Art of Caring 2017 at St Pancras Hospital

We're putting the finishing touches to this year's Art of Caring at St Pancras Hospital, another fantastic exhibition that combines original artwork and postcard art from around the world. The first exhibition at St George's Hospital was very much appreciated by staff and patients in May and this is another opportunity to celebrate the work of Carers, Nurses and the NHS.

I hope you'll all join us on Thursday 20th July from 5.30pm -8.30pm for the Private View. There will be refreshments and entertainment. St Pancras Hospital curators Peter Herbert and Elaine Harper-Gay have chosen a selection of original artwork to go alongside many of the postcards that were originally exhibited at St George's Hospital. We couldn't have a Private View at St George's so please come along on the 20th July to St Pancras and meet everyone who has been involved in the exhibition in 2017.

The exhibition is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, until October 19th. Last year we had a closing event with a talk from artists and a film screening too. If we have a Closing Event this year I'll let everyone know.

Venue
CONFERENCE CENTRE GALLERY
ST PANCRAS HOSPITAL
4 ST PANCRAS WAY
LONDON NW1 OPE

Friday 21 July - Thursday 19 October 2017
Monday to Friday 9am-5pm

Opening Night
Thursday 20 July 2017
5.30pm-8.30pm

Travel: Bus 46/214, Tube: Kings Cross, Overground: Camden Road

CONTACT ARTS PROJECT -  Elaine Harper-Gay at theartsproject1@gmail.com 

Peter Herbert 020 7916 841

Artists that have been selected by Peter Herbert and Elaine Harper-Gay for the St Pancras Art of Caring 2017 exhibition are -

Alan Carlyon Smith

Alban Low
Amal Haibe
Angelina Lawson
Ann Froggatt
Ann Kopka
Anne Guest
Antoinette Brown
Aran Illingworth
Ashley Passwater
Barbara Usher
Ben Ransome
Beth Louella
Bogusie Redford
Brittany Isom
Bryan Benge
Carmel Blackie
Carol Blues
Caroline Kirton
Caroline Streatfield Chalk
Chris Brown
Christen Trogolo DNP Student
Claire Leboutet
Dane B.
Danny Mooney
David Baker
David Lim
David Marron
David Napier
Dawes Gray
Dean Reddick
Diana Trinca
Dominic O'Ryan
Doreen E. Aidoo
Dorie Ellis
Ella Penn
Esperanza Tielbaard
Fiona Cosgrove

Graham ParkerGloria Eisen BSN Student

Hawra Harianawala

Helen Attwood
Iffy Ali
Imogen Perkin
Jae J. Rhee
James Whatley

Jane Lambert

Jasmin Bowen
Jelena Jovančov
Jelly Arnold
Jenny Meehan
Jess Sneddon
Jessica Adrianna Wayar
Jill Rock
Jina Wallwork
John Sheehy
Junu Gurung
K. Clasper
Kajal Shah
Katka Sedlackova
Kayliegh Daly
Kenny & Vito
Kim Miller
Kristi Doke
Lesley Cartwright
Li Huizi
Lilian McCann
Louise O'Boyle
Lynne Smith
Malc Dow
Mark Carr
Maryam Bibi
Melanie Ezra
Miriam Cima
Mounir Larhrib, SRNA
Natalie Low
Nataliya Zozulya
NATASA MARINKOVIC PETRIC
Natasa VladisavljevicOlajide Jegede
Olubukunola Temidara
Oluwaseun Ogundipe
Oscar Newcombe
Peter Turton
Rachel Rummun
Raymie
Rebecca Hope
Rebbeca Lowe
Rekha Vijaysbankar
Rima Ahmed
Ruby Bradley
Sally Ward
Samantha Underhill
Sara Burgess
Sara Lerota
Sara Rivers
Sarah Lawton
Saron Rai
Sean Herbert
Shelly Mastericks
Silvani Buccat
Simon Naish
Stella Tripp
Sue Lyons
Tamara Jelaca
Toyon Asaaju
Tracy Boness
Tracy Ferriss
Yuet Yean Teo
Wayne Sleeth
Winnie Sendyose

A special thank you to Ann Froggatt, Melanie Ezra and Graham Parker for the AOC2017 publicity image. Supported by Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust Charitable Fund

Registration Nos: 1082989

For those of you that haven't seen the photos from the Art of Caring 2017 at St George's Hospital then follow this link HERE.

The Art of Caring opens at St George's Hospital

Yesterday we opened the Art of Caring 2017 exhibition at St George's Hospital. We had an immediate and favourable response from patients and staff at the hospital as they walked past our display of postcards and haiku pill bottles. You can find the exhibition of more than 330 artworks by Cardiac Investigations, Ground Floor, Atkinson Morley Wing, St George's Hospital, SW17 0QT.

The exhibition is sited on a busy corridor that services several departments and if you sit there for a few minutes then porters swish by, pushing patients in beds and wheelchairs. While we were there several people spoke about the artwork on display. One of our first visitors Jill Partridge said, "I've been prodded and poked today, the staff have been wonderful but I've been to so many appointments and tests, it feels like I'm on a conveyor belt. How nice to have a moment to breathe. I like seeing the art, it helps me remember what is important to me."

The Art of Caring is running alongside the SNAP Conference this year and many Kingston University Nursing students came to have a look at the art and find the haikus that they had written themselves. The haikus have been printed onto pill bottles and made a great display, a big thank you to ICU Nurse Nikki Yun and Dr Karen Norman who helped install the work on the Atkinson Morley Wing walls.

We also had a important visitor, Jane Cummings, who is the Chief Nurse at NHS England. She viewed the whole exhibition and enjoyed the diversity on the work.

Thank you to Dr Julia Gale and all the staff at Kingston University and St George's University, London for supporting the exhibition. Also to the Arts Director Joanna Wakefield and Curator Carla Di Grazia, both at St George's Hospital. Most all thank you to all the artists and authors who contributed to the exhibition, we rely on your support every year and you give us such a wonderful creative response.

There is an additional album of photos HERE (and we'll add to them as the exhibition progresses).

The exhibition closes on the 12th May. International Nurses Day.

AL.

The Art of Caring 2017 at St George's Hospital

With less than a week to go we're all working away here at CollectConnect in preparation for this year's exhibition. The postcards are all printed and need trimming to their correct sizes and the haiku labels need to be stuck on their 2D pill bottles, but all will be ready for the 3rd May 2017 when we launch the Art of Caring exhibition at St George's Hospital in Tooting, London, UK.

This year Paul Newcombe, Associate Professor on the BSc Nursing programme at Kingston University, chose Caroline Kirton's image for the exhibition publicity material. Thank you to Caroline for the fantastic artwork that adorns all our posters and flyers at St George's. These will be placed all around the hospital for the duration of the exhibition which runs from 3rd - 12th May 2017.

There wont be a Private View this year as both the Hospital/NHS and Education budgets are under pressure but Alban will be on site during the 3rd May if you would like to meet him and some of the other artists. The exhibition runs alongside the Student Nurse Academic Partnership (SNAP) at St George's on the 3rd May. If you would like to attend or find out more details then visit https://snapcon.wordpress.com

The exhibition will be in the Atkinson Morley Wing (ground floor) and available to view at normal hospital opening hours so please come along and have a look at this year's selection of work on the theme of Care, Caring and Sustainability. The exhibition closes on the 12th May which is International Nurse's Day. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and continues to support our Nurses, Carers and the NHS by sending us their artworks and poems.

The exhibition will next go onto St Pancras Hospital from July to October 2017 with a selection of original work chosen by curators Peter Herbert and Elaine Harper-Gay alongside the postcards. As soon as we know the details we'll post it up here.

Ella Penn - Alopecia tableau

Ella Penn - Alopecia tableau, Freya: Me My hair and I

Submissions for this year's Art of Caring have started to arrive in our inbox and we've been both excited and emotionally piqued by the artworks (and haikus) that people would like to exhibit. If you're reading this and would also like to exhibit then visit our SUBMIT page, you've got until the 3rd April to do so and it's totally Free. So just do it.

When we get a few spare minutes from sifting through the entries it inspires us to reflect on the artworks and the power that they possess. Today I've been particularly caught by a series of photographs by Ella Penn, who has been exhibiting with us since the Rarities magnet exhibition on Hasting's Pier in 2011. Although her work is primarily photography based she has a keen eye for the conceptual. In 2015 she took part in the wonderful Art Language Location festival in Cambridge where she exhibited her work 52 Card Pick Up with Liam Whitfield. Over a 6 year period they collected a full pack of cards after finding them individually discarded in public places.

The Art of Caring has always been close to the heart of Ella as she was a carer for her dad for 10 years. This year she has submitted a powerful triptych dedicated to her friend Freya, who is raising awareness of Alopecia UK.

Ella Penn - Alopecia tableau, Freya: Me My hair and I

"The photos are of Freya Barnes who I've known all my life. Both Freya and her sister Roxy have battled with Alopecia as they were growing up and this knocked their self confidence, as a woman hair is seen as one of the key factors in femininity. The NHS gave Freya wigs and referred her to hair loss shampoos. All of which are designed to cover up or try and restore the growth of her hair. 

I suggested this photo project to Freya as photo therapy and hopefully to give her confidence in herself without her wig. When I showed Freya the images after the shoot she was really pleased and decided to share an image on the Alopecia Facebook page to inspire other women."

Ella Penn, 2017

Alopecia UK Facebook page

Ella Penn - Alopecia tableau, Freya: Me My hair and I

It goes without saying that we were inspired here too, by both Freya and Ella. We thank them both for contributing to the exhibition. If you would like to see these artworks and many more like them then visit us at St George's Hospital on the 3rd-12th May 2017. A selection of AOC work will also be exhibited at St Pancras Hospital from 20th July to 19th October 2017.

AL.

The Art of Caring 2017 - Submissions open

Now in its 3rd year The Art of Caring is needed more than ever to show support for Nurses, Carers, and the NHS. This is your chance to exhibit an artwork or haiku that demonstrates your passion for this theme, whether you have faced its challenges from the perspective of a carer or patient.

The Art of Caring is split into two clear exhibitions.
The first is at St George's Hospital (3rd-12th May 2017) where printed postcards of your artwork are displayed on the walls of the hospital to help celebrate International Nurses Day. This is an inclusive exhibition.
The second is at St Pancras Hospital (July-October 2017) and uses a mixture of original artworks and printed postcards. Works will be selected by Arts Project curators Peter Herbert and Elaine Harper-Gay.

It is Free to enter.
Send up to 3 jpeg images at an A6 size to collectconnect4@gmail.com
and/or
Send a haiku to the same email address collectconnect4@gmail.com

The theme this year is Care, Caring and Sustainability.
It is inspired by the theme for International Nurses Day 2017 which is Nursing: A voice to lead - Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.


You'll receive a confirmation email within 7 days with your catalogue/exhibition numbers. Before the exhibition we will print 2 postcards of each of your artworks. One copy will be sent to you and the other will be exhibited at St George's Hospital, Tooting, UK from the 3rd-12th May, 2017.

This year we will be opening the exhibition on 3rd May 2017 alongside SNAP (Student Nurse Academic Partnership Conference) and finishing on International Nurses Day (12th May).
If you would like to see last year's exhibition and some of the 380 submissions then click here. - 2016 Launch Party & exhibition

For the full details about how to submit your work visit our SUBMIT page.
Deadline for submissions is Monday 3rd April 2017
(We may close early if all 400 exhibition spaces are filled)

Alban Low, Bryan Benge, Dean Reddick and Stuart Simler

Closing event 2016

Karin Andrews Jashapara

(Photo: Lesley Cartwright)

Thank you to all who came to the Art of Caring closing event last night. There was an illuminating talk from Karin Andrews Jashapara as well as the screening of two films about AOC by Anna Bowman.

The first reveals the origins of the AOC exhibition as well as the excitement of the Private View at St Pancras Hospital. The second,Falling, documents the performance work of Charlotte CHW.

Art of Caring video

Falling video

Review - Art of Caring at St Pancras Hospital

Review by London City Nights (19/09/2016)

You feel a weird combination of reassurance and worry walking through the doors of an NHS clinic. The staff are busy yet friendly, the walls are festooned with upbeat primary coloured posters and there's a pleasantly paternalistic atmosphere. This is a place designed to make you well, doing its level best to send you out the door in better shape than you walked in.

But then you notice the damp on the walls, the peeling paint and furniture that hasn't been replaced in 20 years. The NHS is suffering the death of a thousand cuts: the victim of a government ideologically opposed to a free at the point of use publicly owned health service. Jeremy Hunt assures us that they're merely 'modernising' the NHS when anyone with a glimmer of sense can see that he's setting it up to fail, its carcass fodder for the circling corporate vultures of the American healthcare industry. I mean, if it's not making investors any money, what's the point of it?


So it's wonderful to see an exhibition like The Art of Caring - a collection of work from nurses, patients and artists depicting their ideas on the theme of caring, specifically nursing. The exhibition is collaboration between Kingston University, The Arts Project and Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust, featuring work that ranges from photography, painting, performance and sculpture. Some of it is professional and polished, some is rough and passionate, but all displays a tenderness and empathy that perfectly suits the surroundings.

(Fractured Memories) Doll Therapy by Aran Illingworth

There's a lot to take in here, but I particularly enjoyed the following. (Fractured Memories) Doll Therapy by Aran Illingworth. It's a quietly devastating canvas piece about Alzheimers, capturing a painful morsel of misery in the eyes of someone whose memory is gradually eroding away. The arts n crafts textile look adds to the emotional wallop, not only looking like something a kindly grandmother might make, but the rough shapes and soft fabric underlining the subjects humanity and increasingly blurry edges.

Comfort and Joy - Susie Mendelsson

On a slightly different wavelength is Susie Mendelsson's Comfort and Joy, a bizarre mixed-media sculpture of a creepily wizened homunculus approaching a baby from behind while a tiny man stares on in horror. It's disturbing stuff, the soft manufactured plastic of the doll contrasting with the hand-carved chaos of the monster. That title has got to be a joke, because there's precious little comfort or joy in this. If I had to pick out a meaning, it seems to speak of a mother's trauma at losing a baby, then feeling guilt that the next one survives. Even as she cares for her healthy baby, she cannot help but imagine the forgotten one, balefully staring on in jealousy.

One Day at a Time - Susie Mendelsson

Also by Mendelsson is One Day at a Time, depicting a worried looking person weighed down by faceless little men. This is a little easier to parse, but no less effective. Here the effect of the paranoias, traumas and miseries of the past is literalised, showing them crawling all over an apparently normal person going about their day to day life. It looks suitably nightmarish, the haunted expression of the central figure conveying a palpable desperation.

Charlotte CHW

Sunday's event was capped off by a live performance from Charlotte CHW, who was also exhibiting photographs. Dressed in a suit that perfectly matched the brickwork of the building, she writhed about against the walls and on the floor accompanied by a soundtrack of breaking glass. Watching this it's difficult not to look up at the gently spooky Victorian brickwork and wonder just how long this hospital is going to last. Generations of Londoners have walked through these halls, each with their own individual ailments and stories to tell.


The performance understands this history, treating the building like a psychological sponge that's sucked up a century of trauma and needs to be squeezed dry.  Charlotte's movements are slow, painful and precise - it's like you can see dust crumbling from her joints as she repeatedly collapses and rises, trapped in some infinite loop of pain, healing and more pain. I dug it.


Anyhow, The Art of Caring is well worth checking out, demonstrating not only the public's affection for the NHS and its nurses, but just how critical its long-term support systems are. Whether you've sprained your ankle, suffered trauma in Blair's oil wars or are watching an elderly relative succumb to dementia, the NHS will always be there. But it also needs us to fight for it.


Art is Caring is at The Conference Centre, St Pancras Hospital, 4 St Pancras Way, London NW1 OPE (9am-5pm) until 13 October 2016.

The Exhibition finishes with a Closing Event on the 13th October 2016, 5.30-7.30pm.