Hospital Rooms and Torbay Hospital exhibition to open on 25 November 2022
We are very pleased to share this news from Hospital Rooms which is presenting an exhibition that celebrates the completion of a major collaboration with Devon Partnership NHS Trust.
Over the past year, fifteen artists have produced ambitious new artworks for three mental health inpatient wards at Torbay Hospital. This exhibition, held at MAKE Southwest, Bovey Tracey, will showcase the Torbay Hospital project, taking visitors on a journey through the process of developing original, thought-provoking artworks and transforming three ordinary, clinical wards into spaces of hope and promise. The exhibition will run from 25 November until 17 December 2022.
The project has taken place at Beech Unit, Haytor Ward and the newly-built Salus Ward, with five artists allocated to each ward. All three wards provide care for adults living with acute mental health needs, with Beech looking after older people, and Haytor and Salus caring for adults aged 18 and over. At Beech, artworks were created by Catherine Cartwright, Max Eastley, Tom Hammick, Mark Jessett and Katy Richardson; at Haytor, the artists are Samuel Bassett, Jacqui Hallum, Simon Ripley, Tanoa Sasraku and Huhtamaki Wab; at Salus, they are Cass Agazzi Brooks, Andy Harper, Amy McCarthy, Ged Quinn and Anna Chrystal Stephens.
Central to the creation of the new artworks was a series of workshops hosted by the artists. During those sessions staff, patients, care providers and members of the wider community with lived experience of mental health difficulties explored a theme or an artistic medium, collectively generating ideas for the final artwork. Artists at Beech Unit and Haytor Ward ran workshops with staff and patients on site, inviting them to express ideas and hopes about how the wards should look and feel. Meanwhile, a partnership with the Devon Recovery Learning Community (DRLC) enabled the artists working on Salus Ward - still under construction at the time of the project - to reach members of the public with lived experience. Workshops took place at venues across South Devon.
As well as the DRLC, Hospital Rooms worked closely with Artizan Gallery, which helped discover and reach creative practitioners from Torbay and South Devon. Hospital Rooms also received advice from Torbay Culture and Healthwatch Torbay on the wider local context, opportunities and challenges.
To download the full press release please click the button below:
The Torbay Hospital project has been generously supported by the Devon Partnership NHS Trust Charity, The Rayne Foundation, and Kier.
Image credit: Andy Harper, Salus Ward, 2022 (Hospital Rooms and Devon Partnership NHS Trust)
