Announcing the 2023 programme of the partnership between Hospital Rooms & Hauser & Wirth

This year, Hospital Rooms and Hauser & Wirth will continue their partnership through a series of initiatives that continue to expand Hospital Rooms’ impact including:

These initiatives will raise funds to support three ambitious new projects which will transform NHS mental health setting across the UK including:

Following a successful first year of collaboration, raising £325,000, this year Hospital Rooms will be raising funds to work with staff and patients at Sandwell CAMHS, part of the Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. This ambitious project will empower young people to collaborate with extraordinary artists and contribute to the physical transformation of their environments. Referrals for children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) have drastically increased since 2019, leaving young people and families in urgent need of therapeutic support. Raising these funds will ensure that young people receive support, treatment and therapy in inspirational spaces that offer them hope and dignity.

Nicky Mountford, service manager and clinical lead for Sandwell CAMHS at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“This partnership shows the importance of our Trust working with partner organisations to carry out exciting, innovative work in the field of mental health care. I can’t wait for this ground-breaking project to get started and look forward to seeing what our young people create with the Hospital Rooms team.”

Neil Wenman, Partner, Hauser & Wirth:

“As long-time supporters of Hospital Rooms, we have witnessed first-hand the extraordinary impact of their work in changing lives across NHS mental health inpatient units across the country. Embarking on our second year of a three-

year partnership, I am thrilled to champion another programme of activities and fundraising that we know will help bring hope and courage, especially to young people in mental health services in the UK.”

Tim A Shaw, Co-Founder, Hospital Rooms:

“Since first coming up with the idea of Hospital Rooms, we have believed that every person in a mental health unit deserves to experience extraordinary artwork, and to have the freedom to express themselves. The projects we have planned for the next year, taking place in Norwich, Sandwell and Cornwall will mean that we will be collaborating with more artists, NHS staff and mental health service users, than ever before. In partnership with Hauser & Wirth, we will be able to draw attention to the work of Hospital Rooms, address the challenges of rethinking the way mental health units look and feel, and bring about drastic change, transforming what can often be clinical environments into spaces that provide joy and dignity, stimulate and heal.”

The new Rivers Acute Units at Hellesdon Hospital is a landmark project for Hospital Rooms. Project Curators from Hospital Rooms will be working from the design stage with architects to embed creativity and culture across 6 adult wards, entrances, outdoor and communal areas with the hospital opening in 2024.

Hospital Rooms will also be working with Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust across two mental health hospitals in Bodmin and Redruth. These services comprise of Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, Acute, Rehabilitation and Low secure units for older people. This project will transform these mental health settings and build long term local creative connection with the hospitals.

This summer, Hospital Rooms collaborative projects will culminate in a major exhibition which will be on view at Hauser & Wirth in London 17 August - 12 September.

‘Holding Space’ will feature a recreation of Sutapa Biswas’ immersive artwork for Springfield Hospital and a new composition created by students from the South West London Recovery College and the National Opera Studio. The exhibition will transform the gallery into a sensory holding space, filling the gallery with beds and cushions for people to sit, rest and play on.

Following the exhibition, Hospital Rooms will host the ‘Hold Me Auction’ at Bonhams in London on the 12 September 2023. Acclaimed artists have donated canvases that respond to the notion of a holding space to raise funds for Hospital Rooms three new projects.

Hospital Rooms will also be hosting an open-air exhibition at Granary Square, Kings Cross, to coincide with World Mental Health Day, on 10th October 2023. The exhibition will showcase new co-produced artworks and environments for mental health hospitals by Hurvin Anderson, Yinka Ilori, Alvin Kofi and many others.

For further details of activities please contact info@hospital-rooms.com

Notes to Editors:

Hospital Rooms:

Hospital Rooms is an award winning arts and mental health charity that was founded when a friend of artist Tim A Shaw and curator Niamh White was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and the unit she was required to stay in was squalid, dilapidated and devoid of any sense of imagination or creativity. We now work collaboratively with artists, mental health patients and staff, NHS Trusts, universities and cultural organisations to bring high quality artistic environments and opportunities to people with severe and enduring mental health diagnoses who are often otherwise ‘completely culturally invisible’ (Staff 2020) and are held in the most restrictive mental health settings from Psychiatric Intensive Care Units to Forensic services. We believe all people in mental health hospitals should have access to extraordinary creative and cultural experiences.

Hauser & Wirth:

Hauser & Wirth was founded in 1992 in Zurich by Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth and Ursula Hauser, who were joined in 2000 by Partner and President Marc Payot and CEO Ewan Venters in 2020. A family business with a global outlook, Hauser & Wirth has expanded over the past 30 years to include outposts in Hong Kong, London, New York, Southampton, Los Angeles, Somerset, Menorca, Monaco, Zurich, Gstaad, and St. Moritz. The gallery represents over 90 artists and estates who have been instrumental in shaping its identity over the past quarter century, and who are the inspiration for Hauser & Wirth’s diverse range of activities that engage with art, education, conservation, and sustainability.

Bonhams:

Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house. Founded in 1793, it is one of the world’s largest and most renowned auctioneers of fine art and antiques, motor cars and jewellery. Bonhams has a heritage and reputation for connoisseurship and bespoke service known throughout the world. Founded in London in 1793, we are the sole remaining international auction house that is privately owned and in British hands. We hold more than 400 specialist sales a year in 60 different categories at our flagship salerooms in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong.

Arts Council England:

Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk. Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. We are also one of the bodies responsible for administering the Government’s unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund.

Find out more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19.

Garfield Weston Foundation:

Established in 1958, the Garfield Weston Foundation is a family-founded charitable grant-making trust which now gives away approximately £80 million a year to charities across the UK. Having established one of the most respected charitable institutions in the UK, the Weston Family Trustees today remain highly active and hands-on. The Foundation’s funding comes from an endowment of shares in the family business – a successful model that still endures today and as the businesses have grown so too have the charitable donations. Each year the Foundation gives away its income and donations have continued to grow. Since it was established it has donated over £1 billion, of which over half has been given away in the past ten years alone. In the most recent financial year the Foundation gave away over £79 million to over 2,100 charities across the UK.

National Opera Studio:

National Opera Studio trains exceptionally talented young singers about to enter the opera profession. Additionally, the strategy of the Studio is to reach out to communities where the use of breath and singing can be used in a palliative, healing and liberating way. This creative partnership work with Hospital Rooms is especially important to the Studio.