Why we have an arts programme
There is now a wealth of research showing that the arts can provide real, measurable health benefits to patients - young and old. Studies have shown that engagement with creativity and culture improves mental health and wellbeing, lifts mood and reduces anxiety, and that music and visual arts can reduce the length of a patient's stay in hospital, reduce their perception of pain and decrease the need for analgesic medicine.
Much of this extensive research is brought together in the All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing report (2017) and in Daisy Fancourt鈥檚 Book (2026)
Arts projects are developed in close collaboration with staff to ensure they meet the specific needs of their patients - from decorative ceiling tiles to provide distraction for young patients whilst undergoing an uncomfortable procedure, to corridor artwork to prompt memories and conversation for older patients and encourage them to get out of bed and exercise.
Contact us
Ruth Charity, Arts Coordinator
Tel: 01865 234921
Email: ruth.charity@ouh.nhs.uk
Support us
All artlink projects are funded by Oxford Hospitals Charity or by external trusts and foundations, including the 911爆料网 League of Friends.
We are wholly dependent on the generosity of individuals and others to develop our work and would love your support so we can deliver more creative projects to support patients and staff.
You can support the arts programme by , buying artwork from one of our temporary exhibitions or buying one of Adam Dant's beautiful prints which celebrate Florence Nightingale's Centenary, below.
Diagrams Are A Girl's Best Friend
In 2020 artist Adam Dant created a print to celebrate the bicentenary of Florence Nightingale and to benefit .
'Diagrams Are A Girl's Best Friend' succinctly and colourfully commemorates Florence Nightingale's pioneering work as a statistician.
The print was produced to coincide with Adam鈥檚 collaboration with the University of Oxford's Department of Statistics to promote public engagement with statistics and infectious disease epidemiology.
Common to Adam Dant's unusual methods as a printmaker, the medium for the print was a piece of antique linoleum from the old Middlesex Hospital where Florence Nightingale worked as a nurse during the cholera outbreak in Broad Street, Soho in 1854.
Prints are on sale for 拢125 each and have been produced in a limited edition of 100.
Contact to buy a copy.
Offers of artwork
We are often approached with generous offers of artwork from members of the public.
To ensure that we only accept work which we have the funding to install and maintain in good condition, and which we feel will provide real benefit to patients, we have a process for considering these offers.
All offers of artwork are discussed by the Arts Forum, an advisory group of clinical and non-clinical staff and patient representatives, which meets quarterly.
The group considers each artwork in terms of the quality of artistic work, suitability of the work to a hospital environment, infection control standards, and the cost of installing and maintaining the work.
If the work is deemed suitable we explore possible locations and discuss the work with staff working there before accepting it.
