The arts can lift hospital spaces from acceptable to exceptional. Our goal is to create welcoming, positive and inspiring environments that surpass expectations and play a genuine role in patient care.
We work closely with architects to weave the arts through every aspect of a new hospital’s design, from landscaping and interior design to wayfinding schemes and commissioned artworks. The introduction of an Arts Strategy at the earliest stages of the planning process ensures that the arts are strategically integrated into our new hospitals from the outset. This allows us to maximise budgets and create a cohesive vision for each new hospital environment.
At the very beginning of the journey for each major project we engage creatively with staff and patients in order to develop an Arts Strategy that is bespoke and site-specific. This allows us to create healing, humanising environments that feel personal and relevant to the communities who will use them in the years ahead.
For each major project we develop an ambitious art commissioning programme with a mission to create a collection of commissions and interventions united by strong curatorial concepts. We engage professional artists who are recognised as outstanding in their field and involve staff and patients in every stage of the commissioning process.
Enhancing the Healing Environment programme (NHS Estates, Department for Health and the Kings Fund) found that outcomes for art and design include:
- improvement in the ways in which people relate to each other and navigate buildings
- changed ambience, positive distraction and an increased sense of calm
- positive impact on staff and patient wellbeing
- improvement in staff morale and retention
- innovative approaches to patient involvement
We are currently delivering work for Cambridge Children’s Hospital (opens in a new tab) and Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital (opens in a new tab).
Creative engagement
We are pioneering a new way of engaging with patients and staff in the consultation process. We commission top creatives to help us hold conversations and think about different topics through making and creating. Creative engagement can…
- make the consultation process more accessible and inclusive
- be a positive, enjoyable and meaningful experience for participants in its own right
- deepen our understanding of the needs of people with lived experience
- help to communicate non-verbal information to the design team and enhance the results of the consultation
- lead to genuine co-production
Sometimes it's hard to know where to begin with a subject as emotive as school, and I've found that the creative tasks have helped me vocalise the issues [we] faced and how things could be improved for children in the future.
Parent, creative engagement workshop with CUH Arts and Cambridge Children’s Hospital schools workstream
Get involved
Interested to find our more or take part in future projects? Contact Ellen from the CUH arts team!