Local Artist Works With Bristol Children’s Hospital Patients on New Mural 

Throughout September and October, patients at Bristol Children’s Hospital have been busy painting a brand-new mural for the hospital’s Activities Centre as part of an ambitious art project. 

The Activities Centre is a crucial hub for Bristol Children’s Hospital as it’s the home of the Play Team, who provide children and young people with play therapy, entertainment and distraction while they’re in hospital. Its outdoor garden space is especially important for patients in a city hospital, enabling them to get outside and play while being cared for by hospital staff. 

If you’ve had the opportunity to drop by the Activities Centre in the past couple of weeks, you’ll notice that the garden has been transformed by a brand-new mural, making it an even brighter and more imaginative area for play. 

Meet Luke: one of our Arts Unleashed artists 

This gorgeous, multi-coloured mural, depicting flying animals in daytime and nighttime scenes, is the creation of Bristol-based artist Luke Palmer. 

Luke is a familiar face in the children’s hospital, where he regularly runs collaborative painting sessions as part of Arts Unleashed, our inclusive programme of creative activities for patients. 

Collaborative painting is a unique method that allows patients and their families to work together on a canvas without planning what the end result will look like. Luke responds to the ideas of the people he’s painting with and helps them make a piece of art that looks like it was created by a single person.  

Including the patients in the picture 

The new mural is made of pieces of wood that were small enough to be transported around the hospital’s many wards, which allowed Luke to spend hours painting with patients and their families.  

One patient who worked on the mural was Grace, who Luke visited on Apollo 35 Ward, which cares for young people with a variety of health conditions.  

“I loved taking part in making the artwork with Luke while I was in hospital,” Grace said afterwards. “It really took my mind off what was happening, and it was something very nice to do with my family. The artwork was amazing. I worked on both the owl and the moth. For that moment in time, I forgot all about my treatment and being in hospital. I’m so pleased that I was able to be involved in such a great project.” 

To complete the mural, two woodland-themed Gromit Unleashed sculptures have been added to the garden alongside it. ‘Monarch’ and ‘Fun Guy’ look right at home near their toadstool and butterfly counterparts on the wall! 

Read our interview with Luke below to learn more about this very special mural and the incredible impact it has had on the patients and parents who helped paint it. 

How did you come up with the idea for a mural painted by patients? 

“Jo, the Play Service Manager at Bristol Children’s Hospital, got in touch and told me about this wall in the Activities Centre’s garden that looked a bit sad and dreary. She asked if I could paint a mural to brighten it up. 

Since we would need to mount bits of wood to this wall to paint a mural, I came up with the idea to create a series of smaller pieces of wood that would be transportable. I could design the pieces, get them cut out and then I’d have mobile pieces of artwork. These could be taken onto the wards for patients to collaborate with me on. 

I worked quite closely on the idea with Daisy, another member of the Play Team. We quickly decided that the mural should be made up of lots of different animals and that it would look best if they were flying. So, we ended up with butterflies, bees, dragonflies, owls and bats. We realised that some of those animals are nocturnal, which led us to the idea of a sun and a moon in the middle of the mural. One side of the mural represents the daytime and the other side represents the nighttime.” 

What were the benefits for the patients and families who took part in this project? 

“The children and teenagers who took part told me how much they enjoyed it. They loved contributing to something that felt so big. Rather than creating a little bit of artwork for themselves, they added something to a much larger project. 

One of the surprises of working on the mural was how many parents got involved. I designed this project with young people in mind, but as I visited the wards and young people started painting with me, often their parents would start painting as well. One of the biggest wins from this project was how many parents fed back to me that it was something that let them take their minds off everything else, to just drift away while they were painting. One parent looked up after 20 minutes or so of painting and said: ‘I’ve just completely forgotten where I was for the last 20 minutes.’  

That feedback made me feel that I’d achieved what I wanted with this project. It’s been great to meet so many parents and give them the opportunity to be creative while they’re in hospital with their child. Because it’s a tough time for them too, right?”  

What impact do you hope that the mural will have on the Activities Centre? 

“An important part of this project for me is that the young people who took part in the painting will see the finished mural when they come back to use the Activities Centre. I love the idea that they will be able to point out the little bit of the mural that they got to paint. I think it gives patients ownership over this space. The Activities Centre is obviously here for them and theirs to use, but the fact that they’ve contributed something to the mural means their handiwork has left a mark on this garden.” 

The new mural for the Activities Centre is just one of the creative activities we’ve funded as part of Arts Unleashed. Recently, other Arts Unleashed projects have included regular hospital visits from Julia the harpist and a Christmas card design competition.