Looking at visual art, hearing music, viewing a dramatic performance, and reading poetry are part of the hospital environments at several hospitals in the UK and North America. For some, experiencing this art is a distraction from the problems that bought them to hospital; for others it provides comfort; for others still, a type of engagement that requires attention and concentration; some will use it to begin conversations with fellow patients and visitors; and in some hospitals patients have the opportunity to be creative by painting, writing, and singing. Will all these activities stop a second heart attack, reduce a tumor's growth or mend a broken limb? Of course not. But they can help add to the humanity of places often associated with pain, suffering and death and remind patients, staff and visitors of the wider world outside the hospital walls.
Paul Camic, PhD
Reader in Clinical & Health Psychology
Salomons Centre
Canterbury Christ Church University
Tunbridge Wells

Paul Camic, Tunbridge Wells, UK

Art does provoke dialogue. It also wakes us up, and makes us feel more alive. Bringing this into the hospital can have wonderful effects on patients and caregivers alike. At Smith Farm Center we run artists-in-residence programs daily in three hospitals where artists work with patients bedside doing visual, literary and music arts. Through a research project we documented the perceived healing and calming power of the arts in hospital. Our project includes galleries at two of the hospitals where we arrange a changing shows of varied visual arts pieces to the patients and staff delight. Not everyone loves everything, and occassionally someone complains that something is too 'edgy'. But all in all it seems to contribute to the healing environment. Many of us in the arts and healthcare movement do not agree with the studies that suggest that only calm landscapes serve patients needs. There are some pretty alive dynamic and engaged patients out there. Thanks for the dialogue.

Shanti Norris, Washington, DC.

It seems the discussion here is coming from two different viewpoints - one from the artist, and one from the medical professional. A meeting of minds needs to take place before art can truly take a useful place in medical facilities - as it already has in many facilities.

People in hospitals already face tremendous stresses and challenges to their bodies and their intellect - they don't need to encoutner it with the art as well. Robert Ulrich of Texas A&M (USA) has done extensive research on just what kind of art promotes the healing of hospital patients, including decreased lengths of stay, decreased amount of pain medication given, and improved mood - all of which add up to cost savings for health care institutions. He has also done studies that shown that "challenging" or ambiguous art (e.g., abstracts or interpretive works) can have unsettling negative effects on the healing of patients.

Dana Sheppard, Bremerton, Washington, USA

Is Grayson saying he either wants in-your-face provocative art or none at all - the choice between being disturbed by the art or the environment of an equally disturbing bland and intimidating Soviet-like gulag? Come on! We are dealing with a captive audience representing the cross-section of society not a bunch of Turner-Prize aficionados, and their feelings need to be respected. This does not mean only bland art is suitable but it does mean careful selection. Think of the psychology - is it better for the patient to have his/her pulse and blood pressure raised or lowered prior to surgery or recovering from treatment?

Peter Brown, Milton Keynes, Bucks

give the art budget to the nurses!

john motor, london, uk

When my 86-year-old mother suffered from fever dementia, on top of her Alzheimer's, she was in the hospital for 5 days. A rather dreary floor, overcrowded There were a half dozen prints of flowers and landscapes in the jammed hallway, a trio of large artsy flower photos in the lobby, and almost no outside natural light. These art pieces were stairway back to sanity. I'd wheel her from one to the next ...over & over again. Near the end of her stay, I brought a book of Van Gogh paintings, and I managed to find a small stairwell with a real open window, real light and air. On the last 2 nights we'd look at the Van Gogh book, and noticed at sunset that crows swooped around our window, which was on the 7th floor. The flocks were coming home for the night, and from our vantage point, we could them see miles across the valley, flapping right to our window. Memorable! Her senior day program has Salvador Dali art on the wall. No! Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of..." series would be great.

Carol W, Mtn. View, Calif USA

Bacon doesn't come close to what my body looked like after a serious accident which put me in the hospital for 2 months. There was no art in intensive care where I would have most appreciated it. I found art, however, in the mottled glass doors and shapes that moved behind them. My long hall on the ward was little enhanced by two mass produced paintings. A rotating exhibition of original contemporary art would have suited me just fine.

Brenda, Birmingham, England

I recall a painting in a doctor's waiting room that was complex and ambiguous in its forms though still representational. I thought it worked well to combat boredom because it provided a visual puzzle that engaged the mind. I would welcome high quality art in the hospitals I have to visit but first their architecture is dreadful - a ramshackle of different buildings in various states of repair - and needs improving and their walls are cluttered with notices, leaflets, TV sets, etc which would prevent the appreciation of paintings or prints.

apainter, esher, surrey

Beth Levine in “6 Top Stress Cures You Haven't Already Heard," suggests the concept of "repetition compulsion," wherein pts unconsciously attempt to achieve mastery over a past trauma by revisiting the original scene of the crime hoping that this time the situation will turn out differently. She recommends watching a scary movie; quoting Constance Pittman Lindner, saying, “Films allow you to tackle upsetting issues through allegory.” Per Charles Goodstein, MD from NYU Medical Center, it works like this: “The stressful situation shown on screen is related unconsciously in feeling and tone to your own stress, but at the same time because it is a film, you are psychologically distant from it. You have in doses, a frightening experience, yet you're in control of it, as you aren't in real life. Even if the movie ends disastrously, you're aware that you'll leave the theater alive & well. This journey can be a way to discharge stress." It'd be interesting to apply this theory to hospital art.

Janice, Ann Arbor, MI

The evidence is anecdotal, but in hospitals housing patients with dimentia art is successfully used to help them navigate from one area to another: "Walk down the hall and make a right at the large red painting, then make a left at the blue." Presumably this has something to do with the minor hemiphere retaining or recognizing shapes and colours easily when the major hemisphere is no longer able to distinguish language. Besides, art is a respite from the deadly clinical surrounds.

Catherine Jones (artist, but you probably already guessed that), Halifax, Canada

As you say "art is good really for one thing only and that is giving aesthetic pleasure." It is the aesthetic pleasure that lifts your spirits. Numerous studies have shown that good spirits aid in the healing process. In any event, I have walked many sterile hospital corridors and many with art hung on the walls. I'll take art.

Chad , St. Paul, Minnesota

Thanks for a thought-provoking article. As an artist., and a cancer survivor, I was somewhat disconcerted at the art on offer on the walls of a university hospital in The Netherlands, where I received my extensive, long and - thankfully - successful treatment. We may be (some of us) adults, but during a time of stress, and uncertainty (not to mention depression, for many patients) it seems improbable that a lot of us would find it a part of our healing process to be further jarred by images that call up the realities of "being stuck in a fallible body ": - of that, doubtless, we are already aware! Speaking for myself, I would have preferred something more positive and uplifting than the images of abstracted body parts hanging in the department I frequented. Have you ever faced serious illness and serious art at the same time, Grayson?

Thomasyne Flynn, Leiden, The Netherlands

What is complicated about the idea that looking at certain art works raises ones spirits. If ones spirits are raised are good, the body is better off for it. Of course, one wouldn't want to look at a Bacon potrait while in a hospital bed, that doesn't make Bacon's work less important or impressive. Just as looking at a Constable landscape hung in a hospital doesn't make it any mor important or impressive. The whole point of this article seems to just be... I don't know. That the author is unhappy that people enjoy art.

roger, Charlottesville, VA

I tht the art was there to help you find your way around the labyrinth. Or if you lose your granddad you can say "He's in the room with with Renoir"

Art exists to help us remember where we are.

Why can't we have more art to help us navigate ? A great big bit of sculpture on a roundabout helps enormously (for memorising the route I mean!)

Let's start a campaign!

^sharp, london,

Dear Mr Perry, Our local hospital displays art that children from near-by schools have created, when I was there recently I spent quite a long time looking at these wonderful pieces and more than a few put a smile on my face. I don't think that they have healing powers but they did lift ones spirits.

Joanne, redruth, England

The art is not just there for patients but also for the staff and many visitors. Working in a hospital I am grateful for the wonderful contribution that Art brings to an otherwise clinical environment. Taste is another matter and its not possible to like all forms of art, even potters or fishing boats.

Mark Harris, Swansea,

I thought the author of this article is a Turner Prize winner! Appreciation of the arts as a whole should therefore be taken into account and if Mr Perry, should be unfortunate enough to pass away with a final few of jaunty fishing boats, I would hope his medical care would suffice. Maybe I would not like to see an explicit pot with rhyme on my death bed, but so be it. I think I might have other things and persons on my mind.

Paul Thomas, Limassol, Cyprus

My son was in the Neonatal ward of our local hospital after being born premature by 12 weeks. I saw the nurses stretched to almost dangerous levels and exhausted, juggling shifts with studies and out of date equipment.

I then saw artwork of no mean investment hanging in the Executive Suite of the directors.

Where is the sense in investment in something, which is urely aesthetic over something and someone who can save a life? When did art ever save a life?

Melanie, Lancaster, UK

I do subcribe to the healing /therapeutic influence of art and therefore believe that it has a place in health settings. However, your article raises many important issues, the 'kind' of art works appropriate, the positioning of these in health care settings and the careful crafting of it all. Further research is needed. Just like use of music, art is very individual and can repel or enhance at particular moments, especially in the hothouse environment in acute hospitals.
Indiscrimminate use is not helpful and can be damaging. What about the education of the professional staff? To me, employment of art should not be focused on the superfical visual delight or aid it engenders, rather it is to be considered within the whole approach, nay culture of healing. There is already pockets of good work in use of art to help patients in convalescence ( not heard of these days? ) and in mental health areas, may the starting point should be to develop and learn from these.

Pohim Lee, London,