Project: Art in Large Doses

In 2017, first year BA Culture, Criticism and Curation students worked on ‘Art in Large Doses,’ a project with Paintings in Hospitals, whose collection of over 4,000 museum-quality artworks in hospitals, care homes, GP surgeries and cancer centres across the UK bring comfort and reassurance to over 1.8 million people a year.

The culmination of the project was Nature Calls, curated by students Sumin Cho, Markas Klisius, Yuxiao Luo, Yeline Mehaji and Joel Thompson. This public exhibition is currently running at King’s College London NHS Health Centre until May 2018, and aims to disrupt the clinical feel of an NHS waiting room by contrasting it with images of nature and landscapes to create a mental escape for patients. The exhibition was chosen by a panel of judges from a number of proposals by first year student groups.

“Using art to create care environments that encourage, enrich and empower people is key to safeguarding the wellbeing of patients, services users and care staff across the UK. It has been great to see the bold and original ideas of these talented students that will ultimately shape the future of arts in health.”

Amisha Karia – Head of Collections & Programming
Paintings in Hospitals

The initial phase of this project included an exhibition at Menier Chocolate Factory Gallery, of all student group proposals, during Creativity and Wellbeing Week in June 2017.

“When I first began studying at CSM, I would have never thought that we would be collaborating with a hospital. This project has allowed us to explore an entirely different context to that of a gallery or a museum, where you know that most visitors come to see art. In a hospital, nobody is expecting to see art, this changes the way you approach things completely.”

Koey (First Year BA Culture, Criticism and Curation student)

Read more about Nature Calls and its student curators.