Laura Sutherland has been awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council [AHRC] Scholarship to undertake a doctoral research programme exploring the social and historical geographies of The Art in Healthcare Collection.
This scholarship is managed by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities [SGSAH] and Laura will be supervised by Dr Cheryl McGeachan, a Historical and Social Geographer at the University of Glasgow and Professor Hester Parr also from the School of Geographical and Earth Sciences at the University of Glasgow.
Art in Healthcare is beyond delighted to welcome Laura to explore our archive, to understand where our art collection has been and what this tells us both about our charity and the wider field of creative health. We’ll be sharing updates on Laura’s work over the next three years.
Image: PhD student Laura Sutherland
Hello everyone! I’m Laura, a first year PhD student based at the University of Glasgow. I am completing my PhD in collaboration with Art in Healthcare, and over the next 3 years will be deep diving into their world to highlight the importance of their work in the Scottish arts and health landscape.
As part of this research I will be tracing the history, and the journey, of various different pieces in the Art in Healthcare collection as they have travelled between different healthcare settings. In doing this, I hope to show how the presence of the artwork has impacted the spaces that it’s in as well as the connection between the work and the people who view it.
I have already been delving into the archive held by Art in Healthcare, which dates right back to when they were first established as Paintings in Hospitals Scotland. It has been fascinating uncovering the many different projects that have been undertaken over the years, and the amount of work that goes into making it all happen.
My hope is to share some of these stories here as I uncover them during my time with Art in Healthcare and to provide updates as my research develops!
8 April 2026 by
Amy Miles