“Our Hospitals should be Galleries!”

Art Scope. The latest new gallery in Reading. High quality art. Beautiful gifts. Stunning sculptures. One thing though: it’s all under the roof of the clinical setting of a hospital…

That’s right, not your average destination for art, I know. But it’s surely one of the most powerful and impactful settings for art to be based, what with its ability to distract, interact and engage with the public? And then there’s the healing element of art and its ability to transcend traditional boundaries of communications.

The public atrium at the Circle hospital is the brainchild project of Rukshi Brownlow who put together the gallery at the initial building stages of the hospital. Believing in the fundamental ethos that ‘to create a beautiful space improves the experience for everyone’, she set about with this ambitious project to create an art gallery within a hospital, and has now set the ideal blue print for new Circle hospitals being built. She also states that ‘a recent study of art in 3 London hospitals showed that 9 out of 10 patients thought that the art made a difference to their experience, and 7 out of 10 patients were conscious that their anxiety levels were reduced as a direct result of the art’. A compelling fact.

One of the beauties of art in a hospital is that you have a captive audience. Patients are sat waiting for their appointments, and while doing so, they can attend to a piece of art – knowingly or not - and absorb themselves in a painting; something one may ordinarily not have the time to do. There’s also the relaxed beauty of no heaving crowds, people guarding the paintings, or that irritable wire that buzzes the second you come within a millimetre of a half metre away from the subject. The experience of art is a truly relaxing, beautiful and impactful one, and what I find really interesting is that the vast majority of patients have never visited a gallery before. So by bringing the art to the visitors, you’re being introducing to a whole new experience. Didn’t expect that from your hospital visit, did you?

There’s also something about the pure feeling of vulnerability in a hospital. It doesn’t matter who or what we are outside of a hospital; when we’re a patient, we’re dealing with an element of the unknown. We’re dependent on the views of Doctors and the outcome of tests and analysis: this isn’t our world and we don’t have the same control we harness and manifest in the rest of our lives. So the difference that art has to make in this setting is huge – and not just to the patients and visitors, but staff too.

The gallery has received ample positive feedback from visitors to the hospital and the scheme is being rolled out to select other Circle hospitals – that is the power, resolve and need for art in public spaces. And I am very lucky to have my art shown at the Reading Art Scope Gallery with my painting ‘Community Roots’. A seeming good fit with the hospital, as the painting explores the concept of laying down roots with the resources that we have, and growing a community of roots across our lifetime. Come take a look: these days, you needn’t be a patient to visit a hospital – everyone is very welcome :)

NOTE: The gallery is open Mon – Fri  from 8am to 6pm with free car parking and a café (with a Michelin star chef, no less!). Further details can be found on the website: http://www.artscopeatcircle.co.uk/

Barbed Wire, a Refugee and a Washing Line.

What a powerful, compelling and emotive photograph. Barbed wire, a refugee and a washing line. This photo came out as Angelina Jolie Pitt warned that the international humanitarian system for refugees is breaking down. She also warned against a "fear of migration" and a "race to the bottom" as countries have been competing to be the strongest to protect themselves from refugees.

The refugee crisis has truly become a global issue and as my project ‘Around the World in 80 Washing Lines’ highlights is that laundry doesn’t discriminate – we all have laundry to do irrespective of who, what or where we are in the world.

Trembling Art

What is it that makes us tremble at the thought of giving our views on a piece of fine art? That quick line of beady sweat which develops on one’s forehead as we attempt to intellectualise what it is that’s staring right back at our very faces…?

This crops up time and time again, and it seems to affect quite a vast number of us. I’d love to hear your views on the topic.

I used Barbara as an example of this at a recent visit to The Courtauld Gallery in London. We had full access to the gallery, so were free to roam where we liked. Little did she know at the time, but I was watching Barbara. Looking at how she was engaging with the art, what comments and questions were raised as a result – and ultimately what she thought of the art. Her views, her opinions. It’s not a lot to ask, right? Wrong.

Firstly it’s important to say that Barbara does like art. She visits museums and galleries. She is a cultured being. She speaks French, has travelled the world, has a degree and works in an international team in various countries around the world. She even comes from culture capital of Britain: Birmingham. My point is that she probably has a ‘higher than average’ access and exposure to art, yet when asked what she thinks of a Henri Matisse’s painting ‘The Red Beach’, she becomes a bumbling, inarticulate, blushing being. She is lost, strayed away from her comfort zone, marooned far into the distance of a primitive island benign to the human race…

The painting in question...

Okay, a little far-fetched, but as you can see from this interview, Barbara is not at ease with my questioning. And she’s not the only one. Many will judder and shake at such questioning, or use the opportunity to eavesdrop discretely when others are having such discussions – storing up their answers for just this type of awkward occasion.

Description of 'The Red Beach'

Surely an opinion on a painting, is an opinion? You are entitled to that view and you needn’t have to justify it with flowery, intellectualised words of philosophical jargon and artistry? You give your views on films, concerts and other art forms quite happily, but what’s with the cement in the throat when art hits the discussion decks?

I do understand it to an extent. I really do. People want to appear eloquent and intellectual, full of name-drops from history and their cultured upbringing. This is who they are in their lives and the persona they use for the world. But surely to speak up and give a view, however minimal it is – or simply stating that they don’t like the art, is a better way forwards…?

I’m not sure why we don’t speak up more on our art views. We’re an opinionated lot, after all. But do please enlighten me. I’d love to hear your views on how it is for you engage with art. Do please share your view. Whatever it is. I won’t judge you.