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SPECIAL FEATURE ON THE GAINSBOROUGH HERITAGE FANPAGE
28 March 2011
We ere contacted via email the other day by Andrew Birkitt, Exhibitions Officer and a Founder Member of the Gainsborough and District Heritage Association.
“I understand that your team were responsible for the mural in the John Coupland Hospital in Gainsborough that we were involved in the research of, and I was wondering if you had any interesting photos of the mural that we could use on our fanpage. In the meantime I would like to add my own congratulations on the finished result, it is something I have admired on several occasions.”
The following link takes you through to the feature.
“A FANTASTIC JOB!”
28 March 2011
We worked alongside The League of Friends of the Stead Hospital throughout this project and their response has been enthusiastic at all times. When we are given a free reign (as we are very lucky to be able to do on most projects), we are able to really push the boundaries to complete a project that is immensely satisfying to ourselves and to all those involved. We are extremely pleased with the finished mural with its laser cut stainless steel frame, and to receive the following letter just adds to our sense of pride that we have achieved the best job possible.
“Dear Karen and Tony
Peter and I called in Redcar Hospital today to view the completed artwork. We were very impressed; we think you’ve done a fantastic job. I’m sure all our members will be happy with it. It’s been lovely meeting you both and thanks for the wonderful mural; you are very talented. Look forward to seeing you at the unveiling.”
Joan Elders, Chairman of The League of Friends of the Stead Hospital, Redcar
A CELEBRATION OF THE CHARITABLE APPEALS TRUST – KING’S MILL HOSPITAL, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
28 February 2011
We are very happy to announce the start of our most recent commission – a heritage display to recognise the very significant achievements of the King’s Mill Charitable Appeals Trust.
Led by Frances Stein, with the help of many volunteers and the local community, the appeal has raised over £2.3 million for the benefit of the hospital since the start of the first appeal 25 years ago.
“We have a total of 21 lever arch files containing photographs and press cuttings which records a huge variety of fund raising events and donations of cash from local clubs, pubs, businesses, local councils and individual members of the public over many years.
“The challenge is to produce a design which is attractive for children and young people and at the same time acknowledge the generosity of the local community and the achievements of the Appeals Trust.” (project brief)
Our intention is to create an illustrated display that is bright, colourful and fun, which will appeal to children and adults alike. The display will be sited in the brand new Women and Children’s Centre at King’s Mill Hospital.
BORDER ILLUSTRATION FOR THE STEAD MEMORIAL HOSPITAL MURAL IN REDCAR
26 January 2011
We’ve recently been working on a very enjoyable project since before Christmas, and it’s just about ready to go to print. I’ve particularly really enjoyed researching and illustrating the special border.
Iron and steel has always been an important industry in the area. Driving to Redcar for the first time took us next to the very heartland of the steelworks, and we saw some pretty amazing views, as this next image shows perfectly.
We were so inspired – this fantastic industrial landscape just had to be incorporated in the mural! After sketching out a number of ideas we came up with the concept of illustrating – the skyline of the industrial landscape. This meant drawing out the dramatic silhouette of the horizon – but in negative form, to be then cut out of a stainless steel frame. This means that the steel frame represents the sky above Redcar!
After our first meeting at the new hospital in Redcar we decided to have a look around the region – as we always do with new projects. It’s an invaluable aid to inspiration. First we visited the old, now boarded up, Stead Hospital, and the cemetery nearby to search out gravestones of the original Stead family. I’m not a big one for cemeteries normally, but…. Then on to the seaside! It was here we discovered the stunning coastline backed with dunes – and Coatham Marsh, a 134 acre wetland nature reserve.
Thanks to the web we were able to make contact with Steve Ashton, People and Wildlife Manager for the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust. Working in collaboration with him we were able to discover much more about the plants, animals and birdlife that inhabit the marsh. I have always been besotted with wildlife in general, and illustrating the border for the bottom of the mural in a way that will engage with children, has been a total joy to work on. I chose to illustrate it in a layered silhouette style; to amalgamate with, but also stand out from, the history information on the mural.
We have also created a ‘Colour Me In’ nature spotting leaflet that works in conjunction with the marsh illustration on the mural. This can be given out by hospital reception staff to keep children amused while visiting the hospital.
Can’t wait to see the finished mural all in place at the hospital with its specially cut out steel frame. We have already had some very good feedback from everyone we have worked with: from Malcolm Brydon, co-ordinator for the project, The League of Friends who have part funded the work, and Steve Ashton from the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust who emailed specially to tell us – ‘Very impressed with what you have done so far.’
ILLUSTRATED MURAL FOR THE CHILDREN’S EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT – KING’S MILL HOSPITAL, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
24 November 2010
We realised from the very beginning, well as soon as we had visited the site, that a heritage mural would be totally out of place in a Children’s Emergency Waiting Room. We needed to promote that the Trustees of the Mansfield Gospel Mission Church had given a very substantial donation, to enable the department to be stocked with much needed specialised medical equipment, toys and play equipment. At the same time create a display that was bright, cheerful and appealing to children and young people for years to come.
Taking on board the fact that the major part of the ministry at The Mission was for the welfare of local children, and included many musical activities, influenced my initial sketches for the mural. We were supplied with many historical photos at The Mission, but one little photo just immediately sang out to me! This was of a little girl dressed in her oversized father’s brass band jacket, and blowing on his tuba! This immediately inspired me to use this photo, cut-out and hand coloured, to base my illustration around.
First of all, I illustrated ribbons snaking their way out of the tuba and framing the wording; “The Gospel Mission helped fund this Emergency Department for Children and Young People specially for YOU!” I then set the little girl in a garden scene of blowsy hollyhocks, swaying daisies, fluttering butterflies and gliding dragonflies. I also illustrated more musical instruments, including a concertina, which was an integral part of the musical activities enjoyed by children at The Mission.
I designed the whole mural to fit part of the wall around the reception desk, the little girl playing the tuba features at child-height, which is also perfect for people to view whilst sat in the waiting area. An historical photo taken inside The Gospel Mission was positioned alongside a brief resume of its history, at a perfect height to be read by adults whilst waiting at the reception desk.
We often include some form of illustrations, for example, the full size trees and nursing staff marching along a country lane for The Friarage Hospital mural completed in 2005. Though a large illustration, this was still just a frame for the whole mural. This present mural though, has been the first where the history has been included as just a part of a bright, colourful illustration. I have thoroughly enjoyed letting my realms of imagination take flight in this direction, and hope that more similar projects will come our way in future.
As I work from sketches and then draw them up onto a computer, the artwork is not directly painted to the hospitals’ walls, but printed onto a tough, long lasting textured laminate. This is then permanently ‘wallpapered’ to the prepared wall, and can be kept clean to meet infection control procedures. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this project – Karen van de Bospoort.
On Tuesday 9 November there was a Dedication Ceremony for hospital staff and members of the Gospel Mission, who were invited to view the proceeds of their generosity. BBC Radio Nottingham recorded the ceremony and everyone was later treated to a buffet lunch.
IN PROGRESS – THE HISTORY OF THE STEAD MEMORIAL HOSPITAL TO BE PORTRAYED IN THE NEW REDCAR PRIMARY CARE HOSPITAL
23 October 2010
We are very excited to be able to tell you about our latest project for NHS Redcar and Cleveland and the Stead Memorial Hospitals League of Friends. We are creating a unique heritage mural for the new hospital, to enable visitors to discover more about the now closed Stead Hospitals history.
The display will include a written history, photos, memorabilia, documents and artefacts. Hospital staff, former patients and local families, are being encouraged to play their part in the history project by sharing memories dating right back to when the Stead first opened in 1929. Shown above is the approved design visualisation as it might appear; one of four options shown at the very well attended public meeting held at the hospital on the 6th October 2010.
Dr John Stead was not a doctor of medicine but a highly qualified and distinguished Doctor of Science, specialising in metallurgy and specifically in the extraction of iron from its ore. After he died, in 1923, his family bequeathed his home to the local council to turn into a Cottage Hospital.
The landscape of Redcar and its surroundings are dominated by the stunning coastline, with its 8 mile long beach backed with dunes and nature reserve wetlands. This natural beauty contrasts with the dramatic silhouettes on the horizon of the steelworks and blast furnace, the Tees estuary teeming with cargo vessels, and the industrial complex at Wilton.
To do justice to the history of the Stead Memorial Hospital we aim to show its role at the heart of the Redcar community, set within its dramatic industrial and natural surroundings. We also aim to emphasize the impact and importance of the steel industry, without which the hospital would not have existed.
Local history and heritage should be made accessible to all ages and one of the projects aims is to encourage children, both in school parties and individually with their parents, to look at the display, to ask questions and find answers both about the hospital and the local environment. With this in mind we are working with local schools to devise a history project about the Stead Hospital allowing them to find the answers in the mural.
Coatham Marsh is a 134 acre nature reserve which attracts a diverse and important range of wildlife and birds. We are working with Tees Valley Wildlife Trust to include silhouette illustrations of the flora and fauna at the wildlife sanctuary as a border to the mural. The aim being to create a booklet, as a downloadable online resource, in which children can match the silhouettes with full colour illustrations and descriptive text. The digital booklet could also be made available at the hospital, local schools and from the Wildlife Trust.
With the link between the steel industry and the founding of the hospital being so strong, we have designed a polished steel frame incorporating a frieze depicting the dramatic skyline of both the steelworks and industrial complex.
The combination of steel framed frieze, nature reserve silhouette border and the detailed historical mural will, we believe, answer the challenges of creating a dramatic and unique heritage display for Redcar Community Hospital.
CULTURE AND WELLBEING WEBSITE CASE STUDY ON THE JOHN COUPLAND HOSPITAL HISTORY MURAL
21 October 2010
The Culture and Wellbeing website is a new national resource for creativity and health. It is designed to act as a signpost to help you to find individuals and organisations which are using the arts to influence health, the research and guidelines which support this work and other sources of information about all aspects of arts, creativity and wellbeing. Click on the following link to see their case study on the John Coupland Hospital History Mural and find out more about Culture and wellbeing.
http://www.cultureandwellbeing.org.uk/case-studies/john-coupland-hospital-history-mural
Case study featured on the BBH and Arts & Health South West Websites
8 October 2010
You can read the case study about the John Coupland Hospital Heritage Mural, featured on the Building Better Healthcare website (with links also from the Arts & Health South West website), by clicking on the links below. Thanks very much to both organisations for your support!
http://www.bbhealthcare.co.uk/show.php?page=feature&id=1563&story=1563
http://www.artsandhealthsouthwest.org.uk/news.cfm?page_id=2663
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
16 August 2010
Just had a fantastic weekend up in Scotland; the weather was good too! Edinburgh has always been one of my favourite cities, especially because I used to spend summers while a student helping out at the Fringe. For free board, (a sleeping bag on any available floor space), I would design posters and help out serving during intervals at a small venue called ‘St Columba’s by the Castle’. While other people spent time queuing to try to get in to see Roger McGough, I would sit in the wings listening for free, mesmerised by his poetry. In fact one day Melvin Bragg was so annoyed to be turned away. “Don’t you know who I am!” he said. “Yes, but there are just no seats left.” Another time I was roped in to help work the puppets for a children’s puppet show – great fun! We were even reviewed on Scottish tv!
This year we saw a bit of comedy, and then spent a very enjoyable evening watching various music bands in a small cellar venue. We walked back in the early hours, eating fried haggis and chips to try to soak up all the alcohol we had consumed! Another day we watched a very thought provoking play about euthanasia, viewed a few art galleries, and an amazing dance company. The contemporary dance was an eclectic mix of infectious energy and multimedia. Each dance was accompanied by music soundtracks that could be a medley of shifting waves on a pebbly beach, or rushing wind overlaid onto classical music played backwards. Sometimes the dancing was choreographed to include videoworks, intervals also featured creatively shot dance videos. The atmosphere was electric, everything, including lighting, harmonized into a totally inspirational experience.
JOHN COUPLAND HOSPITAL HISTORY MURAL – UNVEILED JULY 2010
11 August 2010
We arrived at the hospital the day before the official unveiling along with the specialists we work with for print, construction and installation. Even though we had been to their workshop to double-check everything beforehand, it is always exciting to be on site coordinating the final installation. We had taken close-up photos of the hospital’s wood panelling giving detail of the polished oak grain, the mural frame matched this perfectly. Installation went very smoothly and we were all treated to lunch in the hospital’s canteen. Later we wrapped the mural in brown paper with a poster explaining when it was to be unveiled, and attached a red ribbon tied in a bow.
We travelled again to Lincolnshire the next morning to attend the Hospital’s Open Day. We arrived in Gainsborough to beautiful, hot, sunny weather. There was a lovely ‘garden party’ feel to all the stalls laid out on the large lawn in front of the grand Georgian style hospital. We joined a special guided tour of the operating section of the hospital, where I picked up an old-fashioned operating instrument and (unfortunately) got the answer to, “what exactly were these gruesome looking instruments used for?!”
At the appointed time we gathered in the main corridor, and there was a short speech from Matron Jill Anderson. Two specially invited guests; Bob Rainsford, local dignitary, and Ian Loxley, supplier of the story of WWII shrapnel that had been removed from his mothers’ leg; then cut the ribbon and tore off the brown paper to unveil the mural.
Much to my surprise, I was presented with a large bunch of flowers, and Tony a very nice bottle of wine. It had been a very enjoyable project to work on, and I can’t wait to design the next mural that will follow work to develop the hospital site.
© 2011 Hospital Art Studio part of Woodgate Studios Limited
