News from Newham

• Vital Arts, the Arts and Health service for Barts Health NHS Trust, has appointed Lauren Godfrey to create a large-scale installation for Newham Hospital's main entranceway
• This will be the London-based artist's first commission within a hospital setting
• Godfrey's ambitious installation will welcome people to the hospital and aims to offer an improved experience to all, reflecting the hospital's values of excellence, innovation and compassionate care.

Vital Arts, the Arts and Health service for Barts Health NHS Trust, has appointed Lauren Godfrey to create a large-scale installation for Newham Hospital's main entranceway. The site-specific artwork will extend throughout the atrium space, rising up three storeys, flowing along corridors and across a vast glazed facia – radically transforming the experience of those entering and exiting the hospital. 

This will be the London-based artist's first commission within a hospital setting. The centrepiece of the artwork will be a large-scale painted mural that wraps around the upper wall areas. Aspects of the mural design will be drawn from a series of creative workshops that Godfrey led with various groups who use the hospital, including patients, NHS staff and local residents, such as students at Plashet School.

The workshops focused on patterned textiles provided by participants, who are encouraged to draw the fabrics and discuss the personal significance of their items. The stories behind the textiles will be collected to form a rich narrative around the work, reflecting the diversity of the hospital and local community and engendering a sense of ownership of this public artwork by the NHS staff and the wider Newham community. 

Other elements of the installation will capitalise on the space’s generous natural light. Using a variety of materials, the artwork will animate the space with reflective surfaces that capture light and cast colourful shadows that will change with the movement of sunlight throughout the day. 

Godfrey's work is inspired by the legacy of Matisse’s cut-outs and the bold surface patterns of 1980s Memphis furniture. These influences lend her work a vibrancy that will enliven the hospital’s entranceway, which serves as a first point-of-contact at Newham Hospital.

Over 320,000 people come to Newham Hospital for an appointment every year, while over 2,200 staff are employed there.

The hospital provides a range of services, including a children’s unit on Rainbow Ward (transformed by Vital Arts with a commission by Morag Myerscough in 2017), a maternity ward (one of the UK’s largest), long-term care and diagnostics. 

Godfrey's ambitious installation will welcome people to the hospital and aims to offer an improved experience to all, reflecting the hospital's values of excellence, innovation and compassionate care. It will be the first commission delivered by Vital Arts in a non-clinical area at Newham Hospital and will serve as part of Phase 1 of Vital Arts's hospital-wide art strategy, to be delivered in 2022/2023.