University College London Hospitals’ Garden

Empowerment and Resilience: Embracing Wellness for Illness Youth is a program developed for children in the hospital community. The integration of art into medical environments aims to enhance medical service efficiency and improve youth well-being by addressing primary stressors and promoting health. The project will be completed through three interconnected social art workshops, each led by a different artist. Perle Wong will be leading the gardening and planting workshop, Liam Benjamin Bratchford will head the sound and instruments workshop, and Barney Pau will guide the food and dinner workshop.


In the first stage, horticultural artist Perle Wong will use her expertise to select a variety of edible plants. She will guide the children in planting these in a designated garden area within the hospital. In the second stage, the focus shifts to creativity and sound. Children will collect everyday objects and transform them into musical instruments under the guidance of artist Liam Benjamin Bratchford. This process encourages them to see the artistic potential in ordinary items and to explore the principles of sound and music. Liam will record the children’s musical creations, capturing their spontaneous and unique sounds. These recordings will then be compiled and edited into a cohesive piece of background music, setting the stage for the final phase of the project. In the third stage, the project culminates in a celebration of both the harvest and the creative journey. The edible plants from the first phase will be ready for harvesting. Artists Perle Wong and Barney Pau will lead the children in gathering the produce from the garden. Together, they will prepare meals using freshly harvested ingredients, teaching the children about cooking and the nutritional value of their food.


The final presentation will be a harvest dinner, where the background music created by the children will play, providing a soundtrack to their collective achievements. While socially engaged art is not a direct therapeutic approach, this program seeks to intervene as a complementary method to help young patients cope with the stressful environment of the hospital, alleviate their fear of illness, and stimulate their desire for lived-in experiences.

• Curatorial Rationale

The diversity of art has evolved, with art community artists and organisations often seeking to penetrate the process of middle-classification in social engagement. However, the professionalism of many social settings makes the integration of art not easy, such as hospitals, banks, office buildings, and so on. However, the initiative to introduce artworks, installations, and activities into medical spaces aims to improve the efficiency of medical services, such as distinguishing primary stressors to reduce their impact and strengthening physical and social environmental elements that promote health. From this perspective, art is seen as an aesthetic factor that promotes health, crucial for enhancing happiness in hospital environments. Art is useful in therapy because of the healing quality inherent in the creative process (Ulman 2001).  It is a realm in which experiences can be chosen, varied or repeated at the will of an individual.


Isolation, detachment, and a sense of being cut off from normal lives. Long-term illness young people easily fall into this perceived emotion. These feeling can deeply impact their mental and physical well-being, potentially exacerbating their overall condition. The need for support lies in addressing this isolation, offering avenues for connection and community. Through plant observations, sound and food cooking these kinds of hands-on practice the event tries to provide an opportunity for each participant's creative expression. As Eleonora Belfiore says, whether it's the object of the exhibition, or the art practitioners and other relevant participants, we should incorporate an ethic of care into our cultural policies to better support the communities involved in these activities(Belfiore, 2022). Within the hospital setting, all the participatory processes aim to instil hope, resilience, and a sense of togetherness, guiding these young individuals towards a path of enhanced health and healing.


When young people are in illness situations, environments like hospitals can give them a sense of insecurity and lack of trust, which can lead to anxiety, stress, and even depression. Living in a hospital can lead to a brief disconnect from society, a change in time perception, and limitations in daily activities.   The urgency is to have “care” in the hospital environment. At this point, cultural and creative enrichment provides avenues for self-expression, emotional exploration, and personal development, fostering resilience and well-being.


The establishment of an interdisciplinary cooperation platform is key at this stage. Collaboration between healthcare policymakers, researchers, artists and social scientists can facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology, driving the application and innovation of the arts in health and society. However, there is an “awareness gap” between research evidence and the professionals involved in healthcare policy development and practice (Clift, P446). Health professionals may lack in-depth knowledge or awareness of the impact of the arts on health and society, which results in the potential benefits of arts engagement not being fully applied and promoted. The larger goal, therefore, is to close this “awareness gap” and facilitate the “knowledge and technology transfer” of evidence to more effectively apply research findings to service practice. This means greater interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange are needed to ensure that findings in research areas are understood and accepted by healthcare policymakers and practitioners. Allowing youth to take control of their creative expression in a safe and affirming environment is essential to minimising the risk of re-traumatisation.


This project will collaborate with the professional social organisation - Bright Future UK and hospital teams, as well as bring care and encouragement from different backgrounds participants and medical staff for these youth. Stages of growth require adequate attention. The legacy of social practice art in therapeutic settings is one of sustainable, community-centred care. The children will be engaged in a healing process by participating in three different elemental stages of art workshops to feel connected to the community.

• Relevant Past Events

Supersmashers: Supersmashers is an art and play project for up to 200 looked-after children aged 6-12 living in Southwark. Running since September 2012, the project brings together two interlinking strands: weekly after-school sessions and family trips every school holiday. There are about 560 looked-after children in Southwark, for whom the Council is providing permanency plans: through returning to their homes, adoption or long-term placement. Supersmashers aims to establish a safe, familiar place for local looked-after children to develop better social skills, equipping them with the tools to allow them to better express their ideas and feelings to each other, their carers and the world.

Supersmashers session

photo: Heather Kay

Oily Cart is a UK-based theatre company, they have collaborated closely with children, families, and hospice personnel to develop customised, interactive performances that meet the unique requirements and preferences of each child(Space to Be: Children’s Hospice Residencies, Oily Cart). The project Space to Be: Children’s Hospice Residencies has Oily Cart artists residing in various children’s hospices throughout the UK. They have developed an immersive and multi-sensory performance piece specifically designed for young individuals with significant disabilities. From a sociological standpoint, Space to Be can be regarded as an illustration of how the arts can be employed to question prevailing narratives and power dynamics related to disability and disease.

However, most of these studies primarily examine the immediate, short-term effects of arts-based therapies, while paying less attention to their long-term impacts or their incorporation into comprehensive care models. This raises concerns over the long-term viability and durability of the reported advantages, especially in the realm of paediatric palliative care, where families frequently need continual support(Groeneveld et al., 2013; Lindenfelser et al., 2012).

• Artists / Artworks

1. Perle Wong — Vegecoopia: https://www.vegecoopia.com/

An individual serving as a grower and community event facilitator, Perle founded Vegecoopia, a platform connecting food growers with available green spaces, offering guidance to novice growers, and organising inclusive food events. She is passionate about integrating farming into daily life, emphasising environmental justice and food sovereignty. Her goal is to popularise food cultivation within migrant communities in the UK, fostering a diverse network of growers while promoting culturally rich vegetables.


The reason for choosing Perle is that she brings a variety of green cultures from Asia to the Western world. Different cultural gardening approaches incorporate unique traditions, symbolism, and plant choices, providing patients with a sense of familiarity and connection to their cultural heritage. These initiatives often involve community participation, encouraging shared activities and mutual support among young patients from diverse backgrounds.