The Trust’s arts programme rb&hArts delivers a range of vibrant creative arts designed to improve wellbeing and enhance our buildings for patients, visitors and staff.
Research on the impact of arts in healthcare settings shows it can improve clinical outcomes, shorten length of hospital stays, improve mental wellbeing, and support patients to manage long-term conditions.
Working with nearly 150 artists, the rb&hArts team provided almost 5,000 opportunities for participation, offering activities such as singing, beatboxing or learning new crafts designed to cater for all ages.
Musical activities, which are part of the team’s core programme, continued to go from strength to strength. Vocal Beats – a project that brings creative music-making skills and beatboxing to younger patients aged up to 25 – was successfully launched online on YouTube.
Two musicians in residence played live music for adult patients six hours a week, and the Trust’s much replicated Singing for Breathing project for older adults living with chronic respiratory conditions (see right) continued to receive excellent feedback from participants.
The Arts team also formed new partnerships to support wellbeing, offering access to London’s oldest botanical garden, The Chelsea Physic Garden, to Royal Brompton Hospital’s staff and long-stay patients, and working with Groundwork London to create gardens for the intensive care unit and Rowan ward at Harefield Hospital.
rb&hArts also managed over 1,000 artworks around the Trust and supported hospital projects to integrate art into the fabric of our buildings.
Singing for Breathing musical premiere at Royal College of Physicians
The premiere of a vocal composition called The Singing Hospital – performed by patients from the Trust’s Singing for Breathing groups – won a standing ovation from a packed audience at the Royal College of Physicians.
Singing for Breathing supports people living with chronic lung and heart conditions or who experience breathlessness.
Composer and former Trust arts manager, Victoria Hume, was commissioned to revisit the project which she established and to co-create a choral work to celebrate Singing for Breathing’s 10th anniversary. She was inspired by interviews and audio recordings of people experiencing breathlessness.
Victoria said: “I asked people what they felt was important about the groups. I wanted to get across the sense of community each group has – there is such a strong sense of coming together on a joint project. That’s unusual when it comes to medical care which is about what happens to you as an individual.”
The Singing for Breathing groups at the Trust are now the longest continually running hospital-based workshops in Britain for people with respiratory conditions.
Feedback from those taking part is continually monitored. One of the participants, Sharon Alexander, said: “The health benefits from Singing for Breathing have been remarkable. Before I started, I had severe asthma which was really debilitating, and I was using my inhaler 15-20 times a day.
“When I first started Singing for Breathing my lungs felt very tight and closed, but when I came out of the first session they felt very relaxed and open, and from that moment to this I’ve never used my inhaler.”
When I first started Singing for Breathing my lungs felt very tight and closed, but when I came out of the first session they felt very relaxed and open, and from that moment to this I’ve never used my inhaler.
