Arts in health: Choosing art for healing environments

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As the new Peterborough City Hospital approaches practical completion this Summer, the Trust’s art steering group, including Nightingale Associates representatives, has chosen two artists to provide artwork for selected areas of the new-build.

Nightingale Associates discussing the project. Stills taken from the planning film by Living Projects.

Dan Savage and Linda Schwab have been selected to provide wall and glazing treatments throughout Peterborough’s new City Hospital, which has been designed by Nightingale Associates under contractor, Brookfield Construction (UK) Ltd.

Incorporating art into the healing environments is more than hanging aesthetic pictures on the walls; for Peterborough & Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust it’s been a two-year long programme, providing the opportunity to create an appealing healthcare environment as well as building identity for individual departments and aiding wayfinding.

The artist selection process has come to fruition following two years of planning. Dan Savage will provide wall and glazing treatments in the children’s out-patient department, adolescent in-patient, emergency centre, bereavement suite centre and NICU.

Dan Savage will provide wall and glazing treatments in the children’s out-patient department, adolescent in-patient, emergency centre, bereavement suite centre and NICU.

Linda Schwab will provide artwork for haematology and oncology unit, waiting area, children’s waiting day treatment unit, children’s waiting area in the head and neck unit and glazing in the faith centre. 

Linda Schwab will provide artwork for haematology and oncology unit, waiting area, children’s waiting day treatment unit.

The locations identified by Nightingale Associates’ architects and the Trust as priority areas for artistic embellishment were chosen according to the service they provide – or particular needs for patients, staff and visitors.

Nightingale Associates’ Interior Design Lead, Elizabeth Petrovitch, believes the effect of artwork upon children’s recovery cannot be underestimated.

Nightingale Associates’ Interior Design Lead, Elizabeth Petrovitch, said: “The children’s departments feature high in the priority art areas as the effect of artwork and bright colour themes upon children’s recovery cannot be underestimated.”

Freelance arts consultant, Emma Larkinson, has been employed by the Trust. She has helped put together a longlist of artists. She is also a member of the arts steering group including Trust representatives, Nightingale Associates, contractor representatives and user groups members. But it wasn’t as simple as picking the best three artists by a demographic vote; other factors had to be considered.

“There are always challenges for artists working in public contexts,” says Emma, “Within healthcare there are limitations that come with restricted use of materials.  In addition there are often strongly held identities for wards and groups of staff and patients, which means there is often a directional design brief. The best artists are those that are able to identify the opportunity for a creative response that results in a unique environment that people can relate to.’

The art needed to respond to the building’s natural lighting and design features. It needed to be engaging, potentially educational, flexible and able to respond to different environments within the hospital – as well as meeting the relevant technical specifications and infection control methods.

The new hospital offers new facilities but also a refreshed visual language for the healthcare environment.  Wayfinding and orientation are a key area of the patient experience and this has been addressed by the wayfinding and interior design strategy.  A positive contribution to a locally relevant design language has been made by Nightingale Associates in their design of wayfinding symbols.

Wayfinding symbols designed by Nightingale Associates.

Not only do these art projects contribute to the patient experience, they have also provided the opportunity for staff to engage with arts practitioners in order to express and explore key areas of interest through art commissions – resulting in more unique work environments. 

Wayfinding symbols designed by Nightingale Associates reflect buildings of local importance.

While visual arts form the backbone of the arts strategy, the new hospital’s relationship with the community it serves through the building’s art and other activities has been explored.  Students from a local school  are creating paintings for particularly areas, temporary exhibitions and installations will be incorporated through partnerships with the local museum and art gallery and even hospital staff are creating artwork for the staff spaces.

There will also be a local photography competition based around wayfinding themes and an arts film by Richard Mullane at ‘Living Projects’  using local landscapes and communities. 

“A well considered piece of art can instill feelings of hope, comfort, reflection and joy. It is a window out of the highly functional world of the hospital, a break from the thoughts and feelings associated with a hospital visit,” adds Elizabeth.

The art is planned to be installed by the end of the year but the art programme will continue through the Trust after the handover in Autumn.

From the top, images show Nightingale ’s Matthias Peretz, Elizabeth Petrovitch and Emma White discussing the project. Stills taken from the planning film by Living Projects; Dan Savage’s artwork; Linda Schwab’s artwork; wayfinding symbols designed by Nightingale Associates 

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