Hospital Arts Project Norfolk and Norwich New Children's Unit

Norfolk and Norwich Hospital Arts Project Children's Unit refurbishment 2009 is now finished.

6 months of design work and tons of other work day and night to get it finished. This is my Eel PSI table that wraps around a pillar in the children's Assessment Unit waiting room. It was designed with 10 Psi's to go on it. The Theme of the whole Unit was beach and Broads and the Eel fits both as it spends time in the sea and wriggles across the land to find some broads to breed in. Eels in Norfolk were used as monetary exchange in the past, but due to pollution etc there is less of them about. The table was designed larger and redesigned so many times I have lost count. The table was built by Arce joinery in Norwich. I gave them a very hard task as Formica inlay is very difficult to cut like this and all the curves are not your usual type of woodwork. My nightmare was it going to fit in one piece around the pillar once finished and thankfully it did. The PSI have individual pieces of metal casing to keep them securely to table with metal cable so no one walks off with them.

The head of the Eel was made lower for the under fives who now play computer games.

The stools all snake around the table and are very soft to sit on. They can also be pulled away to fit a wheelchair in.

The Eel table is a floating design with water weed to hold it up.

Emma Jarvis hospital arts coordinator who puts more then her hours in to organise this job and I recon she is doing the job of 100 or more people. This photo was taken at 4am, yet another night of helping her unpack and move furniture around and putting up paintings and ceiling tiles.

The hospital Arts project is totally fund raised by Emma Jarvis through charitable donations.

My view is why have a hospital that looks so disgusting it makes one feel sick. The hospital would be a grey colour if there was no hospital arts project.

Children love colour, this unit will hopefully make them better and put a smile on the nurses faces everyday.

Here's a different view of the waiting room with my lighthouse and Eel table and the wedgie shaped stools put in a circle with new toys for Mums and children to play together.

Art and play table in the foreground with amazing new red chairs that have 1950's retro look.

The floors were all designed with healing waves that will wash away all ill health. The designer of the floor was a student and I will find her name reall soon and publish it as soon as I do.

The ceiling tiles were all replaced with amazing art work so lying in bed and looking up is now a new experience. Kate Greens art work on these tiles. Thanks to Chris Ball at GGS Graphics for the amazing amount of work that was printed on laminate.

Bubbles on ceilings and walls in one of the rooms.

A totally new invention and never been done before a magnetic photo board for the staff, this one is of a Norfolk style Guest house for the Children's Out-patients staff. From previous employment I learnt that the staff photo boards were a normal picture frame and if staff left and news came in then there was a not nice task of taking the whole frame a part to put photo in and out then putting frame altogether or a yukky pin board with a drawing pin through the head of all the staff.

This great and brilliant photo board can be wiped clean too.

Guess the hotel I based this painting on, when I was photographing the painting outside a neighbour said she stayed in room number 52 on the top right hand corner. Each window I have painted different flower arrangements.


Corridors so many of them look the same not any more with amazing paintings all different. This painting triptych was painted by Hannah Giffard BAFTA winning artist.

The submarine waiting room with porthole paintings by Kate Green and mobiles from the ceiling are all around the unit. These benches were suppose to arrive on Saturday in one piece. They did not arrive in one piece and you can imagine what a nightmare that added to two Lady's trying to finish a job off. Thanks to all the staff who walked by and came and helped put them together.

Starring at people working hard is very off putting, always a good idea to lend a hand on charitable projects that don't have funds for staff.

Swimming with fish is the best thing one can do in life after all we use to be fish before we evolved into land up right animals. Here Kate Green has made a wonderful transparent window painting.

More waiting rooms this one has a door so you don't have to run after run away toddlers. All the buckets are filled with brand new toys to keep the little ones happy.

Hannah Giffard's window and wall work in here.

There are hundreds more rooms that I did not get around to photographing due to blurry eyes at 4am. Squibb Design artists also made works for physiotherapy rooms.

Thanks also to Anand Gurnani from animation Xpress in India for waiting patiently for me to finish this project. I showed him the pictures last night and his comments were beautiful, elegant, cheerful, happy and thought provoking. Here's hoping all the staff, funders and children feel the same way.

I will now be working on a joint collaboration with Anand at animation xpress, finishing off one of the most amazing children's books ever made and hope that it will be made into a game that will be put in my Eel station at the hospital and a book to be read there too.

Lots of thanks to all the support from family and friends and new friends on Face book who also took great interest in this project. I do hope that hospitals around the world start employing artists to give them a big face lift too. I feel Norfolk and Norwich Hospital is very unique for this arts project.

Also please give handsomely to the Chauncy Maples hospital ship which is in much need of restoration on lake Malawi for a basic hospital shell.

The Hospital arts project is on going and also needs constant funds next area is intensive care unit, which will need lots of special art to bring people back to life. This will be very expensive as will be a digital sound project.