Fresh Arts

Fresh Arts is the arts programme for Frenchay and Southmead Hospitals. It was devised and run by Willis Newson. Now well-established, it improves patient well-being and enriches the working lives of staff through exhibitions, a successful arts club, environmental projects and an expanding art collection.

Bristol Heart Institute

The public art strategy developed by Willis Newson for the Bristol Heart Institute won the Building Better Healthcare Award for the Best use of Visual Art in Healthcare 2009. Eight integrated artworks support the patient’s journey through the building, make it feel less clinical and create a sense of local ownership and pride.

Arts at Callington Road

Three resident artists – a poet, a musician and a visual artist – worked with mental health service users and staff at Callington Road Hospital in Bristol in a participatory arts project developed and managed by Willis Newson.

GRASP

More than 250 children, 30 teachers and 20 hospital staff members took part in GRASP, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital’s Artists in School Programme. This imaginative partnership between education and health sectors and the arts provided health education, built new skills, raised confidence, and gave a lot of pleasure.

Southmead Learning & Research and Pathology

Willis Newson developed and delivered a public art strategy for the development of new Learning & Research and Pathology buildings on the Southmead Hospital site in Bristol. Entering early to the design process, we were able to commission artists to work alongside the architects and building contractors.

Light Box/The Happiness Project

Light Box provides free 'Happiness Workshops' to the general public and on referral. Willis Newson helped Light Box to develop an effective and appropriate framework for evaluating its work, focusing on embedding the necessary tools and skills within the team to ensure that evaluation contributes to, and becomes a sustainable part of, the everyday delivery of the project.

Latest News

New artwork inspired by children

Artwork by Seamus Staunton, developed and inspired by practical workshops with local children, has just been installed at the Children’s Hearing Centre at St Michael’s Hospital, Bristol.