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Regional Arts Development Central West NSW
ARTS & HEALTH
Award winning programs integrating arts into health outcomes

Arts and health has been a key priority area of Arts OutWest over the last two decades.

In our 2025-2028 strategic plan we aim to:

  • Work in hospitals, health services and across many aspects of the health sector to create transformative experiences through the arts.
  • Work in partnership with Health and Disability sector, as well as others, including the museums sector to engage patients, staff and visitors.
  • Arts OutWest continues our long-term work in Arts and Health, with an MOU in place with Western District Local Health Service. We work across the WDLHS region which stretches beyond the Arts OutWest boundaries. We are involved at all levels, from early consultation regarding spaces and infrastructure to workshops with patients.
Partners

Arts OutWest has a memorandum of understanding and a long-term partnership with Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLDH).

We work with NSW Health Infrastructure on hospital new builds and redevlopments.

Individual project partners are listed with each project overview and case study (below).

AWARD WINNING PROJECTS

In both 2011 and 2012 Arts OutWest won the Arts and Health Australia International Award for ‘Arts and Health in Regional and Rural Australia’. Christine McMillan accepted the 2012 award at the Arts and Health Conference in Freemantle, WA, where she had also been invited to present on the Look Art Talk project. In 2013 Bathurst Regional Art Gallery won a Museums & Galleries NSW IMAGiNE Award for the partnership project with Arts OutWest, Look Art Talk.  In 2016 Arts OutWest and Lachlan Health Service’s Mali Marambir Ngurang: to make better place Lachlan  Aboriginal language signage project won the Chief Executive’s Award at the Western NSW Local Health District’s annual Living Well Together Health and Innovation Awards.

Steven Cavanagh_Low Res_headshot
Steven Cavanagh
Arts & Health + Projects
Current Activities
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Hospital work
Hospital work

Ongoing: arts programming in hospitals

Hospital exhibitions
Hospital exhibitions

Curated exhibition program

Accessible Artistry
Accessible Artistry

visual art workshops

Tidal Exchange
Tidal Exchange

Artist residency exchange

Joined at the Art
Joined at the Art

At Oberon MPS

Blayney MPS Redevelopment
Blayney MPS Redevelopment

Art making in aged care

Bathurst Hospital Redevelopment
Bathurst Hospital Redevelopment

Art in hospital infrastructure

Dubbo Hospital Redevelopment
Dubbo Hospital Redevelopment

Art in hospital infrastructure

Stray: Dog Puppet
Stray: Dog Puppet

Aged care arts program

Latest news

Blayney MPS_Cazeil Creative_060826_0028
So much more than an art workshop

Residents at Blayney Multi-Purpose Service’s aged care unit are making new artworks for their home. Residents have been exploring colour, pattern, memory and place through a unique artist residency led by Blayney based paper-cut artist Laura Baker.

Laura Workshop_5
Blayney MPS project 2026

Arts OutWest, in partnership with Health Infrastructure, are working within Blayney Multi-Purpose Service (MPS) Residential Aged Care, using art making experiences to both engage residents and create new artworks for the space.

NAIDOC_Condo 7
NAIDOC WEEK exhibition at Condobolin Health Service.

This collaborative reflection not only honours the creativity and messages of past decades but also empowers our students to carry these inspirations forward. We are proud of their thoughtful engagement and look forward to seeing how they will continue to express these values in their journey ahead.

past project case studies

A selection of arts and health projects and activities from recent years. Many of these projects have ongoing threads that connect to our current work.

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Memories of Milltown
Memories of Milltown

2025: Living history

Medicare Mental Health Kids Hub: Art Project
Medicare Mental Health Kids Hub: Art Project

2025: Art workshop with kids

Hospital work
Hospital work

Ongoing: arts programming in hospitals

Brewing Ballads
Brewing Ballads

Supported 2024: Wellbeing and music

Musicians in Hospitals Training
Musicians in Hospitals Training

2016: Pilot program training musicians to work in hospitals

Artshed
Artshed

Artists Run Initiative for artists with and without disability

Cowra Hospital Curatorium
Cowra Hospital Curatorium

2025: art integration into the new hospital

Bathurst Community Mental Health Mural
Bathurst Community Mental Health Mural

2023-24: Art improving the health setting experience

Salvage
Salvage

Supported 21-22: multi-arts response to bushfire recovery

Virtual Art Snacks
Virtual Art Snacks

2020-2024: arts experiences in aged care

Yaganda Bulabul
Yaganda Bulabul

2023: art to create healing environments

Not Another Brick
Not Another Brick

2022: Lake Cargelligo MPS mural

Garden of the Mind
Garden of the Mind

Supported 2019: Multi-arts mental health stories

JOY: Kids art for Trundle MPS
JOY: Kids art for Trundle MPS

2021: workshops, hospital exhibition

Wattlegrove workshops
Wattlegrove workshops

2021: Art making for health space

Hospital signage
Hospital signage

Hospitals adopt Aboriginal language signage

Dementia Art Group
Dementia Art Group

2018: For People Living with Dementia and their Carers

Lachlan Health Service
Lachlan Health Service

2015-2017: embedding arts into new hospitals

Spread the Word
Spread the Word

2012-14: Aboriginal health

Men’s songwriting in Grenfell
Men’s songwriting in Grenfell

Songwriting for good mental health

Wellbeing Projects
Wellbeing Projects

2017: Multi-arts approach to good mental health

Sweet Dreams
Sweet Dreams

2013: multi-arts program of music, dance, visual arts, storytelling.

Jemalong Art Programs
Jemalong Art Programs

Aged care art and dementia program

Look Art Talk
Look Art Talk

2012: Pilot Art and Alzheimer’s program

Colouring Books for Hospitals
Colouring Books for Hospitals

2017: colouring in book for patients, visitors and staff

The Artists and the Farmer
The Artists and the Farmer

Creating the ‘Siloscopes’ outdoor sculpture for Forbes Hospital