Exhibiting in a Hospital environment

I first exhibited in a hospital setting in Spring 2006, at Nobles Hospital Isle of Man. My aim was to extend the range of public places in which I displayed my work - having previously exhibited in restaurants, bars, shops and galleries.

The exhibition comprising 30 large scale pieces was relocated to North Tyneside General Hospital, North Shields in September 2006. In Summer 2007 some of the works were moved to the new Northumbria Healthcare Trust headquarters at Cobalt Business Park, Newcastle, with the remainder going to Hexham General Hospital.

As part of the Northumbria HealthcareTrusts evaluation process and aim for continuous improvement, questionnaires were distributed to hospital visitors, patients, volunteers and staff. The feedback on my exhibition was extremely informative, encouraging and most of all positive.

Here are just a few of the comments:

Staff:

• When normally people march through the corridors now they take a more leisurely walk.
• Made it more user friendly – more relaxed.  Encourages conversation between total strangers.
• Patients and visitors stop to comment and to smile as they remember being on the beach.
• Landscapes are the best – precisely because they remind us of life outside the hospital.
• Dancers – vibrant – colours fab –you can practically hear the music.

Patients:

• The landscapes make me feel less stressed about being a patient.
• I have seen many people stopping to admire and discuss the paintings – I think they provide a welcome distraction.

Visitors:

• Local landscapes lovely  - feel as though you’re there - brings back memories.
• It is attractive and also a great conversation piece shared by visitors and patients.

Volunteers:

• The images make the hospital environment more interesting and inviting - takes away the clinical atmosphere and is particularly therapeutic.
• The views of Tynemouth are very uplifting with a soothing influence.

The Healing Arts

I first became interested in the close relationship between mind and body in 1970 when I took up the practice of meditation and I experienced how settling the mind clearly settled the body. At the time there was new scientific research to explore the connection between the measurable changes in brain wave patterns and the physiology of the body, when in and out of meditation. Research has advanced so much since then, and now terms such as psychoneuroimmunology are generally accepted.

I recently read a book called ‘The Endorphin Effect’ by William Bloom. He believes that endorphins support the healing process, and suggests ways that we can consciously stimulate the production of endorphins. To do so we simply need pleasurable experiences. He says, ‘There is nothing better than ‘the feel good factor’ to aid the healing process, whilst stress, anxiety and negativity block the healing process. When we are tense we inhibit that chemical change. A pleasurable experience – be it a physical caress, a memory, music, softens our usual body tension. It is only pleasurable events that trigger endorphins – real or imagined.’ It seems that the unconscious mind and the psychoneuroimmunological system cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. To give you some idea of what he means close your eyes and imagine you have been given a wedge of lemon. Suck it and taste it. No doubt your saliva glands have already started working.

The visual experience and visual arts can play a vital role in this equation. Look at an image which recalls pleasurable moments in your life and it can only be of benefit.

This is why I feel encouraged when questionnaire feedback includes comments such as: ‘patients and visitors stop to comment and to smile as they remember being on the beach’, or ‘ the views of Tynemouth are very uplifting with a soothing influence’, and ‘the dancers fill me with energy - they are – vibrant – colours fab –you can practically hear the music.’, for Bloom also refers to the importance of ‘the inner smile’. If we can recall an experience which make us smile inwardly, then it seems this also promotes the healing process.

I find the experience of beauty is an amazing thing. The wonder of nature with its varied and constantly changing colours and light. The fun things we do in our leisure time. I enjoy combining all these elements in order to express how I feel about this wonderful life and world in which we live.

As Bloom says ‘The idea that we need to experience harmony with nature and our environment becomes a key piece of the healthcare package.’

I hope that in a small way my work, which is currently on display in hospital settings, will continue to provide a positive experience for all those visiting or working in the hospital, and in so doing that it will contribute to the healing process.