More and more artists are working in healthcare settings such as hospitals and healthy living centres. However, up to this point, there have been few if any systematic attempts to understand what it takes to be a success in this field, and what preparation and support are needed, says Terry Smyth.
Colchester Institute developed the UK?s first MA in Health and the Arts some five years ago, and last year we succeeded with a bid to the DfES under the Higher Education Innovation Fund. We devised the bid with three partners - Vital Arts (Barts and the London NHS Trust), Colchester and Tendring Hospital Arts Project, and Bromley-by-Bow Healthy Living Centre. In their different ways our partners have gained national and international recognition as centres of excellence in marrying together health and the arts.
The project, called ?Connecting Cultures?, aims to understand better the learning process creative artists go through as they come to terms with working in a healthcare environment - and how they handle what can seem like an alien culture. Contact with people in great need is very intense and challenging in its own right, and it is especially so in the disorientating and inevitably bureaucratic culture of the average hospital. Through this research, we hope to discover what preparation artists need to be able to work effectively in these settings. Then, by opening a dialogue with art schools, we hope to increase interest in the philosophy and practice of arts in health, and to raise students? awareness of the employment opportunities in the health sector.
At the heart of the project is the placement of selected arts graduates with our project partners. Participating arts graduates work in the placement for one day per week for 12 weeks, supervised by work-based mentors. The placement is preceded by training days in the Institute, and there is a follow-up day at the completion of the placement.
Although it is too early to come to any conclusions, examples of the artists? work to date will show the breadth of activities:
? At Bromley-by-Bow, Gayle Chong Kwan has been working with the Food Art Group on the use of images within the café area of the centre. Jayne Ostler has been facilitating the education of a Somali woman by producing leaflets incorporating art work aimed at improving cross-cultural healthcare-related communication.
? At Vital Arts, Caroline Wright worked with the poet-in-residence to produce an ?art and word? display to promote the advocacy facilities within the Royal London Hospital. Margaret Mills used children?s art to develop a range of materials for the children?s wards and other areas.
? In Colchester, Pat Derrick and Michelle Dawson?s project was based on work from patients in the children?s ward for display in the psychology unit.
Terry Smyth is Head of Faculty of Music, Arts and Health at Colchester Institute. For further information about the project and the MA programme, contact Chris Lerwill, t: 01206 518618, e: chris.lerwill@colch-inst.ac.uk