Art-Lift

Art-Lift brought artists and patients together across Gloucestershire between March and September 2007. Part of the project involved was managed by Willis Newson through Arts in Trust and involved three artist residencies. Poet Brenda Read-Brown helped patients and carers in Oncology Outpatients at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital to create their own heart-warming, funny and moving poems. Francis Bossom and the patients of the Head & Neck Surgical Ward produced a collage transforming images of the ward into an array of spectacular sites including a funfair, a rambler’s delight and a surfer’s ocean. Ceramic artist Karen Hilliard worked with patients at Ermin Neurological Centre to produce beautiful ceramic figures, now installed around the gardens at the Centre. The project was evaluated by the University of the West of England and was so successful that Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust agreed to fund a further three years of Art-Lift in GP surgeries.