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The 2025 National Arts in Hospitals Network conference in York:
“Reciprocal Funambulists – Balancing Creativity and Care”

Reflections on the conference by Lorna Collins, NAHN Coordinator:  

Roll up, roll up to the circus of creativity! At this year’s National Art in Hospitals Network Conference, held at the York Art Gallery, we saw clinicians and artists working together on a tightrope to deliver healthcare enhanced and navigated by engaging with creativity, imagination and solidarity. The event was hosted by the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s Arts Team in partnership with York Museums Trust and supported by Arts Council England.

The York Gallery was filled with stalls of colourful curios, like magical cabinets at a circus, called “The Greatest Show of Care, Wonderful Worlds”. These stalls presented hospital arts programmes celebrating the dazzling, delicate and daring acts behind arts in hospitals and healthcare. Including dancers, jokers, visual and musical artists, these artists and arts in health practitioners raised the tone of the conference to be light and fun, on a tightrope, because their practices are so real, serious and meaningful for the patients they support.

In this way, the conference opened the opportunity for participants to walk along the fine line between art and care. We explored thehospital not only as a site of treatment, but as a powerful space for balancing care, compassion and connection. The main theme for the conference was to hold up the hospital as a space for reciprocity – using art and creativity to facilitate giving and taking the best form of healthcare.

As a prelude to the conference, we assembled at York Hospital for a tour of the art across the hospital site. With extraordinary, colourful and intuitive artworks lining the walls of the corridors, and a number of carefully designed, nourishing gardens, we saw how art and nature enhance hospital life – for patients and all staff members who work here.

One highlight of the tour was Lu Mason’s bright rag rug All Together Now, celebrating 75 years of the NHS, made from old staff uniforms. This piece was created during the COVID pandemic; it represents the whole hospital community coming together in the extreme…we are all together now.

Another highlight was seeing the beautiful, calming Peace Garden, which has rails and space for patients’ beds to be pushed around it. This garden was created with staff to encourage engagement with the outdoor space, connection with others and reflection during COVID times. It was fortifying to see how such powerful and nourishing works of art and community practices were built during the pandemic, which continue to enhance hospital life now.

After seeing such lush, revitalising visual delights around the hospital, we went to York Gallery for the start of the conference. Griselda Goldsbrough, Art and Design Development Manager at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, kicked things off. Dressed on theme as a circus master, beneath her bold top hat, she said, “Like funambulists on a tightrope, we work with tension, risk, precision and joy navigating the challenges of healthcare with a creativity, imagination and solidarity.”

Participants wore stickers which divided us into groups – we were either clowns or acrobats, sent to a particular activity. The day proceeded with the opportunity to see artists and musicians perform, who came from across the York and Scarborough regions, and hear keynote talks. The gallery became a buzzing nexus for bold, fun, live opportunities to be creative.

Nicola Gill’s keynote, “The Art of Medicine”, was interesting and inspiring, as she discussed both the clinical and human dimensions of using art as a catalyst for learning about uncertainty and being human. Nicola has used art and creativity as resources in her work as a GP and medical educator for 25 years. Nicola said, “Art bathes us in positivity, improving wellbeing and health outcomes.” Nicola described how art is a powerful tool for doctors to reflect on what it is like to be a patient, and how important art is in medical education, by facilitating learning and using art as a catalyst for change.

Francois Matarasso’s powerful keynote, “Co-creation and recovery”, discussed how cultural participation and the creation of art “are a human right, not a privilege”. François Matarasso has worked in co-creation for 45 years, as a community artist, producer, researcher, consultant, trainer and trustee. He said, in the context of art and healthcare: “There is only us. There is no them. We sink or swim together. […] We are all recovering. We just need each other’s help to do it.”

These invigorating words set us up to go boldly around “The Greatest Show of Care, Wonderful Worlds” of hospital arts programmes, pitted around the gallery. There was so much stimulus, celebrating the dazzling, delicate and daring acts behind arts in hospitals and healthcare.

I summarise a few of the standout moments in my journey through the circus.

I met Dan Savage, Healthcare Designer, who was wearing a long red coat. His act was called “Tame the beast”. Behind his dashing circus veneer, Dan had serious things to say about how to make arts programmes work well in hospitals. He said, “You need to make sure that the art is integrated in hospitals at the planning stage. Making space cohesive on the hospital ward helps the healthcare journey for patient be more coherent. In trying to structure a project, the artist needs to work closely with contractors. You also need to navigate infection control, health and safety, cladding, and more.”

Ruth Allen presented her work as an occupational therapist using art at Foss Park, a local mental health hospital. She described how she uses art on the four wards in this hospital and the manifold benefits that the art groups have for the patients: it gives them confidence, they can relax, it provides respite from trauma, it opens pathways out of hospital. She also described the ‘Sketchbook circle’ at the York art gallery (run by the conference maître Griselda Goldsbrough), providing an inclusive, welcoming space for people in the community.

On the first floor, I saw Nduka Omeife drawing a beautiful portrait, quietly and with compassion exuding from his fingers and his composure. I stopped and breathed in – here was a calm microcosm amidst the circus exuberance all around us. Nduka draws portraits of NHS staff members – I saw some of his exquisite pieces lining walls of the hospital on the tour, earlier this morning.

In a little nook, I then found another piece of tranquillity with the shrine of sound therapy presented by Gemma Hargreaves. Gemma sat on stool, surrounded by her collection of singing bowls, gongs, chimes, strings and tuning forks. She gave an introduction about how her holistic practice of using harmonious, melodic sounds supports patients and staff in multiple healthcare settings. Then she began to play. Her chimes and bowls sounded such deeply relaxing and revitalising, resonant frequencies. I felt utterly taken away.

Music was perhaps the standout moment of the conference, with Gemma’s extraordinary sounds, and also from Chris Bartram, the York Community Musician. He had a mere 15-minute slot to bring all conference participants together to perform as a choir. I don’t know how he did it. Now I can’t actually sing (at all), but

I felt roused to sing as loudly as possible – we all did. Somehow, as we sang a stirring tune, we were united. It was great fun and so empowering. As artist Lu Mason presented in her piece that we saw in the hospital gallery at the beginning:

All together now.

NAHN team at the conference: Laura Waters (NAHN director), Griselda Goldsbrough (Art and Design Development Manager, York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust), Guy Noble (NAHN director), Lorna Collins (NAHN co-ordinator)

(photographs by Elly Ross and Lorna Collins)