To some, arts in health has been too much about prettying up depressing hospital corridors or offering distractions to people in their beds. Brian Chapman argues that the arts are now becoming embedded in the health system.
“The arts have a powerful, mysterious, and healing impact on humanity. The arts are not only needed; they are the foundation for our survival and growth as a species. Art is perhaps humanity’s most essential, most universal language. It is not a frill but a necessary part of communication.” So wrote Eisner, a researcher and writer on cognition at Stanford University in the USA in 1987.
“Survival and growth as a species”: this is powerful stuff, but we know it to be true. The arts address deep-rooted issues about life and existence and inform how we construct and reconstruct the world around us. When we bring the arts and design together in healthcare settings – places of birth, life and death – fundamental questions are raised around quality of experience and healing processes. So too are questions about art and artists, their role, their professionalism, their impact on carers and cared for and their value for money. Issues also arise around the artist’s own development and place within the contemporary art movement.
Are the arts sanitised and institutionalised within the health arena? Are they used to gloss over poor buildings and inadequate care provision? Are they watered down to please the punters, painted in the colour of mediocre? Is there the danger of much sought-after research creating mass-produced models of ‘what is good art for hospitals’ or ‘what works in this setting or that’ to the detriment of further and possibly more risk-taking exploration? These questions are not easily answered. The point for now is that at least they are being asked. Artists are being taken seriously within what has, for too many years, been a scientifically dominated, and dare I say, clinically dogmatic and blinkered healthcare system.
So how do we truly embed the arts within healthcare systems and at the same time mitigate against those tired notions of the arts being a frill or low on the agenda in relation to clinical medicine?
Sustainable impact
Some interesting political developments have taken place over the past few years as government policy influences both arts and health policies from the top down. Both face demands to be increasingly inclusive, participatory and agenda-crossing, whilst artists, service users and healthcare workers are influencing notions of holistic and creative healthcare from the bottom up with imaginative alternatives to traditional practice.
LIME, the Manchester-based arts in health development team, has, for many years, sought to weave together arts, health and social agendas and address some of these issues. Having spent nearly 30 years as a practising artist in this field, I am now beginning to see a sustainable impact on healthcare culture. I’m also seeing increasing opportunities for artists and positive changes within health, arts and cultural policy at all levels. We are currently a team of four employed by the NHS in central Manchester, funded through the NHS, Arts Council England and other sources, commissioning some 30 to 40 artists per year and looking at a turnover of about £500,000 next year. Our practice has developed and changed over the years, but it has always been based on the philosophy of consultation and participation. Emphasis is now on embedding good practice. The seeding process is established and some of the questions I’ve raised are being addressed.
Practical examples
An integrated arts programme in the Moorside Mental Health Unit in Trafford has been praised for its delivery of care to patients. This centre has embraced the idea of artists playing a parallel role to clinical staff enabling social activity, a better environment, learning and self-development for both patients and NHS staff. This is a prime example of a process whereby artistic input is embedded in the work of the centre. David Bartholomew, manager of the Moorside Unit, explained; “The focus of the art project was to convert an activity room into a user-led café and cultural centre. Artists were commissioned to work on the wards with both the patients and staff teams. Lime developed a collaboration between service users, staff and the college and all have been recognised as stakeholders.… The approach adopted for the café and arts project was very much to focus on an individual’s strengths and abilities and to nurture these in a positive manner to enable individuals to develop new skills and qualifications.”
Sharing and expanding
This work is bringing together professional contemporary artists, local authorities and cultural industries, education and healthcare communities to share practice and learn from each other. It is drawing down arts, health and social policy-driven funding. It is not about prettying places up or providing musak or nice distractions. Nor is it about buying in art to enhance spaces. It’s about creating new stakeholders and enabling decision-making, learning and new connections. It’s about creating opportunities for artists to share their creative language, their artistic medium, with people excluded or disadvantaged through illness, while also creating alternative avenues for the arts.
Brian Chapman is Director of LIME.
t: 0161 256 4389; e: lime@ic24.net;
w: http://limeart.org