When it's not the main game : art in hospitals

Abstract

In art galleries, not surprisingly, art is their 'main game'. All the pertinent bureaucratic, financial and curatorial disciplines are applied to ensure all art hanging on the walls is valued and displayed to its best advantage. But when art is exhibited on the walls of other public institutions it is not their 'main game'. It appears to fall into a vacuum and becomes almost invisible, like wallpaper. Public institutions have spent millions of dollars on the procurement and installation of art, yet few understand the long-term implications of placing art in the public sphere. The development of the contemporary hospital system and the formalisation of nurse training from the 1850s onwards, spurred the public debate on what constituted the ideal decoration for hospital environments. Medical professionals, volunteer groups and artists installed a variety of artistic mediums in hospitals as a means of bringing solace to patients and staff. These decorations have ranged from simple floral bouquets, cheap reproduction prints and painted tiles to the procurement of large original art collections of national significance. Yet scant consideration was given to the long-term viability of the art installed in environments attuned to dispensing medical treatment rather than curating art collections. This thesis looks at the tenuous plight of art in hospitals, a study inspired by the loss of a nationally significant art collection acquired by Westmead Hospital in the late 1970s. For the first time, this original empirical study provides a detailed analysis of the problematic history of installing art and other decorative mediums in hospitals, from the mid-19th century.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	English