The hospital programs have a dual focus of bringing art (visual art, music and performance) into hospital spaces to make them more accessible or comforting places for patients, residents, visitors and staff; and on programs in the wider community to make art for the hospital spaces and in turn build connections between the community and the health services.

Bathurst Hospital

When the major hospital in Bathurst was rebuilt (completed 2008) it was more than new rooms and equipment that went into the planning. An innovative arts and health program was a part of the mix from day one, coordinated by Arts OutWest.

Launched 2008 the program at Bathurst Hospital integrates arts activities into the health services including palliative care, mental health, disability services, Aboriginal maternal and infant health as well as the general environment of the hospital.

The program was designed to improve health outcomes through the arts. There was extensive initial consultation with health staff and the community as well as advice from arts and health experts.

Projects have included the creation of large scale public art, regular exhibitions, art acquisition program, arts activities for health service clients, and music and performance.

The program has reached beyond the hospital walls with activities in schools, nursing homes, in the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery and in community centres.

“The art on the hospital walls is part of the bigger context of the whole arts and health program. Its great value is in giving people a positive experience of the health service and the space… it’s participatory,” – Dr Peter Wilson, artist, educator and original member of the Bathurst Arts and Health Steering Committee.

The hospital is set up with tracking to hang artworks. Alongside a collection of works purchased from top regional artists, exhibitions have included work by  people with a disability, young people, the Central West Acquired Brain Injury Action Group, CSU students, professional artists, multi-cultural groups, local Aboriginal artists and a health researcher.

“I think it made a wonderful connection, a link, between the hospital and the community,” original steering committee community representative Jenni Brackenreg said.

“That’s what our program is about. That’s the key. We’re not just an insular hospital, with a program with pictures on walls. We are actually reaching out to the community in a health promotion type context.”

“You know it’s working when you see kids come in with their parents to show them their work on the walls or people with a disability feeling more comfortable about the hospital space when they see their own work on display,” Arts OutWest executive officer Tracey Callinan said.

The deeply moving ‘Waving Not Drowning’ (2008-2009) project included art making and blog writing for people in palliative care, carers and volunteers. In Bathurst’s acute mental health unit, the Panorama Clinic, art and storytelling workshops (2008) helped staff connect with the health consumers with the bonus of art being created for the otherwise sterile space. There have been rap songs about the importance of hand washing and staff choirs at Christmas.  Music performances over the years have been particularly popular with health staff.

“Staff and visitors now ask ‘When is the next performance?’ and recall that people were dancing in the corridors,” arts and health coordinator Christine McMillan said. “People smiled for weeks later when recalling the performances”.

The participation of health staff has been key in the program. There has been training for both artists and health workers and staff have designed many of the arts programs as responses to needs in the health service.

Currently: Whilst the program currently receives no specific funding, Arts OutWest continues to curate and manage the visual art collection of the hospital.