News Story
Arts and mental health charity Hospital Rooms has received an Arts Council England grant of £600,000 to launch an ambitious three-year project (2025–2028) across NHS Mental Health Services.
The pioneering initiative will transform hospital spaces nationwide, ensuring that communities identified as most impacted by the Mental Health Act—young people, adults in the criminal justice system, Black communities, and people with learning disabilities and autistic people—have equitable access to high-quality cultural and creative experiences.
Delivered in collaboration with NHS Trusts in Birmingham, Bristol, North East London and South West Yorkshire, the project will:
- Commission 52 site-specific artworks for hospitals
- Deliver 150+ artist-led workshops with patients and NHS staff
- Foster major cultural partnerships with a consortium of cultural partners, including MAC and its close neighbours - Birmingham City University and Ikon Gallery.
- Nationally, other partners involved in the project include Arnolfini, Art in Motion, ActionSpace, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Birmingham City University, Ikon Gallery, Intoart, Spike Island, Tate, The Hepworth Wakefield, University of the West of England Bristol, Whitechapel Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) and the Hospital Rooms Gallery Circle.
A key aspect of the project will be the development and publication of the first-ever National Framework for Equal Access to Arts in Mental Health Services. Consolidating eight years of rigorous, evidence-based research, the Framework will:
- Provide a scalable model for the integration of arts programmes in mental health hospitals across the UK and beyond
- Develop creative programmes that are trauma-informed, autism friendly, and culturally competent for mental health care setting
- Ensure that NHS hospitals become environments where patients can engage meaningfully with contemporary art as part of their care and recovery
- Embed reciprocal exchanges between museums and mental health hospitals
Niamh White, Co-Founder and Director of Hospital Rooms, says:
"For too long, locked and secure mental health hospitals have been stark, isolating environments. This is a defining moment for Hospital Rooms. This project marks a critical shift—from one-off interventions towards a national, systemic approach that will fundamentally change mental healthcare. This is about more than decoration—it's about equity, dignity, and transformation."
Emma Moody, Associate Director for Service Development and Commissioning at Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, says:
“We’re delighted to be partnering with Hospital Rooms on this exciting project to create a series of artworks for our new specialist facility, The Kingfisher. We’ve seen through the engagement that local service users have had with the workshops Hospital Rooms have run, just how valuable art is to people, and the difference it makes to their wellbeing. This is a really brilliant opportunity for people with learning disabilities and autistic people to work with world renowned artists, to deliver something truly special.”
Paul Calaminus, CEO at North East London Foundation Trust, says:
"We are thrilled to collaborate with Hospital Rooms on this pioneering initiative, which will bring world-class art and creative experiences into our mental health services. This project will have a profound impact on the well-being and recovery of the communities we serve”.
Dan O'Mara, head of nursing at Parkview Clinic, part of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, says:
"We're so thrilled to have the opportunity for our clinic to be transformed in this way. The Hospital Rooms team has really taken the time to understand our current stark and clinical environment and how it can be improved to not only benefit the wellbeing of our young people, but our staff too.
"They also understand how important it is for our young people to be centrally involved in the process, so that the environment reflects their opinions, tastes, thoughts and feelings. This project will be so much more to us than just something to look at. We look forward to working with the artists to engage our young people, so the artwork can become part of the therapeutic experience we offer for them."
MAC will partner with Hospital Rooms for an exhibition in the Community Gallery from 25 October 2025 to 26 April 2026.
About Hospital Rooms:
The charity Hospital Rooms was founded when a friend of artist Tim A Shaw and curator Niamh White was sectioned and admitted to a NHS mental health hospital. On visiting her, they were shocked to find the hospital environment was cold and clinical at a time when she was so vulnerable. Having both worked in the arts for 10 years, Shaw and White felt they had the skills and community to be able to transform these spaces with unique and site specific artworks.
Hospital Rooms envisions a new world where abundant and meaningful creative opportunities are readily accessible to people with severe and enduring mental health diagnoses, and where mental health hospital environments are inventive cultural spaces offering solace, comfort and dignity.
Since 2016, Hospital Rooms has undertaken a number of acclaimed projects, completed in some of the most challenging mental health settings. A roster of artists is carefully selected for each Hospital Rooms’ project according to the needs of each community.
Participating NHS Trusts and Partner Organisations
The Hospital Rooms National Mental Health Framework is in partnership with:
● Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (Bristol): People with learning disabilities and autistic people
● Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust (Parkview): Young people
● North East London Foundation Trust (Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge and Waltham Forest): Black communities
● South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (Barnsley and Wakefield): Adults in locked and secure services
The project is supported by Arts Council England, Winsor & Newton, the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Hiscox Foundation.
