Bringing Colour to Clinical Spaces
My name's Bec Coote, and I'm one of the bedside artists for Inscape Tasmania.
Here at the Royal Hobart Hospital, we see a lot of older patients. Sometimes people can be in hospital for a long time, with complex problems, so they’re not ready to go home.
Hospitals can be quite disorientating for people with delirium or dementia. What we would like to do through Inscape Tasmania is make this environment slightly more comfortable for the clients. There's nothing that they can really see or touch, or that is familiar in this environment. If we could bring in imagery that people could relate to, that would make a big difference.
Creative workshops available for Royal Hobart Hospital staff with Inscape artist Bec Coote.
Artists look at things differently. We come in, often looking at a space, and see how we can change it. As an artist, we all have our particular things we're working on. For me, I'm interested in my landscape and my perception of my own landscape. I'm constantly looking and creating work about my home. When I come into the hospital, I look at this space about how we can change it to make it more comfortable for the people that are staying here.
Most recently, working with the hospital staff has been really great. The staff art workshops evolved from a conversation with some of the staff who felt that the space really needed something more for the clients.
I came up with some great ideas about how we could activate it. I spoke about sunsets and sunrises and colour. We decided to run some staff workshops to involve them as much as we can, so they felt like they were part of enlivening the space. They responded really well.
Spaces for potential creative activation. “The staff art workshops evolved from a conversation with some of the staff who felt that the space really needed something more for the clients.” - Bec Coote
It's often the staff, the cleaners and the care assistants, they're the ones that are really getting involved, which is lovely because they probably wouldn’t normally jump into an art project.
Ready to be hung. Artwork created by Royal Hobart Hospital staff through Bec Coote Inscape workshops.
Unless you spend a lot of time in hospital, you don't really know what it's like in a hospital unit.
And that little bit of colour, and that little bit of non-clinical, I think can make a whole lot of difference to people's lives when they're here. And that's what Inscape does. We bring in a bit of colour, a bit of noise, a bit of silliness. Our aim is to make the time that people have here better.
“When you bring artists into a place, artists often think outside the box. We can bring different ideas, that’s a big plus that we can offer.”
Inscape Tas Artist Bec Coote. Photo by Laura Purcell
Creativity in Care. This #AusArtDay on 23 October, you can support artists shaping the future of Australian arts. Your donation - big or small - helps Inscape Tasmania create the future of care. Inscape’s artists bring calm, joy and connection into hospitals through music, art and storytelling. Your gift helps expand residencies, reach more patients and families, and ensure creativity remains at the heart of healing in Tasmania.
Learn more and Donate: www.inscape.org.au/ausartday
Inscape is a registered charity and is supported by private philanthropy and government grants which support Tasmanian professional artists and musicians to deliver creative programs with patients, families and staff in Southern Tasmanian hospitals.
#CreativityInCare #CreativeAustralia
