Spring Newsletter 2026

Dear All,

We hope that you are well and are enjoying the brighter days!

Thank you to everyone who supported our Big Give: Arts for Impact campaign in March. Thanks to your incredible generosity, we raised a fantastic £4,823 which will go towards our art workshops. A special thank you to everyone who joined us for the Quiz Night—it was a highlight of the campaign and wonderful to see our community come together.

Our 35th Anniversary year is off to a flying start, and we’re just getting started. Inside this newsletter, you’ll find a few exciting updates on what’s in bloom.

Best wishes,

The Art in Healthcare Team

Image: Our Big Give ‘Arts for Impact’ Quiz in March at Brewhemia, Edinburgh.

RSA 200 | Art for Health

We are delighted to be taking part in RSA 200: Art for Health, a landmark collaboration bringing together art and health organisations across Scotland.

Two exhibitions from the Art for Health: Scottish Healthcare Collective opened on the 1st of April, with Exhibition One at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Exhibition Two at the Bellfield Centre in Stirling. These exhibitions will tour to other major hospital sites throughout Scotland, highlighting the powerful contribution that artists have made to the wellbeing of people across Scotland.

Scottish Healthcare Collective includes:

Tonic Arts (NHS Lothian Charity), Artlink Central (NHS Forth Valley), NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, OutPost Arts (NHS Dumfries & Galloway), Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust (NHS Tayside), Grampian Hospitals Art Trust (NHS Grampian) and Art in Healthcare (Scotland).

Find out more by visiting: https://www.royalscottishacademy.org/partners/130

Image: ‘Art for Health’ Exhibition Two at the Bellfield Centre, Stirling. Photography by Gregor Boyd.

Image: Some members of the Art for Health collaborative outside the Bellfield Centre. Photography by Gregor Boyd.

‘10 for 10′ Room for Art Exhibition

Thank you to everyone who visited our exhibition ‘10 for 10’ at Whale Arts, Edinburgh. This exhibition showcases artworks created by participants of our Room for Art workshops, a programme dedicated to supporting health and wellbeing through creativity. Established in 2016, Room for Art turns 10 this year.

Facilitated by quality teaching artists, our workshops run across six areas of Edinburgh. Room for Art provides a welcoming and safe space for connection and artistic expression. This exhibition is the first in a year of celebrations to come in 2026.

An online version of this exhibition is also available to visit:

https://www.artinhealthcare.org.uk/2026/04/09/room-for-art-10-for-10/

Image: Our ’10 for 10′ Room for Art Exhibition on display at Whale Arts, Edinburgh.

We are a Real Living Pension Employer

We are proud to announce that we have been accredited as a Real Living Pension Employer on top of being a Real Living Wage Employer.

The Living Pension accreditation provides an annual savings target for Living Wage Employers to provide workers with financial security now and in the future.

The accreditation builds on the success of the Living Wage and sets an annual pensions savings target that employers can have confidence in, making it easier to do the right thing by their employees.

Find out more by visiting: https://www.livingwage.org.uk/living-pension

Image: Members of the Art in Healthcare team holding our ‘Real Living Pension’ accreditation and signs for being a ‘Living Wage Employer’ and ‘Living Pension Employer’.

New Bank Details

We have recently switched our charity bank account to the Co-operative Bank. If you support us by standing order, or by a direct debit that isn’t via GoCardless, we’d be very grateful if you could get in touch so that we can assist you with updating your donations to our new bank details. For now, any payments made to our old account are still being transferred across to the new one, but this is a temporary arrangement. Thank you for your ongoing support and for helping ensure your donations continue to reach us.

Art Collection Survey

There are over 1,500 artworks in our collection, consisting of modern and contemporary pieces dating from the 1930s to the present day. The collection includes artworks by both established and emerging artists, including paintings, prints and photography.

We are proud to have works by many well known artists such as Elizabeth Blackadder, Alan Davie, Eduardo Paolozzi, Barbara Rae and many more.

We have established longstanding and are nurturing new working relationships with NHS Charities nationwide through our artwork loan scheme.

There are many benefits of having artworks on display:

• Improving mood
• Providing interest and distraction
• Reducing anxiety
• Making a space more welcoming for staff and visitors

Currently, over half of our collection is on display in health, social care and community spaces across Scotland, from Balfour Hospital in Orkney to Ayr University Hospital in Ayrshire. We are committed to increasing the number of people who experience our artwork.

We have recently created a new Art Collection Survey to gather feedback for our Artwork Loans. If you have experienced any of our artworks in a health or social care setting, we would love to hear your feedback!

Complete our art loan survey by scanning the QR code below:

Image: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s ‘Orange and Red on Pink’ from our collection on display at Balfour Hospital in Orkney.

Fundraising

Thank you to Iris, Isabel and Sophie who are all running the Edinburgh Half Marathon on the 24th of May for Art in Healthcare!

Creativity in Caregiving | New Online Videos

Created by Caring Spaces artist Juliana Capes, Creativity in Caregiving is a short series exploring how simple creative activities can support everyday moments of care. In each video, Juliana shares practical ideas and small creative approaches she uses with the people she cares for.

View the video series by visiting:

https://www.artinhealthcare.org.uk/2026/04/29/creativity-in-caregiving/

As always, thank you for your continued support!