Project: North View Acute Adult Mental Health, 150 bed/9 ward inpatients, North Manchester General Hospital

Commission Brief: Lucentia Design was commissioned by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust to deliver the art scheme for North View, the new 150 bed/9 ward mental health inpatient hospital which replaced Park House. Working in collaboration with Park House inpatients and staff, those with lived experience and the Greater Manchester community Lucentia created relevant and supportive original artworks throughout the building.

Art Scheme Delivery: From the very inception of this project Lucentia understood the importance of giving service users and staff a voice in the creative process to develop designs and original artworks for their new building. Lucentia established the ‘Silver Lining Group’ as this process evolved through an extensive creative engagement programme. People with lived experience and carers were invited to join to influence designs throughout the building and actively help create feature artworks. Park House service users were at the core of the process with insights gained through a series of creative on-ward sessions. The engagement also reached out to Manchester based community groups. Over 820 individuals participated in 170 creative sessions.

Lucentia's engagement led programme brought about many creative opportunities; it was important to work on the wards with service users as much as possible and it was equally important to build conversations with our lived experience group. We were humbled by people’s willingness to share their experiences. Our ideas developed and grew with our engagement and resulted in a plethora of creative work that informed our final co-produced artworks.

The use of Manchester Art Gallery’s studio space enabled a central safe space for bringing our Silver Lining Group together to collectively create large scale artworks. Our monthly sessions resulted in the creation of the nine feature artworks used for each ward entrance. Our group was incredibly proud to be invited to have our original ‘River’ artwork displayed in the Art Gallery’s ‘Room to Breathe’ community space from October to December 2023. This process inspired further sessions on the wards with patients to create large scale co-produced pieces, 10 of which are now on site as framed original pieces. Through conversations, we were introduced to haikus and mindfulness; we embraced these alongside the artwork and always from the patient experience. Creating a series of audio mindfulness pieces and filmed creative resources for skill sharing opened other ways to connect to the artworks.

North View can now boast a collection of the resulting original artworks from the welcoming entrance collage, at the nine ward entrances, in stairwells, circulation pause points to the fabulous patient gallery. The joy of seeing the textures and colours in framed original artworks create soft homely touches which encourage conversations with patients and staff, and importantly for visitors they reflect the care given at North View. All the artworks* are permanent installations, made robustly and sustainably to stand the test of time aesthetically as well as for maintenance and the specific environmental setting. *The gallery frames are permanent; there is a curated patient artwork exhibition programme planned.

Our Silver Lining's collaborative approach has proved beneficial in supporting social wellbeing values, raising morale, self-esteem and confidence. There are plans to continue and evolve this sense of community for both patients and staff centring around the patient gallery and linked creative opportunities. Creativity can nourish the soul and offer varied forms of expression which are so beneficial in forming connections for patient recovery: ‘Art is life’ as one patient put it; ‘These things lift the spirit, it helps change the patient mindset, it goes beyond the medical model,’ notes a psychologist staff member. We have been truly rewarded by being able to put patients and people with lived experience at the heart of these art collaborations.

Please watch our short case study film on YouTube on link below which will put the above into context.

https://youtu.be/2P276Pt2Unk

Selected images from the project

‘Creating artworks for mental healthcare is truly rewarding experience, especially so when we can put patients and people with lived experience at the heart of it. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed and made this possible.’

Stella Corrall, Creative Director, Lucentia Design

‘The artwork created with our service users, provide a fabulous reflection of their thoughts, feelings and emotions about the co-developed environments we have at North View. The volume of artwork on display, and the ability to interchange, also provide ample opportunity for creations to remain personal and relevant during service user recovery.’

Marc Reed, Project Director, North View