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Aug 21, 2024

"At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source." --Rachel Naomi Remen

The Art of Healing: How Creativity is Changing NHS Mental Health

Artist Tim Shaw and his partner, Niamh White, a curator, visited a close friend in a mental health unit in South West London. They described it as a “really inhumane, cold, clinical space.” They set about to bring creativity, color, joy, and fantastic landscapes that bring the outdoors inside to the unit. In the ten years since, they have created a mental health charity “collaborating with dozens of curators, artists, inpatients, and NHS staff members in twenty-five hospital spaces nationwide. They hope to reach 180,000 people diagnosed with mental illness over the next three years. “The projects don’t just change the environment on the mental health units,” explains Shaw. “They offer the opportunity for mental health patients, artists and NHS staff to work together and be part of a creative problem-solving exercise. In the best cases, the culture and energy of a ward can change too.”