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.
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.

Current Activities
Latest news
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.
Weekly programs are already running in Bathurst and Orange, we’re looking to expand to other areas including BLAYNEY and LITHGOW.
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.
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.
Arts OutWest current work from aged care, to hospitals and artists with disability.
Joined At The Art will be an eight‑week series of workshops at Oberon Multi-Purpose Health Service aged care, bringing residents together with students from Oberon’s St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School.
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.

