Alexandre Santacruz, Dean Reddick, Katy Sayers Green and Vaiva Kovieraitė - Art of Caring 2020

Welcome to the Art of Caring 2020. Today we introduce the work of 4 artists who have contributed work to this year's exhibition.... Alexandre Santacruz, Dean Reddick, Katy Sayers Green and Vaiva Kovieraitė. The Art of Caring is an annual inclusive international art exhibition celebrating Nurses, Midwives, Carers, and the NHS. Thank you to the School of Nursing at Kingston University for their support.

Alexandre Santacruz
"Throughout my live, and in the most difficult moments of my battle with ill health, all the suffering has always been magically minimised; with the never ending care, dedication, hard work and skill from Nurses and Carers. To all of them I owe eternal gratitude; as without them I wouldn't be here!"

 Through different mediums, including collage, I explore the relationship between people in society.
Sex, gender, mental health issues  and identity are part of people’s everyday life but not always accepted or understood in their broad possibility of existence.
How much do we truly know about people around us, what’s going on their private existences behind closed doors? How different we can be on the outside; from what society allows us to freely be?
Throughout life, and while memories shape our identity, we all thrive to change misconceptions of our own self; projecting freedom and fairness all across the human race without judgements or fears
What a difference it would make if identity wasn’t a mere way of acceptance, filtered and observed under a magnifying glass by society, but a way to fully express and complement with acceptance of natural human nature
I resource all my materials in a recycling way from charity shops to flea markets and street finds; looking for past lives to shine through and help me create and show my vision.
The vision I have is about all of us.
Instagram @alexandresantacruz 

 Dean Reddick

Vaiva Kovieraitė

Website: http://vaivakovieraite.weebly.com

Social media: Facebook/Instagram - vaivakovieraite

Katy Sayers Green 

Art of Caring 2019 opens at St George's Hospital

The Art of Caring opened today at St George's Hospital in Tooting, London. It features over 250 artworks and wool words on the subject of Care and Caring. The exhibition, now in its 5th year, helps celebrate International Nurses Day on the 12th May. This year’s theme is ‘Health for All’. It includes the work of creative people of all ages, from artists to nurses, and from people who have experience of being a carer  and/or a service user.

You can find the exhibition on the First Floor, Lanesborough Wing, (Outside Ingredients Restaurant) at St George’s Hospital, London, SW17 0QT. The work will be on the walls from 10th May - 14th June 2019 so please come along and have a look. You can find all the artists exhibiting on our ARTISTS page.

You can view more photos HERE.

This year we asked nursing students at Kingston University and St George's University of London to come up with one word that they felt reflected the inspirational work done by the charity Nurse Reaching Out. They wrote their chosen word in wool, in their chosen language, reflecting the diversity of the students and the charity - reflecting  this years International Nurse Day theme: a truly inclusive “Health For All.”

Nurse Reaching Out founder Michelle Grainger visited Uganda in 2007 with colleagues and was moved to do something more after seeing how pregnant women were unable to access the hospital care they needed unless they bought their own soap, string and a razor - which they couldn’t afford. NRO now provides these items in their maternity packs and the maternal death rate has fallen as a result. They also joined forces with the "Fish and chip baby’ initiative - a term coined after babies born in the poorest areas of Africa were found wrapped in newspaper to keep warm. The mother’s had no clothes for their tiny newborns,  leaving hospital with them still wrapped in the newspaper and with reduced hopes of survival. A network was established by Michelle that utilises the knitting skills of volunteers from around the UK and beyond. NRO now sends these knitted items to Ugandan health care colleagues for those Mum’s and babies in need.  www.nursesreachingout.org

Thank you to Bryan Benge, Alban Low, Dean Reddick and Jackie Belle who helped install the exhibition. Thank you to all the staff at St George's who have already sent us messages of support.

Kindly supported by Kingston University and St George's,  University of London

Art of Caring opens ay St Pancras Hospital

Ella Penn

Last night (20/07/2017) we officially opened the Art of Caring at St Pancras Hospital with a fantastic summer's evening of wine and song. The exhibition started as a postcard show at St George's Hospital way back in May but here it took on a new life. St Pancras curators Peter Herbert and Elaine Harper-Gay brought together many of the postcards again but also a healthy slice of original work by the artists involved.

There were many eye-catching contributions, including David Marron's Fentanyl Dreams, and Mark Carr's two paintings from his Cup of Life series. Two sculptural pieces which captured the attention of the Private View revellers were Louise O'Boyle's glass domed world and the Melanie Ezra and Graham Parker hand that reached out from beyond the a mirror. Once again Herbert and Harper-Gay had engineered an artistic exhibition that broke boundaries, creating a new exciting physical space but also an emotional world that talked of compassion and shared experience.

artwork by

Melanie Ezra and

Graham Parker

Many of the artists exhibiting were also in attendance. This was Caroline Streatfield Chalk's first exhibition with CollectCollect, while Ella Penn is a die-hard of the CollectConnect inclusive genre and has been exhibiting with us for more than 5 years. Penn had brought along Freya, the subject of her Alopecia Tableau, to join in the opening night celebrations. Aran Illingworth had sold two of her beautiful textile pieces by the end of the night, as had the famous Stuckist and Outsider artist John Sheehy. Chris Brown and Dean Reddick chatted amiably to the gallery visitors, and David Napier was on hand to demonstrate his ceramic chessboard/backgammon set.

The Sensory Garden was full of visitors and just by its entrance was Jill Rock and her challenging work Duty of Care. Many more of the artists were in attendance, thank you to everyone who was there to make this night such a success. We had speeches from Caroline Harris-Birtles (C&I Director of Nursing) Andrew Machin, (Associate Director and Charity Development Project Manager from The Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust NHS Charitable Fund) and Paul Newcombe (Pre -Registration Nursing Course Leader at St George’s Hospital and Kingston University).

Sarah Vista

We were treated to a live set of original country and western ballads from The Sarah Vista Social Club (with Jeff Mead). It was an evening both of celebration and though provoking pathos, many of the artists were explicit in their support for Nurses and NHS, with artworks that highlighted the political and financial threats that currently harry the profession.

Once again thank you all for supporting the Art of Caring. The exhibition runs until the 19th October at CONFERENCE CENTRE GALLERY, ST PANCRAS HOSPITAL, 4 ST PANCRAS WAY
LONDON, NW1 OPE. Please go an visit.

You can see a selection of photos by following this LINK.

See you next year.