Arty archives?

Over the last few months LHSA staff have been extending our work to help improve the environment in hospital for patients, staff and visitors. We’ve had some experience of this in the past, with LHSA collections being used as ideas for (and integral parts of) art installations in the Royal Infirmary. A great example of this is the ‘Unsung Heroes’ project where historic nursing badges were paired with modern jewellery made by staff and students at Edinburgh College of Art.

(Image copyright Shannon Tufts)

You can see more at:
http://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/projects/narratives.htm
http://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/projects/Unsung_Heroes.htm

We're now involved in a major project called ‘Old to New’, which will create artwork based on the history of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children for their new home on the Little France Infirmary site. We’ve already provided support to a researcher using the collections to draw out stories to be illustrated in the contemporary pieces that will be commissioned soon, and recently produced additional resources for artistic inspiration in the form of oral histories (we had a great time recording the experiences of a group of nurses who had trained at the Sick Kids in the 1950s).


You can find out more about the fantastic new facilities (opening in 2017) on the NHS Lothian website: http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/OurOrganisation/PropertyDevelopments/CurrentProjects/ProudHistoriesNewChapters/Pages/default.aspx…


...and watch this space to see how LHSA collections continue to contribute to the ‘Old to New’ artwork!