Participation

Our patient participation programmes provide year round opportunities for patients to engage with the arts. Developing creative, interactive projects in the hospital setting, we work with external partners such as Chisenhale Gallery, Spitalfields Music, London Symphony Orchestra and Polka Children's Theatre.

These projects take the form of workshops and artists' residencies. We design initiatives that give patients the opportunity to learn new skills through stimulating and often unexpected processes of art, music and performance.

Current Programme includes:

FILM CLUB
Vital Arts' Film Club will continue in the hospital school next year, in partnership with Rich Mix, the multi-arts venue in east London. Teachers are offered Film Making and Film Literacy Continual Professional Development sessions as part of the project. Young patients attend film screenings, discussions and practical film-making workshops and have the chance to see their films on the big screen. A DVD of all patients short films is produced at the end of each school term.

LITERATURE & SPOKEN WORD

This year the Vital Arts participation department is bringing a range of literacy events to patients and staff at Barts and Royal London.

CHISENHALE GALLERY: DEAR DIARY

Artist Daniel Lehan has devised a mobile library for The Royal London Children's Hospital as part of the artist-in-residence programme with Chisenhale Gallery. During a two week period young patients and their families will create diaries that will make up The Mobile Library, which patients and staff may borrow.

Daniel is also providing ongoing Continual Professional Development sessions with hospital staff, looking at ways in which the Play Specialist team can continue to work with patients to create books on a wide variety of themes after the residency has finished.

Funded by Tower Hamlets: Find Your Talent

APPLES AND SNAKES
Apples and Snakes are delivering a series of interactive workshops to young patients of the Royal London Hospital over the school holidays. Fun and interactive workshops will explore the way poetry comes alive through word games to make language more interesting and interactive. Poet Jared Louche will perform some of his poems and build group poems while interactive storyteller Jan Blake will be engaging children with a variety of long and short tales from Africa.
Funded by the the Sick Children's Trust

LIBRARY OF UNWRITTEN BOOKS
Library of Unwritten Books is a collection of possible books. Artists Sam and Caroline will record interviews with patients about the book they would like to write. Participants will be encouraged to talk about their ideas, thoughts, dreams and life experiences as material for possible books. Limited edition mini books will be published from transcripts of the interviews, which are also made available to other patients around the hospital, readers at exhibitions and special events. Each participant will receive a copy of their own book, which will also be added to the library collection to tour the UK and archived at the Mass Observation Archive.

MUSIC

Our on-going music programme brings specialist music facilitators and interactive music sessions to all areas of the hospital.

SPITALFIELDS MUSIC: LULLABIES
Vital Arts and Spitalfields Music are thrilled to continue the Lullabies project with Maternity Services. Mothers, along with new born babies and their families are invited to sing, share and write new lullabies from around the world in weekly singing workshops on the Royal London's post-labour wards. Patients will contribute to a song bank of lullabies from Somalia, Turkey, Bangladesh, England, Poland and beyond! At the end of the project, collected works will be produced on a CD and distributed to all participants.

LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Vital Arts and long term partner the London Symphony Orchestra, are developing an exciting new film project. Young patients are rewriting soundtracks for films in the orchestras repertoire. Patients will then direct, conduct and record LSO musicians to create new tracks and sound effects on music software.

CITY OF LONDON SINFONIA
Vital Arts have teamed up with one of London's leading orchestras; The City Of London Sinfonia. This exciting new partnership will bring musicians to older adult wards at Royal London Hospital, to deliver lively and engaging workshops to support patient rehabilitation.

ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC
In partnership with the Royal Academy of Music, music students will be performing interactive workshops on the specialist Geriatric and Stroke Units at the Royal London Hospital.