From art to the hospital

Every year, nearly 40 million people follow a hospital course, or who come to visit loved ones. It is therefore a wonderful territory of social diversity, where it is no longer rare to visit exhibitions.

Whether as a mode of expression in a therapeutic course or for the simple pleasure of the eyes, art helps to regain the energy and strength to live necessary to fight against illness and trauma.

Integrating exhibitions into the hospital means allowing everyone, whatever their conditions, to have access to the visual arts. It is a window open to aesthetics and emotion which can give rise to a lasting desire to interact with the world of art. It’s also bringing a part of humanity into a place of technicality.

 

Exhibitions in hospitals.

There are few places where art could touch so many people. Opening the hospital to artists so that they can present their works there is a challenge for the world of culture. What could be more noble than offering patients new well-being resources?

More and more art exhibitions are popular in hospitals. This is evidenced by the numerous events that have taken place there in recent years. To cite just two examples:

 

• • At Riantec's Bretagne Sud hospital near Lorient, nursing staff invited the artist Sandrine Rabaey to come and brighten up the corridors for an exhibition. Ouest-France – published on December 7, 2018

• • The Henry Kaplan Regional Cancer Center at Tours University Hospital hosted an exhibition of large-scale paintings for five years following a partnership between the Regional Directorates of Cultural Affairs (DRAC) and the Regional Health Agencies (ARS).

In France, an agreement was signed in 1999 between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Culture and Communication. It made it possible to lay the foundations of a national program “ [Culture and Health”.] ( https://www.iledefrance.ars.sante.fr/culture-et-sante-1# – the “Culture, personnel” system hospital of Ile-de-France structures.) It is an incentive for actors in the cultural world and those responsible for health establishments to carry out joint actions together.

 

The hospital, a medical place, but also a place of life

Beyond institutional exhibitions, artists and associations intervene directly at the hospital. Whether caused by personal initiatives, or by private and public partners, events regularly take place.

The pandemic period blocked the projects. But the momentum is given and art professionals, and in particular visual artists, should find in the hospital environment an additional opening to exhibit their works.

Some of the artworks are commissioned and created especially for the establishments.

The association, Art dans la Cité, directed by Rachel Even , works in this direction. This association aims to introduce art into hospitals. It involves visual artists, sometimes internationally renowned.

Entrances, treatment rooms, waiting rooms, corridors and bedrooms are thus beautified.

Rachel Even is an art historian and graduate in cultural management. She directs the Art dans la Cité created in 2000 with the aim of producing works of art for healthcare establishments around the world.

She is at the origin of “creation of work in situ”. The artists come to the hospitals and the hospitalized people participate in the creation in their own way, in close collaboration with the healthcare teams.” Art is as close as possible to patients.

The hospital environment is generally austere and not very welcoming. For staff living a large part of their time in these sanitized environments, this can become painful.

The main issue in the fight against suffering at work in hospitals, as in other professional environments, is the preservation of the physical and mental health of staff.

Improving the aesthetics of places remains a challenge for good working conditions. “Art on the walls permanently” is a movement that encourages the beautification of premises for the benefit of patients and staff.

 

Art as a mode of expression in a medical environment

When we enter a dialysis room, it is the calm of the place that strikes us at first sight. Some healthcare teams offer their patients the opportunity to entertain themselves with art. It is in this type of experience that art therapy takes on all its nobility.

The sessions are less restrictive. Let us understand clearly; it is not just about keeping patients busy, but giving them the freedom to express emotions buried within them: feelings of injustice, sometimes anger, despair and sadness, which they do not allow themselves to not to express with their loved ones. The works produced speak for themselves, they deactivate the occurrence of anxiety by creating an atmosphere of kindness and mutual aid.

What is valid for dialysis services is equally valid for other medical sectors. The enemy of hospitals, beyond illness, is anxiety and depression.

Art has this wonderful power to transport us to other worlds where suffering does not exist. All activities around art, whether manual or intellectual, or simply contemplative, have their own place in hospital environments.

 

Art as body care

Beyond its benefits in terms of improving anxiety, conviviality and well-being, the practice of an artistic discipline can be considered in a healing and re-education process. Like sporting activities, sculpture, modeling or painting can be integrated into a treatment program. The advantage becomes double at the level directly of the body, but also of the psychological state of the patients.

As we see, art in hospitals has several facets. Taken as a decorative element with a calming function, as in waiting rooms, it is also used to calm anxiety, improve mental state, as well as in treatment courses. Today it therefore appears essential to the good management of care and establishments.