Narratives of Care: USW Artwork

A new collection of Artworks for St Woolos Hospital – May 2019

Narratives of Care: Past Present Future

A new collection of Artworks for St Woolos Hospital – May 2019

In May 2019, we welcomed students from University South Wales and their team to celebrate the unveiling of 18 new pieces of work for the Level 0 corridor of the Casnewydd Unit, St Woolos Hospital.

Interim Director of Nursing Martine Price opened the exhibition and thanked the students for their hard work. Members of staff had the opportunity to meet the students and talk about their ideas. Everyone agreed that the artwork made a big difference to the corridor and added to the collection of artworks on Levels 1 and 2.

The artworks were made as part of the students’ Year 2 ‘Open Call’ module where they were asked to respond to a brief set by Sarah Goodey, Arts Development Manager for Gwent Arts in Health and ABUHB which focussed on the NHS and the future of healthcare.

The students visited the hospital in January to learn more about the environment, and to meet staff, patients and members of the Gwent Retirement Fellowship at a special tea party where the visitors shared memories and ideas, and took part in creative activities that fed the students’ imagination. The students have had support and professional guidance from Sarah and from the Studio Response team who are supporting the Arts Programme for The Grange University Hospital where some of the students’ work may be shown in the future.

The artwork in the corridors provides a destination for those patients who wish to leave their ward environments for a short while, and for visitors and staff. Individual artworks are used as markers by OT staff who are working with patients and their mobility. A guide to the whole collection will be available to all OT and ward staff at St Woolos later on in the summer. 

The artwork was installed by Kev and Jamie from Martin Platt’s Maintenance team, and the event was supported by Facilities at St Woolos – a big thanks to everyone who supported this project!

You can see a video of images from the celebration here.

This project is one of many arts, health and wellbeing initiatives that are delivered by Garth and ABUHB – if you would like more information, please contact us.