Northside House | Hospital Rooms x NUA

About

Hospital Rooms are a national project transforming neutral and cold hospital environments into bright spaces with high quality artwork.

Hospital Rooms, in collaboration with Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Norwich University of the Arts (NUA), present this exhibition showcasing their most innovative project to date.

NHS Northside House

Northside House is a medium secure unit for men in Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) and provides care to people who have a severe and enduring mental health diagnosis and have been in touch with the criminal justice system.

This dual element often means that service users experience disproportionate stigma and, as a consequence, face a series of barriers to meaningful engagement with arts and culture.

About the project

The project has been celebrated by the Northside community for “completely transforming the culture of the ward” and pushing the boundaries of creativity within forensic services, prompting the question “why can’t we just let people be creative?”

The most poignant piece of feedback came from a service user who, inspired by the project, painted their own full scale artworks on the ward. This has been described by staff as being “absolutely unheard of in secure services”.

During the project, service users and staff participated in a series of workshops alongside critically acclaimed artists Cara Nahaul, Carl Rowe, Dexter Dalwood, Jade Montserrat, Naomi Harwin and Richard Wentworth.

The artwork

These workshops went on to inform six installations in spaces across Northside House. Inspiration came directly for some artists; Carl Rowe’s ‘BE’ originated in an artwork made by a service user with the words ‘be younique’.

Whilst others were sparked by conversations or a moment; Richard Wentworth’s visits to The Mount, an outside workshop space for service users at Northside, during the early summer months became integral to the artwork he installed on Blakeney Ward.