CASE STUDIES – NSW Health Infrastructure Arts and Health Award
2023 Winner
Gallery/ Museum/ Aboriginal cultural centre
Boomalli Aboriginal Artist Cooperative
Hospital / Local Health District
St Vincent’s Hospital, St Vincents Health Network
Partnership Project
Cultural Safety for Emergency Department
Artist led consultation with Aboriginal stakeholders for aesthetic interventions in emergency department waiting rooms.
The St Vincent’s Hospital Emergency Department waiting room serves a multitude of community members, including a high number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. While some efforts have been made to make this a culturally competent, welcoming space, it can still be intimidating and confronting for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members.
St Vincent’s Arts Health program, in collaboration with Boomalli Aboriginal Artist Cooperative, will manage a first-stage artist-led, community consultation process to explore potential aesthetic interventions to be incorporated into St Vincent’s Emergency Department waiting rooms.
At the end of the consultation process, an artist from Boomalli Aboriginal Artist Cooperative will create a visual response to the workshop’s outcomes. This artwork will be exhibited alongside workshop outcomes to highlight the process and developmental work undertaken to invite further input and feedback from community members.
Recipient of the 2022 Health Infrastructure Arts in Health Award
2022 Winner
Gallery/ Museum/ Aboriginal cultural centre
Gosford Regional Gallery
Hospital / Local Health District
Gosford Hospital, Central Coast LHD
Partnership Project
Weaving for Wellbeing
Artist weaving workshops to bring the Workforce and Patients together to support wellbeing outcomes
Gosford Regional Gallery was the recipient of the inaugural 2022 Health Infrastructure Arts in Health Award to assist delivery of arts programs for the Gosford Hospital. The engagement with Gosford Hospital started in 2017 and includes a large temporary exhibition space in which they program 5-6 art exhibitions per year. Previous programs have included engaging artists to work with specific sections within the hospital, such as the Cancer Centre or the Nunyara Aboriginal Health Unit.
As part of the project, 3 artists (2 First Nations) were engaged to facilitate a series of workshops across Orthopaedics, Vascular Surgery, Palliative Care, Inpatient Mental Health Unit and Paediatric Inpatient Unit wards, supporting Patient and Workforce wellbeing outcomes.
The culmination of the project will be an exhibition of collaborative weaving works displayed both in the exhibition space and in the wards where workshops were conducted. The outcome exhibition will promote a sense of ownership and pride within the hospital as a sense of place.
Gallery/ Museum/ Aboriginal cultural centre
Ngnunggula with Red Room Poetry
Hospital / Local Health District
Bowral Hospital, South West Sydney LHD
Partnership Project
First Nations Welcome Project, Bowral Hospital
Providing a sense of warm welcome to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal patients, staff and carers through visual arts, language and poetry within the new Outpatients Centre was facilitated by Red Room Poetry at Ngnunggula. The Gallery hosted a series of workshops for schools, Elders and community to come together to create works for the Outpatients Service, Emergency Department and Dreaming Garden.
Gallery/ Museum/ Aboriginal cultural centre
Tweed Regional Art Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre
Hospital / Local Health District
Tweed Valley Hospital, Northern NSW LHD
Partnership Project
Artist and Community Engagement for New Tweed Valley Hospital
Connecting the Tweed Valley community to the new hospital through a much loved cultural institution and creative talent was a key focus for the Arts in Health Strategy. The Gallery’s support in attracting artists led to the largest single response for any NSW Health project at the time with more than 50 artists applying for creative projects. In total, 30 artists were commissioned, and more than 80 artworks were created, inside and out. In addition, the Gallery hosted a series of workshops for lead artist Hiromi Tango appointed to the main entry of the hospital – more than 500 community members contributed to this one artwork Healing Garden, alone.
Gallery/ Museum/ Aboriginal cultural centre
Art Gallery of NSW
Hospital / Local Health District
Harden, Tumbarumba and Culcairn Multi-Purpose Services (MPS), Residential Aged Care, Murrumbidgee LHD
Partnership Project
MPS Arts Pilot Project
The pilot program is modelled on similar Art Gallery of New South Wales programs created for people with a lived experience of dementia and consists of a curated display of 20 high quality, framed reproductions and an associated program of purposeful activities and materials at each facility to engage aged care residents in self-guided, one-on-one and group activities led by trained staff. These are rotated annually so that residents can enjoy the full collection of 60 artworks and associated activities.
The program supports non-pharmacological approaches within residential aged care settings. Research indicates engagement with the arts for those living with dementia, stimulates brain function resulting in improved speech, which is important for communication with families, staff and residents to engage with each other. This has positive benefits on many of the behavioural impacts of a dementia diagnosis.
Importantly, the program’s social and cultural approach provides a meaningful way for aged care residents to connect with others, particularly during periods of isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Innovative approaches that maintain communication and relationships are vital to ensure ongoing connection with communities.
Gallery/ Museum/ Aboriginal cultural centre
Campbelltown Art Centre
Hospital / Local Health District
Campbelltown Hospital, South West Sydney LHD
Partnership Project
What should a hospital feel like?
For the Campbelltown Hospital Redevelopment, South West Sydney LHD worked in partnership with Campbelltown Arts Centre to commission two lead artists – Erica Seccombe and Nicole Monks – to co-design and co-create across community in a series of workshops. The artworks created as part of this process were developed by artists and architects Billard Leece Partnership at mass scale across the hospital inside and out. The project was awarded 2023 Winner European Healthcare Design Awards – Art and Interior Design, and Mental Health.
Gallery/ Museum/ Aboriginal cultural centre
Maitland Regional Art Gallery
Hospital / Local Health District
Maitland Hospital, Hunter New England LHD
Partnership Project
A Conspicuous Object – The Maitland Hospital
Curated by Janis Wilton and Joe Eisenberg, the exhibition and dedicated website was staged in 2021/22 to honour the last 170 years of the Maitland Hospital prior to its closure at High Street, one of NSW longest continuing health services.
Staff, volunteers, patients, and the community were all invited to share their memories about the hospital with ten celebrated artists who produced work in response to these stories, resulting in a collection of paintings, sculptures, photographs and stories.
The exhibition included works by G.W. Bot, Linda Greedy, Oliver Harlan, Anita Johnson, Adrian Lockhart, Catharine Neilson, Peter O’Doherty, Susan O’Doherty, Peter Poulet, and Lesley Salem.
Gallery/ Museum/ Aboriginal cultural centre
Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre
Hospital / Local Health District
South West Sydney LHD, Western Sydney University and the Exodus Foundation
Partnership Project
Men’s Health Week 2022 – Men’s Stories exhibition
To celebrate Men’s Health Week, South-West Sydney Local Health District, Casula Powerhouse, Western Sydney University and the Exodus Foundation mounted an exhibition about men’s stories of overcoming challenges in life such as migration, unemployment, mental illness and discrimination.
The project showcased photos and accompanying text-based stories of local men who have bravely spoken publicly about dealing with personal crises, recovery or other challenges.
Mark Tayar’s story was part of the exhibition: ‘As gay man, coming out of the closet was really hard, but coming out of the mental health closet was even harder, because the stigma is more intense against mental illness than the gay community. When someone says you’re schizophrenic, you don’t have to take on that label. Coming out and sharing your story is very important. Coming out to yourself first and then to others’, Mark explained.
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The NSW Health Infrastructure Arts and Health Award is proudly supported by NSW Health Infrastructure.
