National Centre for Arts and Health at Tallaght University Hospital

Mission / Aims

Our mission is ‘to provide a creative arts and health programme specific to patient, staff and healthcare department needs; that improves the hospital experience by making arts accessible to all.’ Together with the Arts Team the centre develops and delivers an arts and health programme to improve patient care, promote the benefits of the arts in health, to explore the therapeutic potential of the arts and to build positive links with the local community. The centre also offers consultation and advice to services establishing arts and health programmes and regularly gives presentations on its work, within both medical, educational and arts settings.

Areas of activities

The current arts programme includes three key areas:

Participative Arts: Art at the bedside, Dance and Health, Music and Health, Creative workshops for patients and staff, Artists in Residence.

Receptive Arts: Art exhibitions, Live performances, Heartbeats-TUH Choir, Symposiums, Art project commissions, Development and curation of the TUH Art Collection, In-house design projects, Online Arts and Health resources: https://www.youtube.com/TUH/ArtsandHealth/playlists

Creative Arts Therapies: Music therapy two day service, Individual and group sessions for patients.

All art programmes are tailored to the needs of individual patients and clinical departments.

Link to 4- year review:

Arts and Health Programme: 4 Year Review 2015-2018