Celebrating one year of Arts at NUH

In September 2021, Nottingham Hospitals Charity provided funding for a new Arts Coordinator, Megan Dawes, to begin work with patients and staff across Nottingham Hospitals. One year on, Megan tells us about the impact her role is having…

It is hard to believe that we launched Arts at NUH one year ago! There have been a number of milestones throughout this year and I am so pleased to be entering the second year of the programme, thanks to the further kind support of Nottingham Hospitals Charity.

I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of the latest projects and achievements:

• We are pleased to have worked in partnership with national charity Paintings in Hospitals and Nottingham Trent University (School of Art and Design) to improve a number of areas through new art works and wall murals, including corridors, older persons ward day rooms and waiting areas.
• We held a number of musical events throughout the year for patients and staff to mark the festive period, Mental Health Awareness Week and Dementia Action Week. Covid-19 meant that we had to run these events slightly differently but that did not stop us and the amazing choirs and musicians that attended!
• We engaged with local artists to deliver two weeks of arts sessions for staff during Mental Health Awareness Week. Sessions included poetry, watercolour painting, stained glass window painting, kirigami and singing.
• We have an NUH staff Arts Champions group to promote and support delivery of arts activities on the wards.

To bring the year to a close, Arts at NUH was shortlisted for a Patient Experience National Network Award (PENNA) and went on to win the Environment of Care category. You can read more about the submission on the NUH website.

There are a number of exciting projects in the pipeline for the second year, to further develop Arts at NUH to support patient, visitor and staff experience. These include:

• NUH Arts Trails project in partnership with Active Hospitals and kindly funded by Arts Council England and Nottingham Hospitals Charity.
• Visual arts project in Stroke rehabilitation areas in partnership with Nottingham Trent University.
• Increased opportunities for both staff and patients to experience music and participatory arts.

Sea-themes mural created in the Phlebotomy waiting area by artist Jasmine Blakeway

If you would like to keep up to date with arts projects at NUH, please follow @arts_nuh on Twitter and Instagram.