News Update #8: June 2025 | | |
Arts for Health Milton Keynes secures major grant award from The National Lottery Heritage Fund
If you ask anyone in Milton Keynes what they most closely associate Arts for Health Milton Keynes with, most likely they will mention the charity’s partnership with Milton Keynes University Hospital (MKUH) to care for, maintain and develop their wonderful art collection.
The Collection, formed over the last forty years and now comprising over 400 artworks including, paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture and photography, is on public display in the hospital’s extensive corridors, waiting areas and wards. It includes work by major artists such as Boyd & Evans, Sonia Lawson, Aubrey Williams and Alun Leach-Jones. The Collection is curated with careful thought given to the placement of works and how they improve the clinical environment. Additionally, many artworks in The Collection link the hospital to the local community by referencing the birth and development of the New Town (now city) of Milton Keynes, and its residents.
Today, it is announced that Arts for Health Milton Keynes have been supported with a £237,225 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to enable the largest and most comprehensive collection restoration and cultural development programme ever undertaken at the hospital. This is in addition to funding from Milton Keynes City Council as well as Milton Keynes Hospital Charity, who commission the services of Arts for Health Milton Keynes on behalf of the hospital.
As a priority, the funds will be used to identify, repair, and conserve any of the most ‘at-risk’ artworks in the Collection, including some sculptures. On completion of work funded by this award our charity will be better able to tell the story of Milton Keynes University Hospital, its staff, patients and local communities, through The Collection. It will have created new open, accessible and future-proofed digital resources; developed accessible interpretation, and creative programmes for staff, patients and visitors on the hospital site, as well as programmes that reach out to people into communities adjacent to the hospital that are amongst the most deprived in the city.
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Speaking of the award, Ben Heyworth, Director of Arts for Health MK said:
“This is excellent news for Milton Keynes and its communities, and we are enormously grateful to the Heritage Fund for their support. It demonstrates the importance of The Collection at MKUH as a heritage and cultural asset for both our local area and the country. We are similarly thankful to Milton Keynes Council and Milton Keynes Hospital Charity for their valued investment in The Collection in recognition of its clinical and cultural importance. The conservation, maintenance, curation, and display of The Collection is our highest priority, being fundamental to our charitable purpose. We also recognise the centrality of The Collection to arts and culture in our city. With exciting times ahead, we look forward to sharing our journey!”
Stuart McLeod, Director of England - London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:
“We’re proud to support Arts for Health MK with this important project thanks to National Lottery players. The project highlights the powerful impact that heritage and creativity can have on people’s wellbeing. Not only will it help conserve and restore an outstanding collection, but it will also ensure that more people can access and engage with it—deepening their connection to their local heritage in meaningful and inspiring ways.”
Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. This project is made possible with the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Image: Infographic Thanking National Lottery Players.
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Ongoing Programmes:
Weekly Art Clubs
Our weekly Art Club is a supportive and sociable space for adults to develop their creativity and meet new people. We have successfully run our volunteer-led group for over 5 years in Wolverton and welcome around 18 participants each week! Over the past six months we have expanded our community reach into the Conniburrow area!
This weekly art club 'Creative Space', offers a welcoming environment for people of all ages and abilities to engage in a wide range of creative activities. Our new group is lead by two professional local artists, Robin Clements and Laura Dove. Important themes are explored each week like identity, inclusion, diversity, and geography, while also helping reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness.
Participants express how they feel about attending the Saturday Art Club:
"The environment they provide it’s full of interactive activities. A safe place to discuss and be creative and it’s full of positivity that I feel in this session . I wait for this session the entire week - maybe that can explain how good I feel about this session."
"This is a fantastic opportunity to just turn up, that can help with emotional wellbeing."
The Creative Space is free to attend. We welcome new participants every week, so simply drop in on a Saturday morning (a referral is not required).
Do take a look at the wide variety of artwork produced by the participants of the group via the 'Read more' link below.
This ongoing project is kindly funded by the Great Linford Parish Council.
Image: Participants at Conniburrow Art Group proudly display their colourful mixed media artwork.
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Online Project:
Twenty for Twenty
We have almost completed 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 in celebration of 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 fourteen contributors on our website, recently including;
- PhD student and Arts for Health MK Volunteer, Lizzie Merrill
- Associate Artist at Arts for Health MK, Robin Clements
- Associate Director of the MK Hospital Charity, Vanessa Holmes
- Dr Asha Chandola is a GP partner, medical educator and Trustee at Arts for Health MK
A big thank you to those who have taken part in the project so far.
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!
Click here to visit our Facebook page.
Click here to visit our Instagram page.
Image: Midnight Visitor, etching by Richard Bawden, from the Milton Keynes University Hospital Collection.
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Project Update:
Creative Play - Music & Song
We are pleased to announce the second phase of our Creative Play project!
Creative Play, is an ongoing free weekly Music Session for mothers who are experiencing mild/moderate symptoms of post natal and other mental health challenges, and their babies. A safe space for mothers to be honest and press pause on the struggles of motherhood.
This new phase comes after a successful year in 2024 where we delivered two 12 week programmes in Family Centres around Milton Keynes. 100% of mothers, who participated said they experienced a positive change in their mood and outlook after taking part in one of the sessions.
One participant said “I gained new friendships and a new found confidence. The sessions were my happy place 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.”
Facilitated by a trained musician, participants engage in a range of singing and musical activities. There are opportunities to learn new musical and singing skills in a caring, safe and secure environment. The space allows participants to find connections with other mums going through similar experiences and find a new community of acceptance and understanding.
The project is ongoing so mums can join at any time. It's lovely to have our regular mums return as well as see new faces!
Kindly funded by the Awards for All from The National Lottery.
Image: A mum with her baby playing the tambourine.
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Artist Development: Supportive Conversations with Dr Esther Aslan
In May we started a fresh programme of Supportive Conversations for 2025 that carries on into 2026. Supportive Conversations provides a space for participatory artists to come together to explore on their practice with the support and guidance of qualified educational and child psychologist, Dr Esther Aslan.
This programme is for artists working with adults or children experiencing mental health challenges, either in creative health or community settings, who would like time to reflect and to be supported in their work.
Previous feedback: "I love how Esther is able to open up the group, and let people talk. She is an amazing speaker with great skills, and even just from that there is a lot to learn, and this on the top of all the information we address at these sessions. My specific goal is to focus more on the human connection, by offering a non-judgemental environment and letting people on my courses freely express themself. Each and every person carries their story with themself, and wants to be understood and heard in some way. I think this is also what we talked about at the first session. To connect with people is not easy but I believe it is a skill that can be developed.”
"Having space to learn from other professionals and share experience and practice was invaluable and highly motivating. The settings artists work in when engaging can vary greatly, and sometimes it is difficult to know what approach is best. Having a simple baseline of what I hope people leave with, and keeping that present during engagement, has been a powerful way to steer the work.”
Please click the 'Read more' button to find out more about this project.
This project is in partnership with the Milton Keynes Arts Centre.
Image: 'Elephant in a Box' and handout used as discussion point.
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Workshops:
Step Up!
At the start of this year we brought back our Step Up programme - this 12 week course is specially designed for those who have already completed the Arts on Prescription programme and wish to further challenge themselves creatively. The course was last delivered online during Covid, so it was lovely to run the course as a face-to-face once more!
The course was led by professional artist Anne-Marie Abbate, and shadowing artist Janki Lalji. The activities completed were: peacock collage, painting on leaves, monoprints, Chinese fans, painted bees, metal hearts, felt making, clay work, block printing and weaving. Themes were linked to Chinese New Year, Burns Night and Valentines Day to name a few!
We received some wonderful feedback: from our participants:
It has been absolutely wonderful to attend this Step Up course and I am very grateful for the opportunity to do so. In every session, it was evident how much thought and work Anne-Marie had put in to planning engaging activities with different media. With the able assistance of Janki, I was made to feel incredibly welcomed and supported. I found the sessions very absorbing and impactful on my day-to-day mental health as I always felt calmer after the session and with a huge sense of achievement. I looked forward to each week and found myself feeling calmer and happier as a result of the course. A huge thank you to Anne-Marie and Janki for running such a wonderful course and to Arts for Health MK for supporting this mental health initiative.
“Thoroughly enjoyed the class. We did a variety of activities which I enjoyed and it was a lovely atmosphere with the people who attended. Thank you to Anne-Marie and Janki.”
We will be running another Step Up course starting this summer so watch this space!
This project was kindly funded by the People's Postcode Trust.
Image: Participants and artists proudly display their artwork at the end of the Step Up programme.
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Volunteering Update:
MKUH & Community based-roles
In April we attended the Community Action: MK Spring Networking Event and what a super event it was! We thought that the speakers at the event were moving and very inspiring. We spoke to several people about volunteering opportunities within our charity. Our office volunteer Jacqueline attended, she continues to assist with the referrals into our Arts on Prescription programmes. We are now eager to get started using the new online Volunteering Hub created by CA:MK!
We recently said a fond farewell to our longest-standing volunteers Matthew and Andrew who have been volunteering with us in the hospital Creative Courtyards for over 15 years! We thank them both for their immense hard work and dedication tending to the plants with care and attention and for keeping the Courtyards in great shape! The boys are not going too far as they will be continuing their good work as part of Team MKUH Volunteering instead – We wish them the best of luck!
We have recently had two new volunteers start working with us:
Firstly we have Ellie, who joins us as an Exhibitions and Collections Assistant and is helping our Collection and Exhibitions Manager, Emma with the important job of managing the collection.
We also have Pippa who joins us as a Associate Artist Volunteer for the Arts on Prescription programme.
We have a number of volunteer opportunities to work with us at our arts workshops in the community. In our team we have:
- People who’ve been participants on our courses and want to support others through what they have experienced
- Students (aged 17 years up)
- Those who are now retired
- People with mild learning disabilities
- People wanting to get back into work
- Those who want to make friends and gain in confidence
- And many, many more!
Click the 'Read more' button to see descriptions of the current volunteer opportunities we have available.
Image: AfHMK Volunteers Andrew and Matthew .
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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 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 (click Donate button below) or scan the QR code.
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