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Norwich mental health patients to turn unit into 'art gallery'

Jennifer Moyes Hospital Rooms founders Niamh White and Tim A ShawJennifer Moyes
Art curator Niamh White and artist Tim A Shaw started their London-based charity Hospital Rooms after being inspired by a close friend's experience

Patients at a secure mental health unit are working with acclaimed artists to create artworks "as good as any they exhibit in the Tate".

The artists have started visiting Northside House, formerly known as the Norvic Clinic, in Norwich, to help transform the unit with art.

Charity Hospital Rooms has been working with Norwich University of the Arts.

Its co-founder and artist Tim A Shaw said the creations had a "big impact" by changing patients' environments.

Damian Griffiths The transformed Hellingly Centre in East SussexDamian Griffiths
Patients at secure mental health unit The Hellingly Centre in Hailsham, East Sussex, worked with Mr Shaw to create an art installation across a whole corridor

Six artists, including the Turner Prize-nominated Dexter Dalwood, have started running workshops and the final pieces will be installed across Northside House from the spring.

Hospital Rooms was launched in 2016 by Mr Shaw and curator Niamh White after they visited a friend in a psychiatric unit and were "really shocked" by how clinical it felt.

The charity has now produced 100 artworks at 14 sites across England.

Damian Griffiths A meeting room at Bluebird House inDamian Griffiths
An installation by Charley Peters and patients at a secure unit for young mental health patients in Southampton brightens up a meeting room

Patients at the medium secure forensic mental health unit, Northside House, typically have criminal histories, but Mr Shaw said it had been one of their most "enjoyable" projects because they had been able to get to know the long-stay patients.

"We are asking a lot of the artists - to make their work clinically compliant but not cold and clinical - and as good as any they exhibit in the Tate," he said.

"Northside... will shortly become one of the best creative institutes in the city for at least a few years. We are not decorators or interior designers, but the artwork does have a big impact.

"Six amazing artists come to spend time with people who often have very low self-esteem - and show them respect - and there's a lot of value there."

Damian Griffiths The atrium at the Hellingly Centre in East SussexDamian Griffiths
Artist Hannah Brown worked with patients at The Hellingly Centre to transform the atrium area

Although the artworks will not be on view to the public, an exhibition about the project is being planned for Norwich.

Research will also be carried out by Norwich University of the Arts and the charity to examine the impact of art on patients, which Mr Shaw said could change the way art projects are funded by the NHS in future.

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