About us
take heART was formed in July 2021 by a group of like-minded staff members who are all passionate about increasing the availability of the arts for our patients, visitors and staff.
Our key aims:
- To support and enhance wellbeing among patients, visitors and staff to our hospitals through the arts.
- To foster links between our hospitals and the communities they serve through the arts.
- To aim for parity in the provision of the Arts at both of our hospital sites.
Why did we form?
There is substantial evidence of the benefit of the arts in the healthcare setting.
In 2001, the King’s Fund launched a project called “Enhancing the Healing Environment”. Research from this project demonstrated multiple benefits from the visual arts in healthcare settings, including: faster patient recuperation, improved staff morale and confidence, improved staff retention and recruitment, reduced levels of vandalism and violence.
In 2017, “Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing” was published by an All-party Parliamentary Group. This had many powerful conclusions including “the arts can help keep us well, aid our recovery and support longer lives better lived” and “the arts can help save money in the health service and social care”.