Art Exhibitions
Air Arts is responsible for all of the artwork around our five sites. We have a permanent collection of artwork, alongside temporary themed exhibitions in public areas.
Every six months, we change our exhibition galleries to showcase new work from local artists and staff artists, based on a theme.
You can find out more in our Fresh magazine which is published to coincide with each new exhibition launch.
As well as our themed biannual exhibitions, our large collection of permanent artwork is used to enhance public areas and staff areas in departments.
Along our medical outpatient and cancer services corridor, you can also find a large collection of artworks from the national charity ‘Paintings in Hospitals’ which is on permanent loan to our Trust.
Exhibition Archive
We never want to lose the hard work and incredible art created by our staff from previous exhibitions. To that end, some of these artworks tour the other hospitals across the UHDB Turst and others even find a place as perminant exhibits.
We have also made an effort to encapsulate the collection, as it was exhibited, captured in a digital medium.
The Air Arts Map & Virtual Exhibitions
Not everyone is able to come along and visit our art galleries in person, so we capture all of our exhibitions in our NEW Air Arts Map to create an armchair gallery experience.
Public Art
Public Art is used for wayfinding, privacy and dignity in courtyards, as a specific statement or purely large scale art for everyone to enjoy.
We have a number of key pieces of public art at our sites, including the Badgers Sett and the flower sculptures at the Royal Derby, Florence Nightingale on our London Road site, The Memorial Tree at Queens, and the thankyou sculptures at Queens and the Royal Derby.
Enhancements
From floor to ceiling, the team at Air Arts can support with any element of interior design to provide a more welcoming, homely environment. Previous projects include immersive enhancements in our chemotherapy bays, floor design in our children’s hospital, wall art for radiotherapy and interior design in our neonatal intensive care unit.
For further information email info@airarts.net
Courtyards
We enjoy making the most of our outdoor areas, with healing gardens for member of the public to plant bulbs, staff remembrance gardens and patient areas to relax and recovery in. We work to ensure as many outdoor spaces as possible are available for staff, patients and visitors and include art, sculpture and design.
Music
The healing power of music is well documented and our musicians perform in our public spaces and staff restaurants to lift the atmosphere, provide light entertainment and moments of positive distraction. Alongside our public performances, we have a team of wandering minstrels who are trained music in health specialists visiting patients at bedside to bring music and song to support wellbeing and recovery.
Staff Publications
We have a number of regular publications to support our participation programme: Our Fresh magazine is published twice a year focusing on our art exhibitions but including lots of articles and news on our projects and arts in health. Fresh is available at most exhibition areas around our sites.
Take Time is our staff wellbeing magazine, with activities and ideas to boost your wellbeing through the arts, based on the five ways to wellbeing programme, avialble from info@airarts.net
Colour me, Read me is our patient publication with uplifting poems to read and detailed drawings to colour in, available from info@airarts.net
Patient Experience
We have a range of resources available to support patient recovery and wellbeing including colouring books, origami packs, our Fresh magazine and the Boredom Busters newspaper.
Resources are regularly taken round to wards in person and can be ordered by staff.
We also provide patient workshops in partnership with our staff to target specific patient needs. This is usually one to one sessions, but can be group sessions.
Examples include music workshops, arts and craft, singing for breathing, dance and movement, shared reading and reminiscence boxes.
Medical Museum
In partnership with our library and knowledge service, we care for a large collection of historical medical artefacts from the original Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. This incredible collection of over 1,000 objects is going on display across our hospital sites during 2022-2024. As part of our project, funded by the Heritage Lottery fund, we will be delivering open days, workshops and creating publications and web resources to understand and share this collection with our staff, patients and the public.
Staff Training
To support holistic care and to truly embed the arts into our hospitals culture, we deliver staff training programmes. These includes music therapy training for therapists, visual literacy training for dermatologists and music and dance therapy training for key workers and volunteers. This work enables staff to enhance their clinical skills and to support a more holistic view in their interactions with patients.