Large Scale Mural Unveiled At The Recovery College
Enforcing the relationship between art and mental health recovery
Hospital Rooms is continuing its collaboration with South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust to transform the innovative Recovery College at Springfield University Hospital.
Artist and Hospital Rooms co-founder Tim A Shaw will create a temporary large scale mural for both the exterior and interior spaces of the college, as well as working with ColArt to programme a series of tailored art workshops for students that will run between October and December 2016.
The mural and artworks by students will be unveiled during World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2016.
The Recovery College was the first of its kind in the UK and leads courses for 1,000 students per year who have experienced self-harm, dementia, personality disorders, depression, eating disorders, schizophrenia, trauma or abuse.
Medical Director Dr Emma Whicher said, “The artwork the Hospital Rooms created on our Phoenix ward really engaged our patients, carers and staff. We are really pleased to be working with them again on this exciting project.
The environment you are in has a considerable impact on your well-being. This project is an opportunity to breathe new life into the old Recovery College whilst work is being completed on building our brand new college facilities which will be ready in 2018.
We are keen to ensure that our new facilities carry on this exciting relationship with art and recovery.”
Borrowing the colour schemes from key international museums such as Tate Britain, Tate Modern, MOMA, the Guggenheim, the Matisse Museum and many more, Shaw will create a large scale geometric mural that leads from the outside to the inside of the building. He will include a series of rectangles and squares in the design, which will act as ‘frames’ for the artworks produced by students in the workshops. These artworks will be created using high quality art materials, which have been generously donated by ColArt, and hung in the same manner as the exhibitions in the museums that Shaw has referenced. The mural will be an extension of the Phoenix Gallery, a dedicated art space designed by Shaw that was created for the Phoenix Unit at SWLSTG after many service users asked for a place to exhibit their own work.
Through this project, Hospital Rooms and SWLSTG aim to increase mental health groups’ access to art and culture, encourage positive senses of self and facilitate community identification. By composing a vibrant visual identity for the college, encouraging artistic activity on site and providing a meaningful place for the display of students’ artworks, we hope to support the Recovery College’s values of hope, control and opportunity.
This project aims to rejuvenate the Recovery College building before it is relocated to a new site in 2018 where the artistic environments and activities will continue to be championed and facilitated with students, staff and the local community.
This project is funded by the Arts Council England and is supported with both volunteer days and art materials by international art manufacturing company ColArt.
Hospital Rooms is a registered charity which was co-founded by artist Tim A Shaw and curator Niamh White in 2016, Hospital Rooms promotes the improved health and wellbeing of mental health service users through the provision of high quality art installations and creative activity. They actively co-produce projects with artists, mental health service users and mental health practitioners to capitalise on different streams of knowledge and create solutions to particular social needs.
September 30, 2016