The beauty of Ceredigion and neighbouring landscapes will serve as inspiration for artists and poets selected to enhance the patient environment of Bronglais Hospital’s new cancer treatment unit.
Work began in May on the £3million development to remodel and repurpose the current facility to deliver a modern and welcoming healthcare environment following huge local support and fundraising for the Bronglais Chemo Appeal.
Alongside the planning for bricks and mortar, a Public Art Group with staff and patient representatives has worked together to co-create an artistic vision for the unit that says “drawing on our beautiful environment to help us to nurture our patients by choosing colours, shapes and imagery that reflects the tranquility and dependability of nature.”
Rachel Bran, Senior Nurse in Cancer Services at Bronglais Hospital, said: “It cannot be overstated how important a role art plays in creating an environment that promotes healing and calm.
“We are incredibly lucky to have so many incredible, local talents involved in creating a beautiful environment to help us to nurture patients and provide a sense of security, privacy, dignity, comfort and calm.”
Ceredigion-born Catrin Jones, who has been named as the lead artist for the project, is working on a series of five large scale landscape murals for the reception, waiting areas and treatment room, drawing on the route of the river Leri.
Over the summer, Aberystwyth artist and printmaker Marian Haf worked with patients, staff and those with a connection to the unit to create a series of artworks for display.
Eurig Salisbury, poet, Aberystwyth Town Poet 2023–25 and Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University, is creating two poems, one in Welsh and one in English, to be applied to the walls of the unit.
Aberystwyth Art School Graduate, Molly Brown will be creating a series of bespoke framed Linocut prints for the outpatient waiting area, depicting domestic garden scenes to invoke a sense of homeliness and familiar leisure.
Current Aberystwyth Art School students and staff will be creating a series of nature inspired drawings for display across the consultation and staff rooms.