filmclub
Film Club workshop at the RLH

conatiner_movingtolondon
Container, Moving To London from Throw Caution To The Wind, 2011

npg_part
National Portrait Gallery workshop at the RLH

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 Barbican Centre, Chisenhale Gallery, Rich Mix, 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.

To find out about all our previous projects, download MP3s and watch short films please click here.

"I picked up a copy of Throw Caution to the Wind at Barts last week and wanted to congratulate you on the project - the concept is stimulating, the presentation and handling of the book were a pleasure and, of course, the anecdotes were entertaining. Unfortunately, I am a very frequent visitor and sometimes 'guest' at both Barts and the Royal London so I am delighted to discover the various projects that are flourishing."
Patient at Barts and The London



LOOKING UP!


Vital Arts has been awarded a Transformers grant, funded by The National Lottery, through the Olympic Lottery Distributor, and managed by ELBA.  The Transformers grant programme is directing nearly £1.5 million of funding to communities in five of the Olympic Host Boroughs over two years. The grants are awarded to projects that really make a difference in people’s lives, particularly by those communities most affected by their proximity to the Olympic venues.

 

Looking up! focuses on the Children's Roof Garden on the 7th floor of the new Royal London Hospital and will capture the spirit of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Children and young patients at the hospital will take part in workshop activities including film making, oral history, tailor-made sporting activities, sound recording and a dance project with the physiotherapy team.  The programme runs from October 11 to July 2012 and is developed in partnership with Rich Mix and Trinity Laban.     

 
LOOKING UP! FILM

In our first Looking Up! project, young patients have been conjuring up super-powers and fantasy characters.  These super heroes are brought to life through a series of animation workshops.  Participants take part in practical film-making workshops and have the chance to see their films on the big screen.  Every child involved will receive a copy of the film on a special DVD compilation. 

In Partnership with Rich Mix 

www.richmix.org   



Chris Watson
Up On The Roof
We are delighted to announce a new residency with award-winning sound recordist Chris Watson as part of our Looking Up! project.  Chris will be working with children and young people to create a sound installation for the children's roof garden.  Up On The Roof will feature a series of sound scapes from all seven continents, creating an exciting and energising journey through the richest and most diverse acoustic landscapes on our planet. 
www.chriswatson.net




MUSIC

London Symphony Orchestra
School Visits
LSO musicians and facilitator Mark Withers provide an on-going music service for the hospital school. Young patients direct, conduct and record LSO musicians to create new tracks and sound effects on music software 'Garageband'.
www.lso.co.uk



VISUAL ART

Jessica Voorsanger
Who Do You Think You Are?
For our final arts education project before we move to our lovely new hospital next month we are delighted to be working with live artist Jessica Voorsanger.  Jessica will lead a series of fun, interactive workshops exploring questions of identity and aspirations.  She will use these workshops to create a comic book for young patients featuring all the stories and images they have created. 
 
Patients are involved through writing and illustrating comics, developing plots through fun, social games such as Consequences, Head Bodies and Legs, and Fortune Tellers, and developing characters through a selection of costumes, wigs, masks and accessories.  From development of their characters, young patients are drawing portraits and taking portraiture photos of each other in costume, for inclusion in the publication.  Large scale prints of the comic book will also go on display in our children's gallery in new hospital.


Container
Throw Caution To The Wind ~ Tales of Thrill & Adventure
We were thrilled to work with multidisciplinary art and design collective Container on orthopaedic and oncology wards this spring. Container collected stories from patients about 'the best adventure they ever had'. These stories have been turned into a beautiful limited edition book for the patients who took part, and are also being distributed via the hospital's sweet trolley for other patients to enjoy. You can see all the stories here.

The adventure continues. At the back of the book there is an invitation to future all readers to submit their own best adventure to Container, who will then transform the best of these stories into an art commission for the new hospital in 2012.

Supported by Tower Hamlets Council Arts and Events Fund
www.containerplus.co.uk


National Portrait Gallery
All About Me!
Children, young people and their parents will have the opportunity to work with artists from the National Portrait Gallery to create their own unique artists' journals representing their interests, thoughts and ideas. The project will explore the themes of identity and representation. Participants will create their own investigative artists' journal using themselves, their family, siblings, interests and the NPG Gallery Collection as source material.
www.npg.org.uk