Participation > Past > Vital Arts Festival

VITAL ARTS FESTIVAL
March 2012

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The new Royal London Hospital officially opened its doors on 1st March 2012 and to celebrate the historic occasion Vital Arts organised a month-long arts festival for patients, staff and the local community. Over 2,000 patients, staff and visitors attended 46 concerts,12 art workshops, 4 public talks, 9 events for children and young people and 1 huge procession, lead by a Bollywood Brass Band, local performers and children from 14 local schools. The full spectacular programme is downloadable as a PDF below. Here are some of the festival highlights

Make do and Draw remake the old Royal London Hospital		Buildings Tell Stories Artists from Make Do and Draw lead an intriguing art and architecture workshop with patients, recreating paper models of the old Royal London Hospital. "You've made my day. I hope you will be here next time I'm here" Patient, Cardiac Dept - OPD
Chris Watson collects sounds from around the world		Walk on the Wildside As you enter the Children's Hospital, listen carefully. You might hear the strange chirruping of insects and frogs, a lion roar or a bellowing hippo. Chris Watson has brought evocative sounds from each continent to the hospital corridor with his incredible sound installation. We start with the Asian rainforest. Each month the installation changes to reveal another of the seven continents. It has proved to be very popular with patients and staff but you can listen for yourself: Hear thunder storms in Africa, creaking glaciers in the Antarctica and howler monkeys in South America here "It's my favourite place in the whole hospital - you just need to put chairs in there so we can go and relax there." School teacher
Artists from Container investigate patient's superpowers		The Most Powerful Cabinet in Whitechapel Artists from multidisciplinary art and design collective Container invited patients to share their hidden talents and super powers. These were collected and displayed in a bulging cabinet of curiosities: The Most Powerful Cabinet in Whitechapel. Patients and visitors enjoyed looking at all the objects collected in the cabinet while they waited for appointments. Talking to people about their talents yielded some great conversations. Many people spoke about their joy of helping others, 'lending a helping hand' was a wide-spread 'superpower'. 'The ability to sleep anywhere', 'making money', 'predicting the future', 'assessing other people's character' and 'predicting the technology of tomorrow' were other notable talents. "Thank you - this workshop has been great, not just because it allows patients to enjoy the pleasure of creating something but, for those with more serious disabilities, it offers them a chance to be part of an event and, with some supervision, enables them to create something to keep at their bedside, or to give to friends and relatives." Staff nurse
Art made to order by Illustrate the Wait		Illustrate The Wait We were in for a treat when artist Deborah Andrews set up her incredible Machine of Visual Delights at the Royal London. Patients were invited to let their mind wander... dreams, wishes, memories and notes were written onto a piece of card and fed into The Machine. The artists created delightful drawings, as requested, in minutes which were ejected from the machine and displayed for collection. We had hundreds of requests, varying from 'a ship' to 'a unicorn, for my mother, who is a unicorn' and 'a pink fish with black glasses' "It's been great to have all these activities going on. Thank you. There was an excellent range of events and all were fully inclusive - there was something for everyone. The festival made a huge difference to the Play Team. We're so short staffed now that it really helps to have group activities organised for the children. It means we're free to respond to the ward staff's demands and we're reassured that they have something fun to do to keep them occupied all afternoon." Hospital Play Specialist
Portraits by artist and silhouette-cutter		Silhouette Silhouette cutter, Sarah Goddard, was a whirlwind of fun, paper and scissors on the wards and waiting areas. She saw over a hundred patients in one afternoon, producing beautiful and incredible portraits for everyone. "You've left a trail of colour behind you - you can see all the patients that have taken art. It's lovely to see their handiwork around their beds. It's really colourful and cheers the ward up. It gives you something else to talk about too." Visitor These visits are so important not just for the patients morale, but also for relatives and the staff. Their performances add colour to a hospital stay and are hugely appreciated by everyone. Ward Clerk
Patients personalise Ink Illustration's silk-screened maps		My Tower Hamlets Map Artist Rachel Gannon from Ink Illustration delighted older adults and their visitors when she brought her beautiful silk screened maps of Tower Hamlets. Patients recounted stories of days gone by, recounting tales of jobs, gardens, communities, filling in each personalised map of their neighbourhood borough "It's made such a big difference having you come in and entertain us with all this fun stuff to do. We've been stuck in hospital for months and he's often not allowed to leave his cubical. There's only so much I can do to keep him entertained. So, thank you - I can't remember the last time I saw him having so much fun. Patient's mother
Workshop trolley loaded and ready to roll		Matchbox Workshop Patients were intrigued by Sarah Bridgland's miniature matchbox sculptures. Sarah wheeled her tremendous art trolley around, working with patients at their bedsides to create mini sculptures in matchboxes, encouraging dexterity and prolonged concentration - as requested by nurses and Occupational Therapists. We met some lovely characters and were impressed by so many: a young pro-footballer who made Chelsea FC grounds; a retired Design and Technology who baffled us with the physics of sky scrapers; a grandmother of five whose matchbox illustrated the story of a bear in the woods, and many more. A wonderful afternoon.
Click on image to read poems		Queue The Words We got some cracking poetry from patients in waiting areas. Poet Paul Lyalls showed patients just how easy it is to write a poem.
Writing lullabies with new parents on maternity wards		Lullabies Long time favourites on the maternity wards, Spitalfields Musicians, sang, taught and learnt lullabies from around the world with new mothers and their babies. You can read and here more about our past Lullabies project here "It's such a lovely idea - I wish you could come back again tomorrow so we could to hear more." Patient
Dream gardens with artist Polly Brannon from Avant Gardeners		Avant Gardening Patients' created a gardening fanzine for the Royal London Hospital. "It makes a big difference to the atmosphere and really calms the patients." Staff nurse
Patients create bespoke tea towels with artist Linda Florence		Design your own Tea Towel Designer Linda Florence set up a screen press for patients to create bespoke hand printed tea towels. Printing techniques incorporated a mixture of traditional methods and materials such as flowers and leaves, colour paper and pens. This workshop was particularly popular with patients creating towels for Mother's Day. Within a short period of time Linda's workshop area had doubled in order to accommodate the growing number of participants It's reassuring to know that she's being stimulated during the long hours when we can't visit." Patients' mother
Adriano Adewale Group's ecclectic line up in the Royal London Hospital Atrium "You don't expect this in a hospital but it's really nice -really helps to take my mind off why I'm here" Patient in Renal Dialysis Waiting Area "The patients love it because they can interact - lots of them have been taking photos and videos. It's been really popular, especially ones where patients have been encouraged to dance" Senior Sister - Renal Dialysis		Concerts With two concerts each day spread over waiting areas, wards and foyers across the Royal London, the Vital Arts Festival hosted a wonderful selection of musical styles - Gypsy Jazz from Trio Manouche, Balkan and Klezmer from Kosmos Ensemble, classical from Aurora Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra - and a fascinating array of music and instruments from all over the world. The impressive selection featured the Ethiopian krar (Krar Collective), the Indian sarod (Soumik Datta), the west African kora (Diabel Cissokho) and the Greek bouzouki (Cigdem Aslan) plus countless others. The broad and unusual collection caused quite a stir amongst patients and staff and instruments were a hot topic of conversation throughout the month. Musicians chatted with patients about their instruments and about how music was used in their own cultural festivities. "It really changes the atmosphere - it doesn't feel like a hospital when there's music - it cheers everyone up" Patient Concerts in waiting areas were uplifting and celebratory, reflecting the mood of the festival. There was more dancing and audience participation than we could have hoped for! Ward concerts were a rather more relaxed affair and featured a broad selection of soothing tunes on the harp (Jean Kelly), popular and jazzy standards (Keziah Thomas), virtuoso classical and Spanish music on guitar (Dimitris Dekavallas), Turkish and Iranian folk music on the Celtic harp (Tara Jaff), and sophisticated Cuban and Latin American guitar music (Ahmed Dickenson).