Undergraduate fine art students, Adam Burns and Jennifer Gilberg, at Northumbria University were interested in my curatorial work at the hospital. They were curious to know if they could extend their practice beyond the studio environment. I therefore invited them to run art workshops for the junior staff members as well as the ward managers before the Christmas, as requested by the Matron.

 

Training induction was arranged with the NHS Trust for the students. Tutorials were given to cover ethical concern, presentation skills and communicating with hospital audience. I also ran several workshop rehearsals with them.

 

Finally two workshops were held in December 2008. There were exhibition previews by Adam Burns and Jennifer Gilberg, followed by art making sessions with a theme of self-discovery. Both young artists led the participants to experiment mixed media to transform photographs into new pieces of artwork.

Adam presented his work for the junior staff

Staff participants told stories from their drawings

Jen led the sisters to play with mixed media

Jennifer and Adam in preparation