Can Art Make You Healthier? These 10 Artists Think So

Art World Can Art Make You Healthier? These 10 Artists Think So Beatriz Milhazes, Jeremy Deller, Yinka Shonibare, and others have donated work to support the 10th anniversary of Hospital Rooms. Beatriz Milhazes, Jeremy Deller, Yinka Shonibare, and others have donated work to support the 10th anniversary of Hospital Rooms. Margaret Carrigan ShareShare This Article A version of this article originally appeared in The Back Room, Artnet Pro’s weekly newsletter for art industry intelligence. Subscribe now to get it straight to your inbox. Hospital Rooms, the U.K. charity bringing contemporary art into National Health Service (NHS) mental health facilities, is marking its 10th anniversary with an initiative called “10 Posters for 10 Years.” Ten major artists—including Beatriz Milhazes, Yinka Shonibare, Chantal Joffe, and Antony Gormley—have each donated a limited-edition poster exclusively for the campaign. The 10,000 resulting artworks will be distributed so that every NHS mental health hospital in England—more than 1,000 sites—receives a complete set of all 10 posters, making it one of the largest contemporary art interventions in mental health settings to date. The posters will also be sold to the public across two time-limited 10-day drops, at £100 ($134) each, with proceeds funding future Hospital Rooms projects. The first batch, including Daisy Parris’s I Feel Everything (2020) and Jeremy Deller‘s Thank God For Immigrants (2026) soft-launched on July 9 during the charity’s artist party at White Cube; the works are available through July 20. Founded in 2016 by curator Niamh White and artist Tim Shaw following a close friend’s sectioning after a suicide attempt, the charity has to date commissioned more than 200 works with 360 artists for hospitals The poster campaign aims to “radically disrupt the sterile environment of psychiatric units,” the founders said in a statement, ensuring patients have “immediate access” to visual art during their treatment. Hospital Rooms was ahead of the curve when it comes to positioning art as a clinical-grade remedy: There’s now growing evidence that art demonstrably increases wellbeing. A recent University College London study found engaging with art is linked to slower biological aging. Meanwhile, Wales’s new culture minister has pledged to embed arts and health programs within the NHS, while Greece has made “cultural prescription” statutory policy for conditions like depression and anxiety. The organization’s second poster drop will go on view at Victoria Miro gallery in an exhibition titled “Host|Guest,” from September 3–12, where works by artists like Boo Saville and Lonnie Holley will be up for grabs. A fundraising auction at Bonhams will follow, featuring works by Hurvin Anderson, Veronica Ryan, Do Ho Suh and more. Salut!