Art in Healthcare is a charity working across Scotland to improve health and wellbeing for individuals and communities by providing opportunities to experience and engage with high quality visual art, artists and creativity - particularly within community, health and social care settings.
Since 1991, when the organisation was affiliated with Paintings in Hospitals, we have been using visual art as a tool to address health inequalities. There is good evidence to show that the arts can support both the mental and physical health of individuals, from supporting self-management of conditions at home to aiding recovery in hospital or providing comfort in a palliative setting. In 2005 we became an independent Scottish charity Art in Healthcare.
We have a large collection of modern and contemporary, predominantly Scottish, art. Our collection is unique in Scotland because it was collected and curated for the purpose of making people feel better and we continue to place ‘care’ at the heart of our approach.
We make the collection accessible to a wide audience, providing curated exhibitions of quality artworks for patients, visitors and staff to experience. Works from our collection are currently exhibited in over thirty hospitals, hospices, residential care homes and medical practices across Scotland. Statistics tell us that whilst not everyone feels comfortable visiting a gallery or museum, most individuals make use of health and social care services.
We provide this service to help patients to feel less defined by their condition or illness, residents to be stimulated, visitors to feel welcome and relaxed and staff to feel valued.
We also deliver a varied and extensive outreach programme, developing projects that engage individuals in activity to benefit their health and wellbeing. We work with lots of partners and a broad range of individuals including unpaid adult carers, new Scots, adults living with chronic health conditions and individuals who have received a recent diagnosis. We have been delivering the established and highly-regarded Room for Art, a social prescription project using visual art to support individuals and communities across Edinburgh for many years.
