Art programme for Southmead Hospital takes shape

2 May 2013

 

Things are really starting to take shape for the public art programme at the new Southmead Hospital.  Internationally renowned artists including Jaime Hayon,  Laura Ford, Jacqueline Poncelet, Peter Randall-Page, Tobias Rehberger and Ally Wallace have been commissioned to create works that will feature in the public areas and will also be used to help people find their way around the building, as well as enhance the hospital and its grounds. 
Welsh artist Laura Ford has created a series of sculptures featuring animals with ailments, including a lion with a sore paw, which will take pride of place on the grassy area near the main entrance to the hospital. He will be joined by a monkey with a sore head, a bear with a bad back and other creatures. 
Arts programme manager Ruth Sidgwick said: “It is so exciting; I just can’t wait until the hospital opens because I don’t think staff will know themselves in this space. It is really marvellous. It is going to make staff feel valued, and patients. It will be a better space to work in.”
Watch a video of the casting of Laura Ford’s ‘The Lion’ at the Castle Fine Arts Foundry (hyperlink to https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e7aa83HuuDE) 
Read an article about the art programme that appeared in the Bristol Evening Post (hyperlink to http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Life-size-animal-statues-unveiled-new-Southmead/story-18857405-detail/story.html)
The hospital, which is due to open in 2014, is being built as part of a private finance initiative with developers Carillion and will bring services from Frenchay and Southmead together under one roof. Willis Newson is managing the £1.1million  public art programme and, in commissioning work for the hospital Concourse, Lime Tree Avenue and the Square, we have worked with Theresa Bergne of Field Art Projects. To find out more about the new hospital artworks visit www.nbt.nhs.uk/newhospital.

Things are really starting to take shape for the public art programme at the new Southmead Hospital.  Internationally renowned artists including Jaime Hayon,  Laura Ford, Jacqueline Poncelet, Peter Randall-Page, Tobias Rehberger and Ally Wallace have been commissioned to create works that will feature in the public areas and will also be used to help people find their way around the building, as well as enhance the hospital and its grounds.

Laura FordLaura Ford has created a series of sculptures featuring animals with ailments, including a lion with a sore paw, which will take pride of place on the grassy area near the main entrance to the hospital. He will be joined by a monkey with a sore head, a bear with a bad back and other creatures. 

Arts programme manager Ruth Sidgwick said: “It is so exciting; I just can’t wait until the hospital opens because I don’t think staff will know themselves in this space. It is really marvellous. It is going to make staff feel valued, and patients. It will be a better space to work in.”

 

Watch a video of the casting of Laura Ford’s ‘The Lion’ at the Castle Fine Arts Foundry.

Read an article about the art programme that appeared in the Bristol Evening Post.

The hospital, which is due to open in 2014, is being built as part of a private finance initiative with developers Carillion and will bring services from Frenchay and Southmead together under one roof. Willis Newson is managing the £1.1million  public art programme and, in commissioning work for the hospital Concourse, Lime Tree Avenue and the Square, we have worked with Theresa Bergne of Field Art Projects. To find out more about the new hospital artworks visit www.nbt.nhs.uk/newhospital.

Photography by Tracey Fahy. Images show Laura Ford with a wax model of 'Lion'.