Changing spaces can change feelings and behaviour. Here are 5 case studies of Armtongers' projects around the world

1. Art has a role to play anywhere it’s needed
Four examples of art in clinical environments
Artmongers.org

2. Artmongers believe in…
Live Spaces
Place Making
Public Ownership

3. Example 1: Journeys We Make
@ Snowsfields Adolescent Unit, Maudsley Hospital, London
UK. Spring 2014
A partnership between the NHS, Artmongers and Dulwich
Picture Gallery finding common ground while moving away
from the commonplace
Artworks:
Up and Down and Up Again:
Coast on a Fence
Cloud Appreciation Society
The Horizon Lounge

4. We used the existing
feature of the safety panel
on the staircase…
… and the concept of
journeys and travelling
from patient workshops…

5. To develop a life affirming artwork where the art takes precedence
over the functionality in our response

6. Using landscapes in a cramped and limiting space and the
patients’ interest in the natural world…

7. … to create a wider and more engaging horizon
in “Coast on Fence”

8. The Cloud Appreciation Society draws on fragments of Dulwich
Picture Gallery paintings to give sidelong glimpses of open skies

9. The Horizon Lounge offers serenity
and spaciousness, inspired by
another Dulwich Picture Gallery
landscape

10. Example 2: The Newcomen Centre
Children with serious neurological conditions come from all over the UK.
We created two Play areas (kids and adolescents) to reduce stress for families while
waiting.

11. The theme throughout
the space is wind.
Here the Doughnut
artwork is inspired by a
3D mathematics used
to develop thermal
dynamics and
propellers.
Also known as a torus.

12. Younger children can
interact with the
weather on this
magnetic wall map

13. What happens above the Clouds?

14. Technical information about wind for older and more
scientifically minded children

15. Ye Olde London Wind – city skylines are interesting for some children in the autistic
spectrum. The theme here is adapted to fit with the original tiles which were
restored. Children can find the effects of the wind in the details

16. Hot Air Balloon Race
Site specific artwork in the
Measuring Room
with views of Parliament
across the Thames.

17. Example 3: Royal Free Hospital, Children’s Outpatients

18. Light, fresh and welcoming

19. Doors with narratives and bright colours
The doors where all vinyl wrapped and had animals, blossoming cherry trees or precious
minerals printed on them, all life affirming images.

20. Happy green grass so children to feel as if there were giants.

21. Visual Treasure Hunt, an activity for parents and children to do while
they wait

22. Example 4: The Nest for Premature Children, Argentina

23. x

24. Adapting the narrative to the space

25. Fictionalising the outside and screening the window bars

27. Example 5: National Children’s Hospital, Baku, Azerbaijan
Play area on the theme of numbers

28. Workshops and
installation with local
students and activists to
transfer skills and
trigger future projects

29. Room for imagination

30. Art won’t save the world,
but it can definitively improve it

31. Typical Artmongers Approach in a Clinical Environment
Understand context, target
audience and participants
Desk research
Site visit
Objective Approach
EXPLORE
Phase
Identify primary needs
Initial ideas
User workshops
Online project space
Feedback loop
ENGAGE / DEVELOP
Develop and create
artworks – open dialogue
Online project space
Feedback loop
CO - CREATE
Produce and Install
artworks
Observe Fine tune
Local Multimedia
production
Site visit
INSTALL

32. The way we feel about colours
• One centimetre of yellow is completely different to a square
metre of yellow Paul Gaugin
• All colours are from the same colour group to meet the needs
of the spaces
• The repetition of a limited colour palette brings a rhythm to
the spaces
• The colours are selected for their physiological and
psychological impact. The application of the colours is based
on the spaces, the changing light and the interactions

33. • Patricio Forrester set up Artmongers in
2003, borrowing the model of an architect
or design studio but delivering Public Art -
in the streets, in hospitals and in other
public spaces. Catherine Shovlin has been
part of Artmongers since 2010
• We believe that working within the context
of Public Art, user and site specific cultural
productions based on user engagement and
research can benefit individual behavior
and society at large.
• Artmongers has made environmental
artworks involving homeless people, youth
at risk, children (including autistic and
special needs), community members,
performers and other artists.
• Many hospital environments are
“accidental” or designed by default, most
likely nobody thought about them in an
integral way especially not the user
experience
• Artmongers.org