CUH Arts
Established in 1999, CUH Arts began with a small collection of art work, and has grown over the years to engage our hospital community in a diverse and eclectic range of live, visual and participatory arts.
Supported by Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust, we deliver a year-round programme of arts activities, events and exhibitions, as well as getting involved in the design of new patient-facing areas, helping to relax and warm the clinical environment. At any one point, our small (yet mighty!) team will have multiple projects on the go – it is a busy department, and no day is the same!
Alongside looking after our art collection (we now have over 4000 pieces across our hospitals!), curating temporary exhibitions along our art corridor (Level 2 between concourse and ATC) and commissioning new art & design for wards, we run a participatory arts programme, with bespoke activities led by experienced professional artists.
Dance for Health is CUH Arts’ flagship project; weekly creative movement & music group sessions for adult patients, led by expert practitioner Filipa Pereira-Stubbs. Patients are supported to move and interact with one another, helping to engage not just the body, but the mind and heart too.
As artists, we are in a special position; patients do not see us as clinicians - we are not in uniform, and there is often a level of curiosity. “Artists? In Hospital? How marvellous”! We are different. To us, our hospital participants are people first and patients second. We are interested in how we can support people emotionally and socially, as well as physically, during their hospital stay. We also help to build rapport between nurses and their patients; art is a leveller, and it brings our personalities to the surface, enabling connections to be made.
Get in touch
Natalie Ellis
Head of Arts
natalie.ellis@addenbrookes.nhs.uk
Lesley Bermingham
Arts Project Manager
lesley.bermingham@addenbrookes.nhs.uk
General enquiries: art@addenbrookes.nhs.uk
Follow CUH Arts on social media!
Facebook: @ArtsCUH
Twitter: @ArtsCuh
Beyond the Mask - Get involved!
To mark #YearoftheNurseandMidwife we are excited to unveil....
Beyond the Mask; a poetry project with CUH Arts that listens, that goes deeper, to acknowledge the skills, qualities, characters and stories that lie beneath the uniform.
We are inviting you to share your thoughts with us in writing. It might be a few words or a fully-formed poem - write in whatever way feels right to you. It’s your own unique/personal voice that we would like to hear.
Together, we will form a collaborative poem that will be gifted back to our nurses & midwives.
The wonderful Sean Borodale will be your guiding poet and is here to tell you more about the project:
All contributions welcome! We’ll be releasing more helpful resources from Sean over the next few weeks and can't wait to read your creations.
Get in touch with your contributions and any questions you may have: art@addenbrookes.nhs.uk
Deadline: Midnight, Sunday 20 June
Thank you to Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust for supporting Beyond the Mask.
#BeyondtheMask #HospitalArts #CreativityandWellbeing
