Special projects
Designed to trial new ways of working creatively with patients and staff to support wellbeing, improve confidence, and have fun.
CURRENT PROGRAMME
We launched a pilot singing project tailored for individuals with chronic health conditions, such as Long Covid, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), and Fibromyalgia.
Led by Helen Lyle, a qualified Singing for Lung Health practitioner with over 30 years of experience in leading community choirs, the sessions were carefully adapted to meet the group's needs. They incorporated relaxation techniques and breathing exercises, followed by the introduction of simple songs and harmony singing.
The project evolved into a thriving weekly singing group, with 30 registered members, which now operates independently from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals (STH) at an accessible community venue in Sheffield. This initiative is supported by the Sheffield Fibromyalgia and ME Group.
In July 2024, we were awarded a Health Inequalities grant from Sheffield Hospitals Charity to expand the Relax, Breathe, and Sing sessions for a group of women attending a weekly pain clinic in the Burngreave area of Sheffield. This area is marked by higher levels of air pollution, poor housing conditions, limited green spaces, and a lack of social activities that promote health, well-being, and community cohesion—particularly for women.
We are working in collaboration with a local GP specialising in health inequalities and respiratory issues, a respiratory consultant, the University of Sheffield’s Department of Music, and health and wellbeing coach Tash Kisten from SOAR Community. Helen Lyle is leading the sessions.
The women who attend the pain clinic, referred by their GPs, are primarily from Muslim communities. Many speak little or no English, and we have interpreters present to support speakers of Farsi, Urdu, Arabic, and Somali. The pain clinic is commissioned by the Foundry Primary Care Network, which includes seven GP practices in the Burngreave area, and delivered by SOAR Community.
In addition to one monthly session for the pain clinic, we have also started a weekly Monday session at the same venue, focusing on more in-depth techniques for relaxation, breathing, vocalisation, and singing. A recent successful application for NHS ethics approval will support a case study evaluating the effectiveness of singing-related interventions for this specific demographic. This programme will run until December 2025.
Our Special Projects programme continues to support other patient groups as well. In March 2025, we facilitated a badge-making session for the Head & Neck Cancer Support Group at Burton Street Community Centre in Hillsborough.
In June 2025, we will begin exploring the possibility of setting up a creative health support group for parents who have experienced baby bereavement. This will be in partnership with Sheffield Museums, the Bereavement Midwives’ team at Jessops Maternity Hospital and two local artists.
Past projects
2021-2024 special projects programme
Our Arts Council and Sheffield Hospitals Charity funded In and Out of Hospital programme was completed in February 2024. We created a legacy booklet, covering the full 6 years of creative intervention projects with specific patient groups, delivered by professional artists, musicians, composers, dancers and poets.
The NHS Stories project, was a collaboration between 19 NHS Trusts to commemorate 75 years of the NHS, led by a national team headed up by Kwame Kwei Armah, actor and artistic director of the Young Vic in London. We worked over 50 members of staff between July and December 2023 to develop and perform a live show of dance, songs, sound, poetry and animation. This was held at Theatre Deli Sheffield on 30th November. A film of the event can be seen here.
In & Out of Hospital Arts Programme: Phase 2
Joint-funded by Sheffield Hospitals Charity and Arts Council England
In February 2020, we received £120K funding from Arts Council England and Sheffield Hospitals Charity to continue our programme with three new projects.
Our Staff Art Club, launched in September 2021, provides staff with the fantastic opportunity to take part in online guided workshops led by professional artists. To date, the workshops have been in lino printing, ceramic mask making, mosaic, jewellery and metalwork, and creative writing. The resulting artwork produced by staff is regularly exhibited in the Trust’s own Seven Hills Gallery. Prose and poetry created during the creative writing workshops, delivered by award-winning poet, writer and performer Genevieve Carver, will be published in our first anthology in October 2022. More Staff Art Clubs are planned.
The aim of our Voice Works project was to help patients suffering with Inducible Laryngeal Obstruction, a condition that affects the voice box. Workshops were led by expert voice coach Dr. Michael Bonshor who taught singing, breathing and posture techniques to give people with this condition more confidence using their voice. A composition of voice sounds have been turned into a podcast and performance to be staged at the University of Sheffield’s Festival of the Mind on 23 September 2022 with external funding support from University of Sheffield’s Knowledge Exchange and Festival of the Mind.
In 2022, we delivered an online Creativity Café, which is aimed at young people with a life-long relationship with our hospitals. This virtual creative learning space brought young people together to learn how to design wearable badges, which were reproduced and shared among all participants.
In & Out of Hospital Arts Programme: Phase 1
In November 2016, we were successful with an Arts Council England application receiving an award of £80,000, which was generously match-funded by Sheffield Hospitals Charity, to support our artist-in-residence programme, ‘In & Out of Hospital’. The first project began in January 2017 and saw many of our in- and outpatients benefitting from enjoyable workshops led by creative professionals.
- Mosaic, copper embossing, and weaving workshops
- Creative sessions for palliative care patients
- Music workshops for hearing impaired outpatients
- Art workshops for stroke patients
1. Mosaic, copper embossing, and weaving workshops
A trio of craftspeople from Yorkshire Artspace were selected to work with patients from the Princess Royal Spinal Cord Injuries Centre at the Northern General Hospital. Coralie Turpin (mosaics), Jason Turpin-Thomson (copper embossing), and Seiko Kinoshita (weaving) took turns to deliver weekly creative skills workshops, teaching patients new techniques and supporting them to create small artworks. These pieces went on display in the Millennium Gallery between June–September 2018 where some 90,000 people were able to see them.
The final artwork from this project is on permanent display at the Princess Royal Spinal Cord Injuries Centre at the Northern General Hospital.
2. Creative sessions for palliative care patients
Brian Whitmore and Jane Forster from Wigan-based arts collaborative Redfolio, ran weekly creative sessions with palliative care patients from the Macmillan Palliative Care Unit at the Northern General Hospital. They used recurring themes from over 300 archived stories from former patients recorded by the University of Sheffield’s ‘Oral History Project’. Personal anecdotes of work, places, love, memories, holidays and more, formed the starting point for a series of short, meaningful creative activities with and for patients and their relatives. The project was selected for Festival of the Mind ‘Futurecade 2018’ that took place between 20–30 September 2018 at the Millennium Gallery, where over 9,000 people visited the exhibition.
The final artwork is installed at the MacMillan Palliative Care Centre at the Northern General Hospital. On display are 20 framed handprints and 2 large handprints in light boxes, each featuring snippets of the participant’s life story running along the hand lines. The handprints are those of patients, relatives and close friends, as well as members of staff. The hands and messages represent the importance in relationships of touch and listening.
3. Music workshops for hearing impaired outpatients
In 2018, we commissioned composer, musician and experienced workshop leader Thomas Sherman to work with hearing impaired outpatients. We worked in close partnership with University of Sheffield’s Department for Music who kindly provided their rehearsal space and a range of musical instruments free of charge. 20 hearing impaired patients worked together in small groups to create a variety of new musical compositions. You can listen to some of the recorded music here.
In March 2019, patients performed their original pieces of music in front of a live audience at BLOC Projects in the centre of Sheffield. Audiences were encouraged to bring and use instruments so they could participate in the performance. Patients were introduced to the concept of ‘graphic scores’ which they created to help facilitate the process of composing and performing music. These graphic scores were made into large paintings and displayed during the live performance to show how signs can be translated into sound.
The Graphic scores have been translated into paintings and are now permanently installed in the Hearing Services Department at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.
The University of Sheffield produced a short video where you can watch patients talking about how valuable it was for them to engage with music despite either not being able to hear at all, or hear as well as they once could.
A final closing event was held in the Department of Audiology and Hearing Services where we showed the film for the first time to participants, members of staff, patient governors, and Sheffield Hospitals Charity staff.
4. Art workshops for stroke patients
In October 2018, we started our final project with Manchester-based artist Elisa Artesero working with stroke patients in our recently-opened Stroke Pathway Assessment and Rehabilitation Centre (SPARC). Elisa ran weekly workshops for small groups of patients using a range of drawing, writing and mark-making skills and tools, using flowers as inspiration. Patients were encouraged to visualise and verbalise their creative abilities and to practice their fine motor and cognitive skills in a relaxed, safe environment. Work created by the participants was photographed, digitally enhanced and installed at the Centre. We also produced a commemorative mug for the project that is for sale at the Sheffield Hospitals Charity Hub at the Northern General Hospital.
Recognition
In October 2018, we received the Patients’ Choice Award at the national Building Better Healthcare Awards for our In & Out of Hospitals programme. Arts Coordinators Mir Jansen and Danielle Parker-Jessop (pictured) went to London to pick up the award.
‘We are incredibly proud of everyone who has taken part and want to thank our funders, staff, artists, and partners for all the support they have given us.’
The Arts in Health team relies on the goodwill of our dedicated team of volunteers. We also regularly work with professional artists and musicians on a variety of creative projects across the Trust.