The Datebook Winter spring 2020 | Page 5

He noticed
people’s
reactions to these
new artworks and
began to see just
how important art
could be to
people’s health
and
wellbeing.
Paintings in Hospitals
Celebrating 60 Years
Sheridan Russell (1900-1991),
founder of Paintings in Hospitals.
Young patients taking part in a Paintings in Hospitals art workshop at Great
Ormond Street Hospital.
P
aintings in Hospitals is
the UK’s leading national
arts in health charity
and celebrate their 60th
Anniversary this year. Yet the
charity’s history is not widely
known.
In 1959, in a busy hospital
corridor, Sheridan Russell fixed
an artwork to the wall. Sheridan
was Britain’s first male almoner.
The almoners were the pioneers
A Paintings in Hospitals art
workshop at the National Hospital
for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
© courtesy of the artist, Paintings
in Hospitals.
artworks in waiting rooms and
wards. He noticed people’s
reactions to these new artworks
and began to see just how
important art could be to
people’s health and wellbeing.
A Paintings in Hospitals
collaborative project with
#ToyLikeMe at York Hos. Artworks
© #ToyLikeMe - Beth Moseley.
Photo © Eloise Ross.
With help from the Nuffield
Foundation, Sheridan set out to
create a special art collection.
This would become the Paintings
in Hospitals collection: the first
of what we now call Social Work.
They believed that medical
treatment could be made better
by improving aftercare and the
care environment. Sheridan
worked at the National Hospital
for Neurology & Neurosurgery
and had started displaying
Lee Harrison, participant in a
Paintings in Hospitals artist
residency with Jeremy Hutchison.
and only national collection of
art curated specifically to
support people’s physical and
mental health.
Residents taking part in a Paintings
in Hospitals art workshop at Arthur
Rank Hospice. © Paintings in
Hospitals.
Through the years, Sheridan
inspired more people to see the
importance of art in healthcare.
Sir Dennis Proctor (former Chair
Visit The London & UK DatebooK on www.thedatebook.co.uk
of Tate), Roger de Grey (former
President of the Royal Academy
of Arts) and many more patrons,
trustees and supporters joined
the Paintings in Hospitals
mission. Together, they helped
the charity’s impact grow. In just
over ten years, Sheridan
expanded Paintings in Hospitals
from the National Hospital to 42
hospitals across London.
However, Sheridan believed that
everyone should be able to
experience the health benefits of
art, regardless of situation or
location. So, in the
1980s, Paintings in Hospitals
began to develop a regional
network, enabling care sites
outside of London to access
their services and borrow their
art. In 1991, the charity
provided seed funding for
Paintings in Hospitals Scotland,
which has since become Art in
Healthcare.
Although appropriate at the time
of the charity’s founding, the
name ‘Paintings in Hospitals’ is
now somewhat of a misnomer.
Today, the charity’s art collection
holds approximately 4,000
artworks, many of which are not
paintings but prints, drawings,
textiles, sculptures and digital
pieces by artists such as Bridget
Riley, Antony Gormley, Ian
Davenport, Maggi Hambling,
Andy Warhol, Anish Kapoor,
Howard Hodgkin, Patrick
Caulfield, Helen Chadwick,
Sonia Boyce, Alexander Calder,
and many more.
The way in which people receive
care has also evolved since
1959 with much of it now taking
place in community settings.
Paintings in Hospitals recognised
this and no longer limits itself to
working solely in hospital
environments: the charity is
currently partnered with 180
health and social care
National Hospital for Neurology
and Neurosurgery circa 1960. The
birthplace of Paintings in Hospitals .
organisations across the country
including GP practices, dental
surgeries, hospices, care
homes, prison infirmaries,
mental health units and Special
Educational Needs (SEN)
schools.
For sixty years, Paintings in
Hospitals has strived to make it
straightforward and affordable
for care organisations to benefit
from art. The charity aims to
remove all barriers by offering to
partner with any type of care
organisation and working directly
with patients and carers to
empower them to make
informed, democratic decisions
about their own care spaces.
They use their art collection to
inspire artist projects and
creative activities that help
create care spaces that are
encouraging, enriching and
empowering for everyone.
Visitor leaves a message on the
grass wall in ‘Nature Calls’ - the
finale exhibition of Paintings in
Hospitals project ‘Art in Large
Doses’. Photo by Glenn Michael
Harper.
If you would like to know more about Paintings in Hospitals
Tel: [phone]. Visit: www.paintingsinhospitals.org.uk
THE LONDON & UK DATEBOOK
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