Art of Caring film night

The Art of Caring closed on October 19th 2017 at St Pancras Hospital with a wonderful night of artistic goodbyes, where fresh ideas flowed forth and future plans were laid. It was an opportunity for artists to collect their work and for the buyers to take their treasured purchases home.


Anna Bowman premiered her brilliant short film about the 2017 Art of Caring exhibition. Curated by Peter Herbert, the Gallery exhibition expands CollectConnect's St George's Hospital Art of Caring show, held in connection with International Nursing Day. As you probably already know Alban and the CollectConnect team started the annual Art of Caring exhibition in 2015. The film gives us a unique insight into the exhibition and we also meet nine of the 35 artists whose work is on show at the Gallery, St Pancras Hospital and see many of the 200 postcards and haikus first displayed at St George's Hospital.

We hope the future of the Art of Caring is secure and we'll return in 2018.

Art of Caring & Nursing's Got Talent

photo: Bill Mudge

This year's International Nurses' Day didn't last a mere 24 hours, in fact those of us in Kingston-upon-Thames thought all those health professionals and carers deserved at least a week of appreciation and celebration.


John Sutherland. Photo: Bill Mudge

We started on 12th May 2015 (International Nurses' Day), which is Florence Nightingale's Birthday with the Private View of The Art of Caring at the Rose Theatre. It was a wonderful night and many of the 133 artists came from far and wide to see the 252 artworks on the walls of the Circle gallery space.

photo: Bill Mudge

A special mention must go to Ella Penn and partner Liam who brought our poster boy Jack to the party. It was Ella's photograph of her son which graced the publicity for our event. Thanks to all that helped hang the exhibition on the 11th May including Bryan Benge, Kevin Acott, Nikki Yun, John Sutherland, Harvey Wells, Rajaa Khalife and our photographer for the whole week Bill Mudge.

Dr Julia Gale and Harvey Wells. Photo: Bill Mudge

The exhibition wouldn't have been possible without the support of Kingston University who funded the exhibition and the refreshments at the Private View. Especially Harvey Wells and Dr Julia Gale, Head of School of Nursing / Associate Dean (Quality) at Kingston University and St George's, University of London (FHSCE) who gave a rousing speech at the Private View.

Art Jazzed Up. Photo: EZZIDIN ALWAN

The exhibition was part of a inspirational event on Friday 15th May called Nursing's Got Talent which was a celebration of Nurse's and Nursing. The day included talks, book recitals, drama and plays, poetry and live art & music. I represented our artists community with a live drawing performance in the 400 seat main auditorium with our Art Jazzed Up project. While jazz musicians, Duncan Eagles (sax), Max Luthert (bass), Bill Mudge (keys) and Chris Nickolls (drums) played 3 original compositions I drew on 3 large paper canvases.

We had a very positive response from the public about The Art of Caring exhibition and I would like to say thank you to all the artists to help make it such a success. There are more photos to view here, just follow the link - https://picasaweb.google.com/103519518631561147857/ArtOfCaringExhibition02?noredirect=1
The Photos of the Private View and exhibition set up are courtesy of Bill Mudge. The photos of Nursing's Got Talent are courtesy of EZZIDIN ALWAN.

The future is a positive one for the Art of Caring exhibition. We are currently talking to Camden & Islington NHS Trust about exhibiting in one of their galleries. Watch this space!

Alban Low

Art of Caring Exhibition

We've had a fantastic response from artists all around the world on the theme of Care and Caring. The Art of Caring exhibition is proud to display 251 artworks from 133 artists at the Rose Theatre from 12th-16th May 2015.

Join us for the Private View on Tuesday 12th May from 4-6pm to help celebrate International Nurse's Day and launch this diverse exhibition. Come along to the circle gallery space to meet the artists and have a glass of wine. A panel from Kingston University Nursing Society (Nikki Yun, John Sutherland, Gurlal Jagdev and Daniel Waters) have also selected 15 images to print at a larger format alongside the 251 postcard sized artworks.

The exhibition is open daily from 10am-6pm at
Rose Theatre,
24-26 High Street,
Kingston upon Thames,
Surrey KT1 1HL

As part of our celebration of Nursing we have created a FREE event on Friday 15th May from 1.30-4.30 in the main auditorium where we'll be showcasing the best in literature, drama, music and art. All welcome, details can be found here - http://www.kingston.ac.uk/events/item/1588/15-may-2015-nursing039s-got-talent/