Please note that Josie Aston is not responsible for the content of the websites listed below. The links are mainly focused on arts in hospital in the UK, although much of the material is relevant to other contexts. This is not a comprehensive list and mainly includes organisations I’ve had first-hand experience of. Please email me links for suggested inclusion.
Live music, dance, drama and film
Create provide arts for children in hospital in the south east, among other activities
Green Candle Dance Company: devise dance shows for patients in hospital and care homes including ForWard Motion and Falling About
Jabadao: physical movement and health
Jimmy Teens’s TV: project for young film-makers in hospital, in association with the Teenage Cancer Trust
Ladder to the Moon: interactive theatre for older people in hospital and care homes in the greater London area
Recently featured on Channel 4: http://www.laddertothemoon.co.uk/Ladder_to_the_Moon/Channel4.html
Live Music Now: music in settings such as hospitals and prisons
National Association of Providers of Activities for Older People (NAPA): the Links page is particularly useful
Music in Hospitals: long-established organisation that does what it says on the tin
POD: Making children happy in hospital
Performing Medicine: training for medical students and healthcare practitioners using the arts
Visual art
Axis Artists: a comprehensive listing of contemporary artists working in the UK – includes many who work in hospitals.
The Conservation Register is a service provided by the Institute of Conservation which lists information on accredited conservator-restorers in the UK and Ireland. It includes a search feature to find a local conservator-restorer, guidance on choosing and working with a conservator and tips on caring for art and decorative features of buildings.
Koestler Trust: art by prisoners, including those in high security mental health settings
Public Art Online: well-regarded public art website with lots of information about finding and commissioning artists and case studies of healthcare projects. Includes a useful introductory to the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) by Jane Willis. Artist commissions in hospitals can be advertised free of charge on the site.
History
Bethlem Hospital Museum & Archives
The UK’s only museum, archive and gallery within a psychiatric in-patient hospital. Well worth a visit.
County Asylums
Index and many links to other relevant sites.
Lost Hospitals of London
A work in progress; includes Orpington Hospital
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
History, memories and photos about the former mental hospitals in St Albans
Project Façade about facial injury in the First World War – warning, graphic images (I’ve included this as it’s a really imaginative project and there is a link with Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup)
Woodgate Design: Photographic history murals for hospitals, GP surgeries and primary care trusts, including two I commissioned for Beckenham Hospital and the former Canadian WW1 hospital in Orpington
Funding
Arts Council England – Grants for the Arts
Attend (formerly the National Association of Hospital and Community Friends). Arts projects in hospital are often supported by Friends’ organizations.
Awards for All – National Lottery funding scheme
Charity Commission: Many hospitals have donated charitable funds in addition to their exchequer budget – find out if funds exist here, and if so how much (it is easier to search by charity number if you know it)
Comic Relief: currently interested in young people, older people and mental health
Community Foundations distribute small grants on behalf of others, across the UK
Enhancing the Healing Environment – King’s Fund
Garfield Weston Charitable Trust
GSK Impact Awards - ‘designed to recognise and reward charities that are doing excellent work to improve people’s health’. Arts in health charities have won cash awards and training in the past.
Wellcome Trust: funds projects to do with the history of medicine and that help public understanding of biomedicine; has funded many ’sci-art’ projects where artists and scientists work together.
Creative/therapeutic writing, literature
Lapidus: national organisation for writing in health
Literature, Arts and Medicine Database: really fantastic resource provided by NYU for medical-related literature, commentaries, and recommendations for reading; thanks to Giskin Day at Imperial for the link
Mandy Sutter – Mandy was one of the UK’s first hospital writers in residence, at Leeds Teaching Hospitals
The Reader Organisation - terrific organisation based in Merseyside that promotes reading aloud for wellbeing
Yorkshire Arts New Audiences – report on Mandy’s residency at Leeds:
Art programmes in NHS hospitals and mental health trusts in England
This is not a comprehensive list, and not all established programmes have websites.
http://www.addenbrookes.org.uk/serv/nonclin/arts/index.htm
http://www.artcare.salisbury.nhs.uk/
http://www.chelwestcharity.org.uk/
http://www.gsttcharity.org.uk/arts/index.html
http://www.scarborough.nhs.uk/hafney.php
www.iow.nhs.uk/index.asp?record=644
www.rcht.nhs.uk/RoyalCornwallHospitalsTrust/OurServices/AZServices/T/TriArts/TriArts.aspx
www.sdhct.nhs.uk/aboutUs/more/SDHCarts/
http://www.southstaffsandshropshealthcareft.nhs.uk/Services/Arts-for-Health/Default/General-Information.aspx
(Highly recommended site with detailed evaluation of every project they’ve done – often small-scale and replicable elsewhere. A very good model for any arts and health programme wanting to show equitable provision of projects across a wide geographical area. )
http://www.nightingaleproject.org (associated with Central and North West London (CNWL) NHS Foundation Trust)
Arts in health networks
Creative Remedies (West Midlands)
I have recently updated Creative Remedies’ Advice section; although it has some West Midlands-specific content, much of the advice is intended to be broadly relevant to people wanting to start an arts and health project: http://www.creative-remedies.org.uk/Directory.aspx?vtype=Advice
Critical Connections (Yorkshire and Humberside)
Developarts (London Borough of Bromley)
East Midlands Public Health Network: Arts and Health
London Arts and Health Forum (Greater London)
There was a National Network for the Arts and Health between 2000-2006 but there is currently no national body (although, see http://cultureandwellbeing.org.uk for national listings).
Praxis: network for the West Midlands
The Society for the Arts in Healthcare: North America (with some international links)
The South East Arts and Health Partnership (South East of England)
Research and consultancy
http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/centres/sidney-de-haan-research/index.asp
Arts on Prescription
Artshine Arts on Referral, Bristol
Creative Remedies, Warrington (not the same as Creative Remedies, the arts and health network for the West Midlands)
Dulwich Picture Gallery, Arts on Prescription
Stockport Arts on Prescription
List of ‘Singing on Prescription’ projects (among other research) from the Sidney de Haan Centre
Reading on Prescription in Wigan and Merseyside
There’s also an Arts on Prescription programme in the Isle of Wight and a new Arts on Prescription programme in County Durham, but they don’t appear to have websites.
Events/Conferences
As of August 2011, I am no longer updating the events/conferences listings on this site. For the latest events, please sign up for the LAHF or AHSW e-bulletins (see links above).
Journals
Arts & Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t790627366
The International Journal of the Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice
http://www.ijcaip.com/
The Journal of Applied Arts and Health
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=169/
