Healthcare Context
Healthcare Context
Case Studies
Theatre maker Anna Newell ignites the imagination of our youngest audiences through responsive, multisensory theatre adventures. Since autumn 2023, Anna has been bringing bedside performances to babies and children with complex needs in Dublin hospitals, as part of an ongoing collaboration with Children's Health Ireland.
Case Studies
Reimagine UHL, a project funded by the Irish Architecture Foundation Reimagine Programme, connected a design, architecture & engagement team led by Drake Hourigan Architects with the staff of University Hospital Limerick in 2022. The project explored the potential of the outdoor spaces of the hospital campus to offer support to staff in their working environment.
Case Studies
In 2019 Navin Hyder was invited to be the first artist-in-residence at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin. Hyder’s interest in oncology, in particular cancer operations, led her to the hospital’s operating theatres. Over a two-year period, she developed a large body of work consisting mainly of drawings of live procedures.
Case Studies
The Music in Healthcare Young Graduates project was developed by Music & Health Ireland, the leading Irish training organisation in the field. The project connects recently graduated musicians to training and mentorship, new skill sets, competences and professional best practice in the field of Arts & Health.
Case Studies
The Three Sisters is a group of connected artworks for the new Ormonde Wing of St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny made by artist Diane McCormick and commissioned by the HSE through the Per Cent for Art Scheme.
Case Studies
Joe Brennan was Waterford Healing Arts Trust’s Artist in Residence for 2021 at University Hospital Waterford. The residency focused on staff engagement due to Covid restrictions, offering storytelling online and outdoors. Changing circumstances during the residency also enabled Joe to tell stories at the bedside on the Paediatric Ward.
Case Studies
Training Notes is a training initiative of Kids Classics, Ireland's leading music in healthcare organisation. Kids Classics has developed a framework of bespoke training courses which includes introductory workshops, supervised apprenticeships and team mentoring.
Case Studies
In 2019 The Model commissioned Andy Parsons to be Artist in Residence at Sligo University Hospital. Parsons particularly focused on the Renal Ward where patients undergoing dialysis explored creativity through experiments in painting and drawing.
Case Studies
1000 Days is a collaborative project between specialist health musicians Dr Rosalind Hawley and Mark Fisher, and spoken word artist Keisha Thompson, sharing stories of children, family, staff and musicians' experiences of health, music and hospitalisation through music and spoken word.
Case Studies
Our Stories was developed as a creative response to the coming together of the three Dublin Paediatric Hospitals and in preparation for the move into the new children’s hospital, which is currently being built.
Case Studies
A Bird at My Window and Other Stories is a project by artists Sarah Fuller and Manuela Corbari for children and their families in hospital settings developed for Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.
Case Studies
Off the Wall is a series of artworks by Alan Dunne at Children's Health Ireland (CHI) Connolly. The artworks were inspired by drawings created by some of the children and young people who visited the centre in 2020, along with conversations the artist conducted with CHI Connolly staff.
Case Studies
Viriditas is a song cycle by Irish singer and artist Ceara Conway for The Deepest Shade of Green, an Arts and Health programme for Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture. Commissioned by Saolta Arts and Galway 2020, it was created for the staff and patients of the seven hospitals of Saolta University Health Care Group.
Case Studies
Butterfly Haven is a commissioned artwork by artist Lucy Turner dedicated to remembering our deceased colleagues in Tallaght University Hospital.
Case Studies
The Museum of Song is a song collecting project, co-created by artists Tess Leak and Sharon Whooley, that is delivered via the postal service. Part of the Arts for Health Partnership Programme, West Cork, it was adapted in response to the isolation of older residents in community hospitals during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Case Studies
Waiting for Me is a collaborative visual arts and health project exploring the experience of waiting in an active creative space in the Paediatric Outpatients Area of South Tipperary General Hospital.
Case Studies
Le Pont des Arts is a non-profit artistic company working in the paediatric departments of Brussels’ main hospitals. For 21 years, six artists (currently a singer, a musician, a dancer, a storyteller, a juggler and a visual artist) have been performing weekly in children’s rooms.
Case Studies
OFFSET was an intergenerational print project in 2019 involving participants in Paediatrics and Care for the Elderly at Galway University Hospitals and staff from the wider hospital community.
Case Studies
The Sky’s The Limit is a permanent installation of uniquely designed hot air balloons in Tallaght University Hospital.
Case Studies
Stories from the Well-Field is an interactive performance created by a group of residents in St. Joseph’s Unit, Bantry General Hospital in collaboration with artist Tess Leak, puppeteer Eoin Lynch and composer Justin Grounds.
Case Studies
Soothing Sounds is a music project that took place in Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) at Tallaght University Hospital. Musician in residence Sophie Lee conducted interactive bedside music sessions with patients for 20 weeks between September 2018 and March 2019.
Case Studies
Open Gallery is an art project developed in 2018 by Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) which invites people living with dementia – and their family members / carers – to look at, discuss and enjoy paintings from the University Hospital Waterford (UHW) Art Collection in a safe and welcoming space, supported by professional artists.
Case Studies
Open Theatre Practice was established in 2017 by Outlandish Theatre Platform, theatre company in residence at the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital. Participants from diverse communities in Dublin 8, the hospital community, performing arts colleagues and other theatre practitioners are invited to take part in the process of making new work in response to a theme.
Case Studies
Caroline Hyland is an artist in residence at Tallaght University Hospital (TUH). ‘Can You See What I See?’ is a series of paintings by Caroline strongly informed by listening to people with dementia and to those that support them, their families, friends and the medical professions.
Case Studies
Ailish Claffey is dancer in residence at Tallaght University Hospital. The role of dance within the TUH Arts Programme is explored in the film documentary The Dance Back Home, created by Claffey in collaboration with visual artist Deirdre Glenfield.
Case Studies
Well Festival of Arts and Wellbeing in Waterford celebrates the health benefits of participation in the arts and features a programme of free, fun, inventive and sociable arts events for all ages, across all artforms.
Case Studies
The Forget Me Never Project was a collaborative visual art project at Tallaght Hospital from 2015 to 2017, led by Artist in Residence Lucia Barnes. Renal dialysis patients receiving treatment either in hospital or at home, staff, family and artists were all involved. The project resulted in a permanent artwork - The Forget Me Never Tree - in the new Haemodialysis Unit.
Case Studies
Artist Sarah Ruttle led a collaboration with artists Tess Leak, Liz Clark and Colm Rooney to ‘imagine an Ireland of the future’ with the older residents and staff of two West Cork Community Hospitals over a three-month period in 2016.
Case Studies
Drawing the Carers is a series of portraits by artist Róisín Curé of staff in University Hospital Galway. The project was commissioned by Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust in 2016 for a Uniform Recognition Campaign.
Case Studies
Songbirds is a music project with nonverbal children and young people with complex health and communication needs at The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
Case Studies
Designer Orlagh O’Brien and artist Tess Leak, who work collaboratively as Haiku Island Press, facilitated a poetry and book-making project in the Department of Renal Medicine, Cork University Hospital in 2016.
Case Studies
Poems for Patience is an annual anthology of poetry by Irish and international poets displayed on the Arts Corridor of University Hospital Galway and disseminated throughout the waiting area networks of Galway’s public hospitals.
Case Studies
Cloudlands is an artist in residence programme for teenagers in hospital led by Helium Arts. Artists Rachel Tynan, Emma Fisher and Eszter Némethi worked in Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, University Hospital Galway and Cork University Hospital respectively between 2012 and 2015.
Case Studies
Lying in Wait was an artist in residence project with adult patients in Tallaght University Hospital led by artist Deirdre Glenfield and supported by the National Centre for Arts and Health (NCAH).
Case Studies
In 2012, Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust was awarded an Arts Council Arts Participation Project Award to work with visual artist Marielle MacLeman on a yearlong arts project in the haemodialysis unit at Merlin Park University Hospital, Galway.
Case Studies
In 2013 Michael McCarthy was Writer in Residence at Tallaght University Hospital. During his residency he facilitated three hospital groups: for people with chronic pain, an outpatient group for older people, and a creative writing course for staff members of the hospital. Michael also created his own original work in response to his residency in the stroke service.
Case Studies
In 2012, Anam Beo artists Tina Gaffey and Kieran Brennan facilitated an eight-week participant-led pilot project for patients in the Renal Unit of the Midlands Regional Hospital, Tullamore. The accessible technique of print was introduced to participants of various ages who decided on the theme of sanctuary for their group artwork.
Case Studies
Encounters was a collaboration between Triskel Arts Centre and St. Finbarr’s Hospital, a multidisciplinary hospital site. The collaboration formed part of the arts and health strand of Cork EU Capital of Culture 2005.
Case Studies
The Puppet Portal Project merged the areas of art, technology and health, in order to facilitate children in hospital to create interactive puppetry performances in four acute hospitals (Dublin, Limerick and Sligo), over a five-month period.
Case Studies
Memory Found is a pilot collaborative visual art project between artist Lucia Barnes, patients with dementia at the Age Related Day Hospital of Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, and carers of patients with dementia at the Blanchardstown Carers Association Centre, Dublin 15.
Case Studies
The hospital is a place in which the accumulation of bacteria, fragments and possessions is discouraged. The emphasis is on sterility and functionality. These are not conditions which promote familiarity. Artist Jennie Moran wondered what she could bring to such a place. Her art project, Personal Effects, took place in the Stroke Unit of Galway’s Merlin Park University Hospital in 2009.
Case Studies
Artist Pauline Keena collaborated with a group of mothers, all of whom had the experience of losing a baby in the neo-natal period, to create an exhibition that reflected and was informed by the experience of embodied grief and the language of loss in the body.
Case Studies
Ian Wilson, Composer in Residence in the Stroke Unit of the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in 2010, developed a new composition based on conversations with staff and patients of the unit.
Directory
Réalta was established in 2023 as the national resource organisation dedicated to developing arts and health in Ireland, founded on decades of pioneering arts and health practice as Waterford Healing Arts Trust (established 1993) and the encyclopaedic knowledge gathered under artsandhealth.ie (established 2011).
Directory
Aoife’s Clown Doctors provide professional clowning entertainment to children in Ireland’s hospital wards, to momentarily offer an escape from the stress and anxiety of the hospital setting for all family members, through laughter and games.
Directory
The Arts Committee in University Hospital Limerick was established in 2016.
Directory
Waterford Healing Arts is Ireland’s longest established arts and health organisation, founded in 1993 at University Hospital Waterford (UHW).
Directory
Initiated by a generous long-term loan of over 100 works of Modern Irish Art by John and Patricia Hunt, Galway University Hospitals set up an Arts Committee in early 2003 to develop an arts programme for University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital.
Directory
St Luke's General Hospital is an acute hospital in Kilkenny City which provides acute healthcare services to the people of Carlow and Kilkenny.
Directory
Activities include: Artist in Residence programme Art exhibitions A Menu of Poems: an annual initiative bringing poetry to all patients in hospital to celebrate National Poetry Day Hospital Choir .
Directory
Positive health is more than freedom from illness or disease – it is a feeling of wellbeing, an awareness and involvement in the joy of living.
Directory
Raheen Community Hospital and Day Care Centre in Co. Clare aims to deliver a varied programme of arts to day care visitors and hospital residents.
Directory
The Creative Life Centre at Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing (MISA), St James’s Hospital, promotes and highlights the creativity of older people, enabling them to express themselves through art, sculpture, poetry, literature, music and drama.
Directory
Our mission is ‘to provide a creative arts and health programme specific to patient, staff and healthcare department needs; that improves the hospital experience by making arts accessible to all.
Directory
St Luke's Hospital in Rathgar, Dublin, has been caring for cancer patients from all over Ireland since 1954.
Directory
The new children’s hospital will be a world-class facility to look after children and young people from all over Ireland who have complicated and serious illnesses and who are in need of specialist and complex care.
Directory
Helium Arts: • supports a dynamic, child-friendly, family centred, holistic approach to children’s medical provision, within community, primary, and acute healthcare contexts.
Directory
Music & Health Ireland (formerly Kids Classics) is a not for profit limited company that delivers high quality professional music workshops, performances and music participation opportunities in the heart of healthcare, education and community settings nationally regardless of a person’s social, economic or medical circumstance.
Perspectives
For young people who have experienced trauma, nurturing a safe space for creativity to unfold requires particular care and sensitivity. Art therapist Claire Flahavan and artist Emma Finucane brought their specific areas of expertise, and mutually supportive ways of working, to the Stepping Stones project at The Alders Unit, a therapeutic service for children and adolescents affected by sexual abuse. Claire reflects on their collaboration with young service users to create permanent artworks for the Unit’s new home at CHI-Tallaght.
Perspectives
Navin Hyder reflects on her three-year artist residency at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin, where she created a large body of work in the hospital’s operating theatres. Hyder details the evolving nature of the residency, new terrain for both artist and hospital staff, and how personal connections with families impacted by cancer shaped its outcomes.
Perspectives
Most of the poems from my first collection of poetry, OURSELVES, come from vivid memories of my first years in nurse training: the shock and drama of illness; the strengths and weaknesses of those I worked alongside, and bearing witness to the vulnerabilities and suffering of patients.
Perspectives
Claire Flahavan works as an art therapist in St Louise’s Unit at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) Crumlin. Claire reflects on her experience of Sidestep, an Arts in Health project for staff within the Unit at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Perspectives
There are more than 180 artworks from the Arts Council Collection currently on display in 14 healthcare settings across the Republic of Ireland. Ben Mulligan and Ann O'Connor from the Arts Council provide insights into the lending and selection process, and the impact this artwork can have on healthcare communities.
Perspectives
‘I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now…’ sang Joni Mitchell and indeed, at the risk of sounding ancient, that’s how it has seemed for me in terms of my work in the area of arts in health to date.
Perspectives
Delivering an art project in an acute setting for people with dementia and other age-related conditions can bring unique rewards and challenges. This podcast explores the Open Gallery art viewing programme at University Hospital Waterford from the viewpoint of the healthcare staff, artists and participants involved.
Perspectives
Susannah Hall, Joint Head of GOSH Arts, reflects on The Temporary Tattoo Parlour at Great Ormond Street Hospital, developed by artist Davina Drummond with adolescent patients.
Perspectives
Well-designed hospitals lead to improved healing environments; I write from first-hand experience! Six years ago I spent many weeks in and out of hospital having treatment after surgery for cancer and, coincidentally, concurrent treatment for an autoimmune disease.
Perspectives
Visual artists Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly discuss the inspiration behind their artwork Run River Run for the new 75 bed ward at University Hospital Galway and how the initial challenges of a collaborative approach to creating public artworks led to rewarding avenues of exploration.
Perspectives
Addressing the imagined participants of an Arts and Health workshop, Marielle MacLeman draws from her experiences of working as an artist in palliative and chronic healthcare settings to reflect upon the values that underpin her responsive approach to person-centred arts participation.
Perspectives
François Matarasso calls for an acceptance of the differences between arts and science when assessing arts and health practice.
Perspectives
Director of Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University, Clive Parkinson describes the political thinking that led to and is embodied in the UK’s first Manifesto for Arts and Health.
Perspectives
Katie Verling draws upon her own experience as an acutely ill patient to advocate for the receptive arts as a means of addressing the anxiety, boredom, isolation and sensory deprivation of patients.
Perspectives
As a trained music therapist and a professional performing musician who works in healthcare settings, I am often asked ‘What is music therapy?’ and ‘What is the difference between music therapy and music in healthcare?’
Perspectives
Ben Murnane is a writer who lives in Wicklow and suffers from a rare genetic disorder, Fanconi anaemia. He describes how creativity helped him cope with his disease, and discusses a new film project involving teenagers with chronic illnesses.
Perspectives
Kildare Arts Officer, Lucina Russell, argues for the place of arts and health practice as an integral part of a local authority arts programme, and describes how her own recent experience of healthcare has deepened her appreciation for this field of work.
Perspectives
This podcast features extracts from a round table discussion by a group of postgraduate researchers around the academic positioning of arts and health research. It was hosted by the Waterford Healing Arts Trust in the School of Nursing Trinity College in 2011 and chaired by Catherine McCabe PhD.
Perspectives
Hilary Moss argues for the need for accredited and on-the-job training for artists working in healthcare settings to ensure best arts and heath practice and place the work of artists in this field on an equal footing with health professionals.
Perspectives
Johanna Tanner is a Dialysis patient in Waterford Regional Hospital who has been participating in the Waterford Healing Arts Trust’s arts programme since 2008. Here she talks about her experience.
Podcasts
Artist Tess Leak and designer Orlagh O’Brien of Haiku Island Press collaborated with 24 patients attending the Renal Unit at Cork University Hospital on a collection of haiku-inspired poetry. In 2017, diverse voices from the town of Skibbereen and surrounding area read aloud the entire collection of Haiku poems ‘Tiny Kind Gestures’.
Podcasts
Addressing the imagined participants of an arts and health workshop, Marielle MacLeman draws from her experiences of working as an artist in palliative and chronic healthcare settings to reflect upon the values that underpin her responsive approach to person-centred arts participation.
Podcasts
Mary Grehan interviews artist Dorothy Ann Daly about her work on the exhibition Body Conscious in Waterford Regional Hospital and her experience of making art since her diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in the late 90s.
Videos
Sarah Fuller and Yvonne Cullivan, Artists with Helium Arts, discuss their experiences of working with children and young people through the arts in healthcare settings in Galway.
Videos
The Art of Being Healthy and Well national symposium took place in June 2022 at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin, co-hosted by the Creative Ireland Programme, the Department of Health (Healthy Ireland), the HSE and the Arts Council.
Videos
The joys and challenges of Per Cent for Art Scheme commissioning in healthcare settings are explored in this online conversation featuring Claire Meaney, Director of Waterford Healing Arts Trust, George O’Neill, Project Manager for HSE Estates in the South East, and artist Conall Cary.
Videos
Transforming the bedsides of young patients into miniature theatre spaces, Sarah Fuller and Manuela Corbari share an enchanting collection of stories where the natural and human worlds are intertwined.
Videos
SCRUBS is a workplace choir made up of staff (current, former and retired) from Cork University Hospital.
Videos
Hospital Voices is a choral work created by composer Eric Sweeney and poet Edward Denniston to mark the 25th anniversary year of Waterford Healing Arts Trust.
Videos
A poet, a raconteur, and two nurses escape the clinical confines of dialysis to reveal how an Arts and Health programme enhances time and fosters human connection, long after their traces are wiped away by Actichlor. Saolta Arts was awarded the 2017 artsandhealth.ie Documentation Bursary to work with filmmaker Tom Flanagan and visual artist Marielle MacLeman on this film.
Videos
Ailish Claffey is dancer in residence at Tallaght University Hospital. The role of dance within the Arts Programme at the hospital is explored in the film documentary The Dance Back Home (2017), created by Claffey in collaboration with Deirdre Glenfield (visual artist in residence) and in association with The National Centre for Arts and Health, Tallaght University Hospital.
Videos
Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust commissioned visual artist Finbar 247 to see if art can change how we feel in a hospital.
Guidelines
The first comprehensive resource for establishing and managing hospital arts programmes across the UK. An initiative of the National Arts in Hospitals Network (NAHN), the toolkit provides an evidence-based framework for embedding high-quality arts interventions in every hospital to improve patient care and staff wellbeing.
Guidelines
This publication is designed for healthcare professionals, artists and others who want to learn more about arts and health practice and may be at the early stages of planning an arts and health project.
Guidelines
A general introduction to handling the media in arts and health contexts, particularly aimed at personnel who may not have had press responsibilities in previous jobs.
Guidelines
Guidelines for good practice for artists and healthcare professionals engaged in participatory arts practice in healthcare contexts in Ireland.
Policies & Strategies
The PAINT Policy Brief has been co-created by patients, families, researchers, healthcare and arts practitioners with an interest in or personal experience of kidney disease. The Policy Brief addresses the profound impact of haemodialysis on the mental health of patients and advocates for arts activities as a way of managing the emotional challenges and finding meaning and connection during treatment.
Policies & Strategies
Strengthening partnership and community working is one of the strategic priority areas, and includes a partnership approach with Creative Ireland, the Arts Council, and Healthy Ireland in the Department of Health to identify and support key opportunities to strengthen arts and health in the HSE.
Research & Evaluation
The aim of the PAINT project was to undertake an international mapping exercise to identify the current provision of arts programmes in kidney centres for people living with kidney disease. The arts activities being offered globally and experiences of renal healthcare staff who provide activities in their units are encouraging in terms of arts in healthcare.
Research & Evaluation
Curator Vivienne Reiss was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to visit Denmark, Sweden and Japan and explore how healthcare buildings in these countries enhance health and wellbeing, and the contribution of art to the healing environment. Her findings illustrate the multi-faceted role of art and include 13 case studies in general, paediatric and psychiatric hospitals.
Research & Evaluation
Orchestras in Healthcare #2 explores the contribution that orchestras (including those integrated in opera companies) currently make in the public health sector in the UK. This report presents findings from the second UK-wide Orchestras in Healthcare survey (the first survey was undertaken in 2020).
Research & Evaluation
Helium Arts is the national children's arts and health organisation. This Social Return on Investment study covers Helium's work over a two-year period (2019 - 2020). The research found that the social value of Helium's work is worth almost twice as much as the funding it receives based on the outcomes achieved for stakeholders.
Research & Evaluation
Vocal Beats is a hospital-ward-based music project led by rb&hArts for children and young people aged 0-25 years old at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust.
Research & Evaluation
This four-year review of the National Centre for Arts and Health at Tallaght University Hospital brings together accumulated reports from 2015 to 2018 and covers three key areas of programming: participative arts, receptive arts and creative arts therapies.
Research & Evaluation
Waterford Healing Arts Trust has been running an arts programme in the Renal Dialysis Unit at University Hospital Waterford since 2007.
Research & Evaluation
This paper presents three artists’ residencies in a geriatric medicine unit in a teaching hospital.
Research & Evaluation
This paper explores the role of the curator in the modern hospital through an international qualitative study of ten professionals working as arts managers / curators in English speaking hospitals.
Research & Evaluation
An independent evaluation documenting the evidence of the impact of Kids’ Classics music activities in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin.
Research & Evaluation
This thesis was submitted by Hilary Moss towards the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Department of Medical Gerontology, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin in 2014.
Research & Evaluation
This study assesses the impact of hospitalization on arts engagement among older people and perceptions of whether hospitals are aesthetically deprived environments.
Research & Evaluation
A summary of a PhD conducted at Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine under the supervision of Prof Des O’Neill and Dr Claire Donnellan.
Research & Evaluation
This study aimed to obtain insights into people affected by stroke about the profile of art and aesthetic activities in their lives and the influence of stroke on these aspects.
Research & Evaluation
This qualitative study explores the aesthetic and cultural pursuits of older patients in hospital.
Research & Evaluation
A report on the outcomes of the Medical Notes Project for children, families, musicians and staff at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.
Research & Evaluation
A report on the art programme in the Dialysis Unit of Tallaght Hospital.
Research & Evaluation
A report of the second phase of the evaluation of the Music in Healthcare Project, a partnership between Music Network and the Midland Health Board.
Research & Evaluation
A report of the first phase of the evaluation of the Music in Healthcare Project: a partnership between Music Network and the Midland Health Board.
Research & Evaluation
An evaluation report of the first year of Phase 3 of the Music in Healthcare programme: a partnership between Music Network and the Midland Health Board.
Research & Evaluation
The research explores whether visual and performing arts could have an effect on psychological, physiological and biological outcomes of clinical significance.
Research & Evaluation
An evaluation of the Music in Healthcare Project: a partnership between Music Network and the Midland Health Board.
Research & Evaluation
A comparative study between a hospital and a gallery as sites for viewing art.
Research & Evaluation
A research report assessing the value of participation by patients, staff and community members in the Dreams Arts and Health visual art project in the Mater Hospital, Belfast.
Articles & Documentation
The all-of-government Creative Ireland Programme, Healthy Ireland, the Health Service Executive and the Arts Council co-hosted a national symposium in 2022 on the positive benefits of creativity and the arts to health and wellbeing at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin.
Articles & Documentation
Arts and health practice often involves engaging with people who are far from home and familiar spaces. How does an artist create a sense of space and place, of warmth and trust, in unfamiliar territory?
Articles & Documentation
Dance artist and choreographer Helga Deasy was awarded an artsandhealth.ie artist bursary in 2020 to reflect on and interrogate her model for an empowering dance practice, specifically its applicability to her experience of working as a dancer in hospitals and care homes.
Articles & Documentation
Menu of Poems is an annual initiative in celebration of Poetry Day Ireland.
Articles & Documentation
In celebration of Poetry Day Ireland 2018, 'Encounters' was distributed throughout hospitals and healthcare settings in Ireland as part of the annual 'Menu of Poems' initiative.
Articles & Documentation
This report explores Ciara Harrison's work as 2017 Artist in Residence with Waterford Healing Arts Trust.
Articles & Documentation
This report explores Caroline Schofield's work as 2016 Artist in Residence with Waterford Healing Arts Trust.
Articles & Documentation
In celebration of Poetry Day Ireland (28 April 2016), Soul Food is intended for distribution throughout hospitals and healthcare settings in Ireland.
Articles & Documentation
A peer reviewed perspective on aesthetic deprivation in clinical settings.
Articles & Documentation
Documentation of the Memory Dress project at St.
Event
Topographical Journeys is a new exhibition by artist Edwina Bracken at University Hospital Waterford presenting layered, abstract views of the Irish landscape which explore the space between the material culture of the past and our existence in the digital world.
Event
The Creative Hand is an exhibition by Josephine Hardiman at Tallaght University Hospital.
Event
Since November 2024, photographic artist Liadh Connolly has been engaging three groups of transition year students in Dublin 12 in a project called Welcome to the Neighbourhood.
News
Stories from My Kitchen Table is a poignant and visually arresting exhibition by artist and poet Liza Cauldwell.
Opportunity
The Arts and Health Department at Tallaght University Hospital is seeking artists to exhibit their work in their welcoming and dynamic hospital environment.
Event
Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing, a world-leading research hub in ageing, will host Crucial Views this March, exploring dementia through an academic and artistic lens, and through those with lived experience.
Opportunity
Saolta Arts invites professional practicing visual artists to apply for opportunities in the following hospitals of HSE West and North West in 2025 – 2026: University Hospital Galway, Merlin Park University Hospital, Portiuncula University Hospital Ballinasloe, Mayo University Hospital and Roscommon University Hospital.
Opportunity
Creative Places Tipperary Town is seeking two socially engaged artists from all disciplines, with facilitation experience and a background in Arts and Health contexts, for a six-month residency running from February to July 2025.
Event
The Arts & Health Programme at Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) in collaboration with Rua Red South Dublin Arts Centre present Nature's Tapestry, an exhibition dedicated to the breathtaking landscapes and diverse wildlife of Ireland.
News
The latest exhibition from the Arts & Health Department at Tallaght University Hospital is BEHOLD, a selection of original artworks on loan from the AIB Art Collection.
Opportunity
Saolta Arts, the west of Ireland’s leading Arts and Health programme, is seeking a project co-ordinator to deliver Mending HeArts, a Creative Health and Wellbeing project for people living with heart conditions in Galway.
News
Earthly Delights is a new exhibition by artist Paul McCloskey at University Hospital Waterford.
News
A new programme of arts workshops for patients and people living with heart conditions launched in Galway City on Sunday 29 September, as part of World Heart Day.
Event
The Tightrope Walker by Jenny Macdonald navigates a personal journey through the chaotic and profound territory of illness and recovery with humour and humility.
Opportunity
Kildare County Council Library & Arts Service in partnership with Naas General Hospital welcome submissions for Did I Ever Tell You, a new Artist in Residence programme, based in the hospital.
Event
Daisy Fancourt, Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health, will deliver MISA's Annual Public Lecture in collaboration with Creative Ireland on 23 September 2024.
Opportunity
Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) Arts & Health Department in collaboration with colleagues in Tymon North Community Unit and St Luke’s Hospital, Unit C are inviting artists to apply to be an Artist in Residence, facilitating art sessions for patients at the bedside and becoming a valued and supported member of the arts team.
Opportunity
The Health Service Executive (HSE) is undertaking fit out works at Hampson House, North Earl Street, Dublin 1 in 2024 and intends to commission permanent artworks under the Per Cent for Art (PCFA) Scheme.
Opportunity
Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) Arts in Health Programme is seeking to engage an artist / artists to work with young people in Dublin 8 and Dublin 12 on the creation of a body of artwork to be shown as part of their exhibition programme in the concourse of the new children’s hospital in Rialto.
News
Arts and Health at TUH and the Music Therapy Service hosted vibrant celebrations for World Music Therapy Day in Tallaght University Hospital on Monday 15 April.
News
Tallaght University Hospital runs a varied and vibrant arts programme in the Renal Unit. Patient-centred art and music sessions offer a break from clinical worries patients may have while undergoing their dialysis treatment, and facilitate creative needs within different capacities for individual patients.
Opportunity
Tallaght University Hospital is seeking an Arts & Health Administrator (Grade IV) to support the vibrant and progressive programme delivered by the Arts & Health Department.
Event
Puppetry Healing Stories in Hospital Care will showcase examples of contemporary practices by puppeteers using puppets in hospital settings. It will address the various contexts in which puppets can be used for both adults and children in hospitals, and will also examine some of the principles and ideas underlying these practices.
Opportunity
Saolta Arts is currently accepting proposals for its 2024 - 2025 visual arts exhibition programme at University Hospital Galway.
News
The RENEW partnership between the HSE, the Department of Health (Healthy Ireland), Creative Ireland, and the Arts Council was established in 2020 to explore options for collaborative work to further develop arts and health in the HSE.
Opportunity
Helium Arts, the national children’s arts and health organisation, is seeking to employ a multi-disciplinary visual artist with a strong collaborative and inclusive arts practice with children and young people to join their Outpatients Programme in Dublin.
Event
Join the HSE National Librarian, Aoife Lawton, and library staff on Culture Night for half hour tours of Dr.
Event
Salthall Reverie, an exhibition celebrating a very special place, opens on the Arts Corridor at University Hospital Galway on 17 July 2023, presented by Saolta Arts and Galway International Arts Festival.
Opportunity
The CHI Arts in Health programme is seeking expressions of interest from artists / designers / makers / creative collectives to apply to complete a research and development process which will lead to a comprehensive proposal for a permanent artwork for the New Children’s Hospital.
Opportunity
Waterford Healing Arts invites artists of all art forms, including visual artists, musicians, writers and dance artists, to apply to join its Artist Panel.
News
RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences has announced a new Arts Strategy aimed at further enhancing the role of art in enriching the learning environment at the university.
Opportunity
The 11th International Health Humanities Conference is being hosted by the University of Derby from 21-23 September 2023 on the theme of 'History and Practice of Human Care'.
Opportunity
Réalta, the National Body for Arts + Health in Ireland, has announced details of two new opportunities to join their team.
Opportunity
The national arts and health website is offering two bursaries in 2023, funded by the Arts Council and the HSE.
News
To celebrate National Poetry Day on 27 April and Dublin International Literature Festival in May, Ema Staunton, Arts Co-ordinator of St Luke's Radiation Oncology Network, has introduced a literature dispenser, a novel way of sharing original short stories, poetry and comics with patients and staff.
Event
Poems for Patience is a long-running series by Saolta Arts in which poems are exhibited on the Arts Corridor of University Hospital Galway and then displayed in waiting areas throughout Galway University Hospitals.
Event
Tallaght University Hospital's opening exhibition of 2023 is A Geometric Progression, a collection of visual artworks by GRID Collective.
Opportunity
Arts & Health at Tallaght University Hospital in collaboration with Children’s Health Ireland at Tallaght are inviting musicians to apply to be a Musician in Healthcare in TUH and CHI at Tallaght.
Event
The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital will host an innovative multimedia art exhibition entitled ‘Beyond the Surface: Art, Illuminating the Future of Surgery’ from 25 - 28 March 2023 in the Old Historical Surgery Rooms (entrance on Eccles Street).
News
Réalta, the national body for arts and health in Ireland, was officially launched on Friday 3 March 2023.
News
Drawing the Plants is an exhibition by artist Mary Lee Murphy, opening at University Hospital Galway on 4 February 2023 to coincide with World Cancer Day.
Event
Good Vibrations, Celebrating Love, Life and Magic, and Standing Shoulder to Shoulder: Well Festival of Arts and Wellbeing 2023 announces programme of music, movement, poetry, art and stories to make us feel good.
News
The PAINT project aims to undertake an international mapping exercise to identify the current provision of arts programmes for renal patients.
News
Waterford Healing Arts Trust hosted the posthumous launch of Alfie’s Escapades, the second book by former renal dialysis patient Liz McCue, on 6 December, to mark Liz’s first anniversary.
Opportunity
Saolta Arts, the dedicated arts service for the Saolta University Health Care Group, is seeking entries for its annual poetry competition.
News
Amber Women’s Refuge recently partnered with St Luke’s General Hospital Kilkenny to bring the LOVE Installation to the hospital, raising awareness around gender-based violence.
Opportunity
Building on the participatory arts programme at Galway University Hospitals (GUH), Saolta Arts invites professional practicing artists (all artforms) to apply for opportunities in the following hospitals of Saolta University Health Care Group in 2023 – 2024: University Hospital Galway, Merlin Park University Hospital, Portiuncula University Hospital Ballinasloe, Mayo University Hospital and Roscommon University Hospital.
Opportunity
Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) invites artists of all art forms and disciplines to submit proposals for its exhibition programme 2023–2025 at University Hospital Waterford.
News
Mapping Arts and Health Across the Midlands is a new research report published by the Arts Office of Laois County Council and partner organisations Offaly County Council Arts Office, Westmeath County Council Arts Office, Anam Beo, Helium Arts, Music Generation (Offaly/Westmeath) and Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT).
Opportunity
Helium Arts is the national children’s arts and health charity, developing the creativity of children living with lifelong physical conditions through the arts to support their wellbeing including social connections, self-esteem, and sense of agency.
Opportunity
Tallaght University Hospital is seeking an Administration Assistant (Grade IV) to support the vibrant and progressive programme delivered by the Arts & Health Department.
News
After West of Sumer, an exhibition of 15 giclée prints of botanical art, is currently showing at University Hospital Waterford. The title of the exhibition was inspired by the history of the Sumerians, an ancient people who some 5000 years ago recorded some of the first medicinal herbal and botanical preparations onto clay tablets.
In Conversation
Sarah Fuller and Yvonne Cullivan, Artists with Helium Arts, discuss their experiences of working with children and young people through the arts in healthcare settings in Galway.
Opportunity
The Irish Hospice Foundation has announced that applications for the Design & Dignity Grant Round 5 are now open.
News
Unmasked, a wall art installation by street artist Asbestos, was recently unveiled at St James’s Hospital in Dublin.
Event
Join us on 28 June for an online conversation exploring arts for children in healthcare contexts.
Event
Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, has announced a national symposium on creativity, health and wellbeing co-hosted by the Creative Ireland Programme, the Department of Health (Healthy Ireland), the Health Service Executive and the Arts Council.
Opportunity
Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) is seeking to recruit an Arts in Health Programme Administrator to provide administrative assistance to the Arts in Health Programme.
Opportunity
Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) has issued an open call to artists of all arts disciplines to apply to be Artist in Residence at University Hospital Waterford (UHW) in 2022.
News
Arts and health practice often involves engaging with people who are far from home and familiar spaces: encounters by the hospital bedside, in a communal room with others we have never have met, or increasingly in the virtual realm where we try to read each other across a screen of faces.
News
This month’s Spotlight is on the Connolly Collective art group at Connolly Hospital, Blandchardstown.
News
artsandhealth.ie is delighted to announce the recipient of the artsandhealth.ie Documentation Bursary 2017: Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust, visual artist Marielle MacLeman and filmmaker Tom Flanagan for the documentation of the Dialysis Arts Programme at Merlin Park University Hospital, Galway.
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