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The Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital has always striven to provide the best clinical care possible, responding to and contributing to advances in medicine. Attitudes towards patient care have also evolved with a greater emphasis being placed on the hospital environment as a powerful factor in contributing to patient wellbeing and reducing stress levels. It is also recognised that parents and siblings play a vital role in the care and recovery of sick children and therefore the ‘treatment’ of the family as a whole is a priority.
A visit to a number of key children’s hospitals in the USA in 1995 convinced the Children’s Hospital management team that integrated art in hospitals had a significant part to play in helping to achieve two of the key objectives in planning the new hospital:
* the creation of a dedicated children’s facility which is distinct and welcoming;
* a child and family centred environment that acknowledges patients and their families.
A specific Arts Project Group was set up to devise and oversee an ambitious public art programme. It is fair to say that the enthusiasm and dedication of all the group members was magnificent and resulted in a very successful project.
On behalf of NHS Grampian, I would like to extend our grateful thanks to PACE’s Juliet Dean and Vicky Fraser. PACE was recruited and appointed in 2002 to advise and assist the project team to develop an arts strategy, prepare funding bids and to recruit artists. Following successful applications, the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) agreed a grant of £300,000, the biggest ever SAC award given to a health organisation.
PACE managed the artists through design development, production and installation of artworks, working with enthusiasm and professionalism over three years to help us realise all of our objectives. We could not have achieved the successful completion of the project without them.
We now have an excellent hospital facility. The experience of being in or attending hospital is now a less stressful experience for children and their families. This artistically stimulating environment not only provides a welcome distraction, it also makes creative public art very accessible to the people of the region and beyond. Everything we sought has been achieved. During the open days prior to the hospital opening, a child even offered to sustain an injury in order to be admitted, exceeding our objectives! Thank you to everyone (the Arts Project Group, the artists, staff at RACH, the Young Advisers, the design team and contractors) who helped to make this possible.
Jackie Bremner, Chairwoman, RACH Arts Project Group 2000–2005 |
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