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 64

Ian Davenport Uplift, 2020

70.5 x 55cm

Digital inkjet print on Somerset Satin

Enhanced 330gsm paper

From the HELP portfolio, 2020.

Proofed and editioned at Jealous Studio, London.

Image courtesy of Jealous Gallery

p. 65

Rana Begum No. 861, 2018

Paper and Image: 32.4 x 27.3cm (each)

A set of 15 etchings with chine collé

Courtesy the artist and Cristea Roberts Gallery, London

Yinka Ilori

Here Today, Here Tomorrow, 2023

Paper and Image: 75 x 75cm (each)

Series of six enamel screenprints

Courtesy the artist and Cristea Roberts Gallery, London Image: Mark Blower

p. 66-67

Chris Plowman Farmyard Cut-out, 2004

200 x 180 x 50cm

Painted steel

p. 68-69

Harp music being played for patients at St Mary’s Hospital. Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 78

Navine G. Dossos

Detail of Polychromy Plays, 2018 Comissioned by The Showroom and Imperial Health Charity.

p. 79

Sunil Gupta

Untitled (from Songs of Deliverance Part I), 2022

Commissioned by Studio Voltaire and Imperial Health Charity.

p. 82-83

Dana Popa

A Portrait of Our Trust, 2020

Hand printed C-type photograph on Fuji archival matt paper

A selection from the series comprising 36 works.

Image courtesy of the artist

p. 84-85

Held in Hope exhibition, Charing Cross Hospital Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 86

Held in Hope exhibition, Hammersmith Hospital Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 87

Erin Aniker

Hug (from Positive Post), 2021

p. 88

Thank you! exhibition at Charing Cross Hospital with artworks by Ruby Taylor and Yukai Du Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 89

Held in Hope exhibition at Hammersmith Hospital with artworks on display by Bindi Vora Image: Zoë Maxwell

p. 90-91

Ellie Davies, Art in Focus exhibition at St Mary’s Hospital.

Thanks

We are enormously grateful to all our donors whose generosity has enabled us to carry out such an incredible variety of projects — all for the benefit of patients, family members and staff.

From vibrant acquisitions, touring exhibitions and an expanded artist residency portfolio, our arts programme has grown considerably in size and scope in recent years, and we are proud that some of our biggest commissions have helped to platform emerging artists.

Looking to the future, we are excited to drive our on-site programme forwards as well as working with local communities and partners to explore the role that art and creativity can play in supporting healthcare beyond our hospital walls.

To find out more about the difference your support of our arts programme could make, please visit imperialcharity.org.uk/arts or contact our fundraising team by emailing fundraising@imperialcharity.org.uk / 020 3640 7766.

Any support you can give could make a real difference to what we can achieve. Thank you.

Vauxhall City Farm event at Charing Cross Hospital, August 2023