LABAN dance rehabilitation
Spring 2010
We were thrilled to collaborate with LABAN, one of the world's finest centres for professional contemporary dance, on a five-week residency on the children's wards of the Royal London. These fun and fully inclusive sessions were devised to support occupational and physiotherapy rehabilitation. Specialist dance facilitators brought dance, play and creative movement to patients' bedsides, encouraging children of all ages and abilities to participate in playful, physical activities that support future functioning, learning and health.
SPITALFIELDS MUSIC IN RESIDENCE
Vital Arts and Spitalfields Music have a long and successful history of working together. In 2010 musicians from folk-jazz five-piece Firefly ran two exciting projects:
Xenakis Pavillion
Spring 2010
The Xenakis Pavillion – as part of Spitalfields Summer Festival from 11 - 26 June 2010
As part of a collaboration with local schools, we were delighted to welcome Spitalfields musicians back into playrooms and schoolrooms during the Easter holidays and spring term. James Redwood, Sam Glazer and Neil Valentine worked with young patients on the Cystic Fibrosis ward to compose music inspired by Iannis Xenakis. Patients’ compositions will be fed into an interactive sound installation .
Lullabies
CHISENHALE GALLERY: You're The Boss
Autumn 2009 - Summer 2010
Following on from last year's successful artists' residency programme, Chisenhale and Vital Arts collaborated on a a series of artists' residencies taking place on paediatric wards at The Royal London. Artists Yara El-Sherbini and Simon Woolham were invited to work with young people to develop interactive, collaborative games during the school holidays. These residencies animated wards and waiting spaces where patients are often bored, stressed or frightened. Parents, carers and siblings participated, offering a chance for interaction and relationship-building centred on a shared activity that has nothing to do with illness or clinical treatment.
RLH RPS 21
Autumn 2009
For their first residency, Simon and Yara worked with young patients, their visitors and the Play Team to devise RLH RPS 21: a non-contact combat sport, based on the recognisable format of Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS). Twenty-one hand gestures (power hands) were devised by patients in response to the hospital environment, i.e. ‘syringe’ ‘peace’, ‘surveillance’ and ‘mask’, with players deciding on which gestures defeat others or are defeated during game play. A poster was designed showing the rules of the game and the 21 possible gestures, and the game was played on wards between patients, with a final ward-to-ward play-off tournament.
OPEN ALL HOURS
Easter 2010
The second residency invited young patients to work on OPEN
Sunday Best
Winter 2009
Supported and inspired by Her Majesty's Historic Royal Palaces, Vital Arts worked with INK Illustration throughout November and December. Working on older adult wards, INK asked patients to remember when they were best dressed. What did they wear?
What was the occasion? Pictures and stories were recreated on silk-screened postcards, copies of which were given to all participants and displayed at the Royal London.
“Every day is the same in here but I really enjoyed myself today. It’s lovely to talk to youngsters like you"
Patient on older adult ward This Vital Arts project was generously funded by Her Majesty's Historic Royal Palaces' The Last Debutantes exhibition at Kensington Palace.
Winter 2009
Throughout December, artist Simon Woolham invited young patients to create an imaginary world through drawings and rubbings taken from around the hospital. Designs were shrunk into snow domes for participants to take away with them.
Dance Art Foundation - Find Your Talent Dance Residency
Summer 2009
Creative workshops used dance and movement techniques to support occupational and physiotherapy rehabilitation
Funded by Find Your Talent Tower Hamlets
One Moment in Time Theatre
Summer 2009
One Moment in Time Theatre visited children's wards in August 2009 for a fun filled day of beautifully crafted puppet theatre, live music, one to one
bedside storytelling and puppet making workshops.
This project was supported by a generous contribution from Christine Chandris and The Sick Children's Trust
Royal Palaces Activity Book
Spring 2009
Supported and inspired by Her Majesty's Royal Palaces, illustrator Emma Rios ran a series of workshops at The Royal London Children's Hospital exploring the feasting, fashions and architecture of the Georgian royal court, with scratch 'n' sniff paints, set design, fabulous party menus and an historical fashion shoot. Artwork produced by the young people was incorporated into The Royal Palaces Activity Book. Participants all received copies of the book, which is available to young people at the Royal London.
Please contact
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if you would like a copy.
Bompas and Parr: A Jelly Spectacular
Christmas 2008
Jellymongers extraordinaire, Bompas and Parr, toured wards at The Royal London with their fabulous desert trolley, offering patients and staff delicious puddings from their masterpiece menu.' Treats included a wobbling tower of fresh fruit jellies, batches of hand-baked gingerbread for patients to decorate, and the incredible instant ice-cream, created on the spot with the magic ingredient: dry ice! Harpist Jean was also on hand, to add to the atmosphere of decadent delight, as staff, patients and visitors gathered round to join in the sensory festive feast.
Supported by Tower Hamlets Arts and Events
Polka Children's Theatre - Storytelling workshops
Vital Arts and The National Portrait Gallery ran a photography workshop at the Royal London. Young patients worked with the NPG team to concoct their own costumes and produce portraits with a large format camera. The result was a selection of poignant and beautiful photographs that were taken away at the end of the day.
Fantasy Fortresses with artist Tom Cox Bisham
Inspired by Her Majesty's Palace and The Tower of London
Summer 2008
Artist Tom Cox Bisham worked with young people and their families to create a triptych of their collective 'Fantasy Fortress'. The work is on display outside Anne Riches Ward, in the newly designated Vital Arts Young People's Gallery
Archive Adventures with Whitechapel Gallery
Spring 2008
Vital Arts developed a month-long programme of art workshops with Whitechapel Gallery, using historical material from
Whitechapel Gallery and the Royal London Hospital Museum as a start-point, incorporating art historical influences
such as the boxes of Joseph Cornell. The sessions were lead by artist Sam Gorman with historian Marion Try, and explored the idea of the ‘archive,’ enabling young patients to create their own miniature archives reflecting their identities and personal histories
CHISENHALE GALLERY: You're The Boss
Autumn 2008 - Summer 2009
In partnership with Chisenhale Gallery, Vital Arts invited artists Daniel Lehan and Daniel Wallis to collaborate on producing a series of mini residencies in the paediatric wards at the Royal London Hospital.
The first residency focused on cross‐ward communication, by inviting the young people to communicate with each other by stenciling questions and answers on to boards, which were then delivered between the wards by the artists acting as couriers. This process became like a pre‐email, highly personal, back and forth letter delivery service for young people in wards across the hospital providing the participants with the opportunity to make new friends and share experiences.
The second residency focused on working with the young people and their families to develop a series of TV excerpts connected to life within the hospital. Taking inspiration from the everyday life in a hospital setting, the resulting twenty‐minute video art work gave the appearance of channel hopping through TV stations, drawing parallels with contemporary culture and forging connections between young participants across the hospital and beyond.
The third residency saw young patients produce a newspaper entitled Read All About, which reveals the hospital from a young person’s perspective through a montage of confessions, articles, pictures, games and more. Distributed among the staff, patients and visitors in the hospital, this subtle intervention drew attention to the challenges facing young people in the hospital setting.