East Lancashire Hospice

Brightening the corridors!

A collaborative piece of artwork now adorns the walls of East Lancashire Hospice – after staff, patients, visitors and volunteers got involved in a special project.

Due to the major refurbishment at the hospice, Rachel Shovelton, End Of Life Care Educator, came up with the idea of ‘the Wall Art Project’, brightening the corridors and disguising the mundane temporary walls.

Rachel, a keen painter herself, has overseen the project. She said: “A number of temporary walls have gone up at the hospice and it doesn’t look very nice - so we did something about it.

“We asked the members of the Creative and Support Therapy (CaST) group what they would like to create and they mentioned woodland, streams, and creatures.

“You don’t have to be an artist to take part. The key thing was we wanted to get everyone involved. Staff and volunteers have been grabbing a paintbrush on their breaks and staying late, visitors took part in the ‘lend a hand’ drop in sessions where they made paint handprints for the leaves, and children visiting their relatives have made hedgehogs from leaves in the hospice garden.”

The hospice was given a helping hand from Nimtech, an award-winning social enterprise scheme partnered with Crown Paints in Darwen.

The artwork also features positive messages and poems.

Rachel said: “A lot of people travel along the corridor to get to inpatients and often family members and friends take a moment in this space.

“It’s constantly evolving and being added to. We have had lots of positive comments from visitors, many saying they look forward to seeing what else has appeared. You don’t often get people looking forward to visiting the hospice.”

The hospice is currently creating an ‘eye spy’ quiz to keep youngsters occupied when their family need some time to themselves.

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