Hospitals Talking Art (1995-96)
By
Martyn Lucas
Book cover image by Susannah Silver incorporating one of the art exchange packages.
A visual dialogue between young people in hospital in Aberdeen and London.
Between September 1995 and March 1996, ‘Visual Dialogue’ was established as a conversation through art between young people in the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital, London.
Patients aged between six and seventeen sent each other drawings, paintings, photographs, postcards, letters, collages and objects describing their home environment, their interests and life in hospital. Paintings and drawings from Aberdeen depicted oil rigs, fishing and arriving at hospital by Sea-king helicopter from remote parts of northern Scotland. Art sent from London included the experience of children from Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the UK, receiving specialist treatment at the Royal Free.
The exchange was coordinated and facilitated by Martyn Lucas, a painter and community artist, in his role as youth worker at the Royal Free Hospital, London, in collaboration with George Galbraith, the visiting art specialist at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital. The concept of linking two hospitals through an exchange of art was developed by Martyn Lucas through his participation in ‘Taming Goliath’, an artist-led initiative conceived by Susannah Silver at The Centre for Research in Art & Design, The Robert Gordon University, to develop opportunities for interaction between artists and new audiences in Aberdeen.
The publication ‘Hospitals Talking Art: Recording the Visual Dialogue (1997, ISBN 1 901085 13 9) documents the process and resultant public exhibition, with interviews, diary entries and reflections by the artists and is available on request.
To view an excerpt of the Hospitals Talking Art publication, see below.
