Project Update:

Creative Play - Music & Song

Since our last update in May, we have now delivered two 12 week Creative Play programmes, supporting mothers who are experiencing early/moderate symptoms of postnatal depression and other mental health challenges and their babies. We worked over two children's centres in Milton Keynes, Robins Family Centre in Heelands and Little Owls Children's Centre in Oxley Park. We supported in total 13 mothers and their babies and children, providing creative exploration in music, singing and collaboration. The sessions offered a safe space for mothers to open up about their true feelings and experiences of motherhood.

Both groups worked towards writing their own songs that depicted their feelings and aspirations, 'Shine' and 'Hope'. These songs were performed at our Summer Celebration that took place at the end of July. We invited stakeholders, the musicians and participants to come together and recreate the harmonious feelings of the room and celebrate the incredible outcomes the project achieved. Some of these outcomes included friendship building, new-found confidence, and coping mechanisms to support their own mental health wellbeing. 

As we move into the autumn we will be looking to develop an Arts for Health MK 'Early Years' programme, working with our existing stakeholders to build and deliver a bigger programme offering more creative opportunities for families. 

For now watch this space for updates on the Creative Play programme as this is only the beginning!

Participant feedback about the programme: "I gained new friendships and a new found confidence. The sessions were my happy play where I felt listened to. I could share my emotions and how I was feeling that day. I left feeling productive which helped me take on the rest of the day." 

Image: Musician, Isaac Aguma, playing the guitar and leading the group in song.

Online Project: Twenty for Twenty 

We are almost halfway through Twenty for Twenty - our web-based project designed to increase awareness of our charity and shine a spotlight on The Milton Keynes University Hospital Art Collection during our anniversary year.

We’ve asked twenty people from different walks of life to select a work from The Collection and to tell us about it’s personal significance, interest or appeal to them. In this way we hope to capture and share a snapshot of the value and impact of The Collection to a range of different people – from hospital staff, patients and visitors to wider community members.

To date we have ten contributors on our website including;

• Former Chair of A4HMK, Dame Ann Limb DBE DL
• Exhibiting Artist and previous AfHMK Director, Sharon Paulger
• MKUH Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr Nicos Reissis
• Volunteers Laura and Sue.

A big thank you to those who have taken part in the project so far this year.

Perhaps these invited posts will inspire you to tell us about your own memories or experiences of seeing art in MK Hospital? If so, then we’d love to hear from you. Please email us at info@artsforhealthmk.org with ‘20for20’ as the subject line. Your feedback would be most welcome. 



We will alert you to each new post via our social media and we look forward to seeing the remaining contributions as they come in!

Click here to visit our Facebook page.

Click here to visit our Instagram page.

Image: Dr Nikos Reissis standing in front of the oil on canvas painting High Water (2009) by Boyd & Evans kindly on loan to the Milton Keynes University Hospital Collection courtesy of the Artists and Flowers Gallery.

Update: The MKUH Art Collection Evaluation Report

This year we were delighted to welcome Dr Nicola Magnusson and colleagues from the Open University to the hospital to conduct an evaluation project. An Associate Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Counselling at the Open University, Nicola has gathered data to help us understand the impact that the Collection has on it's patients, staff, visitors, carers and families.



This evaluation aimed to answer three main questions:

• How do users of the hospital perceive and experience the art collection?
• How might we better develop the collection to become more impactful?
• What barriers and challenges are there in managing the art collection?

Everyone who participated in the survey agreed that there were many ways in which the artwork could impact wellbeing of users of the hospital, including affording experiences of calm, uplifted mood, and contemplation, and providing a positive distraction from difficult experiences. Respondents also agreed that the collection helped to make the hospital seem like a place which was caring, well-resourced and welcoming. Finally, the presence of art within the space of the hospital was described as contributing to people feeling valued and enriching the community life of Milton Keynes.

Moving forward, Arts for Health MK will be addressing the following recommendations - prioritising ‘dwelling places’ – places where patients, staff and visitors are still - for new art placement, introduce more interactive elements into the collection making it more visible through direct engagement and promote a strong collaborative working culture between Arts for Health MK and relevant hospital teams.

Arts for Health MK would like to acknowledge the members of the Collections Research Group who were instrumental in creating and managing this project with the support of the Open University.

Image: section from the front cover of the MKUH Art Collection Evaluation Report 2024.

Partnerships: African Diaspora Foundation 'Summer Camp'

In Netherfield, there are school holiday 'camps' offered to all children but many children of minority ethnic backgrounds who are eligible to attend do not make use of the service due to a range of cultural and economic barriers. Our project in partnership with The Wisdom Principle provided school-age children from diverse communities with culturally adapted creative activities with the aim of increasing attendance at a 'camp' run by African Diaspora Foundation for predominantly black African and Caribbean families. The emphasis was on promoting mental wellbeing, encouraging community cohesion, and intergenerational

creative 'play'.

We were delighted to welcome back artist Amanda Holiday who recently worked with Arts for Health MK on last year’s 'Creatively Minded, Ethnically Diverse' project. Artist Amanda Holiday said of the session “The children clearly enjoyed the activity and felt it was imaginative and freeing. They became engrossed in the communal making and gluing”.

Amanda introduced the theme of 'Hidden Figures' and asked the children who were the hidden or background figures in their lives – suggestions ranged from grandparents through to relatives who lived abroad, and incidental acquaintances in school settings. Children felt comfortable to talk about hidden figures who had made both a positive and negative impression on them. The children were also introduced to the work by African American artist Kara Walker, and were showed examples of African alphabets, syllabaries and ‘Adinkra symbols’ from Ghana which are symbols or patterns that have the form of a silhouette.

We look forward to being able to provide further sessions for the community next year and are grateful to MK Community Foundation for funding this work. 

Image: Young people and their parents/guardians enjoying the creative workshop.

Community Events: Halloween Spooktacular!

On Saturday 26th October we welcomed over 20 young people to take part in our special Halloween Spooktacular - a set of creative workshops for young people experiencing mental health challenges – and what fun we had!

The Old Bath House main hall was decorated with spooky lighting, textured fabrics and metallic strips to make it feel really atmospheric! We also erected a black-out tent with UV lights.

We had 3 professional local artists leading the sessions:

Ciara: Explored the use of symbols throughout history to invoke protection and manifestation. We created our own chaos magic sigils and experimented with ways to adorn ourselves with them; including metal embossing, nail art and patch embroidery.

Alice: Spooky mask making, using scraps of cardboard and fabrics to create the perfect spooky headdress or even scary hands and feet.

Sophia: Used body art makeup to create realistic SFX gore makeup including UV glow body painting and we also experimented with painting our own spooky Halloween looks. 

Click the 'Read more' button below to see our blog for more pictures of the wonderful creations that were made on the day - such a talented group of young people!

With thanks the National Lottery Community Fund for funding this event as part of the Headstart programme.

Image: A participant proudly shows off her spooky UV makeup.

MK Library Exhibition:

40 Years of Care - MKUH at 40

The history of Arts for Health MK is entwined with that of with Milton Keynes University Hospital (MKUH). In our own anniversary year, we are delighted to also be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the hospital by contributing to a new exhibition curated by Living Archive MK.

The exhibition celebrates the 40th anniversary of Milton Keynes Hospital; archive photos, press cuttings and artefacts help to tell the story of the hospital over the past 40 years with contributions from MKUH, Living Archive MK, Arts for Health MK, The Friends of Milton Keynes Hospital & Community and the Milton Keynes Hospital Charity.

The exhibition includes the story of how our small charity, grew out of the hospitals Voluntary Arts Committee, who had the vision to develop the art collection there when it first opened in 1984, and features the artwork Testing Hattie (1997-1998) an oil on canvas painting by Martin Grover, on loan from The Collection.

The exhibition is open during MK Central Library opening hours, for further details please click here.

Exhibition Dates: October 3, 2024 - December 16, 2024 

Location: Discover Milton Keynes, 1st Floor, MK Central Library, 555 Silbury Boulevard, Milton Keynes MK9 3HL

Image: A sneak peek of the 40 years of care exhibition at MK Library.

Funding Partners

With thanks to our core funding partners for their continued support of our projects and of our work in Milton Keynes University Hospital (MKUH) and in the wider community.

Donations As a small charity we rely on charitable donations to support our work:

• £100 will support a Temporary Exhibition of art at MKUH
• £240 will provides materials for an Arts on Prescription course lasting 12 weeks.

Donations can be made via our dedicated website Local Giving or scan the QR code below.

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