co-creating a mural for the NHS at Worcester A&E

Introduction
In 2023 I was selected from over 40 artists to paint a 12-metre mural for the brand-new A&E department at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital. It would be my biggest mural to date and I would create a design through a collaborative process with staff at the NHS trust, drawing on their experiences, their workplace culture, and their hopes for the future of the space.

With just a few months until the department opened, we were on a tight timeframe. The wall was at the centre of a building site, so access was limited and everything had to be planned around tight health and safety rules. I’m so proud of this mural but I always tell people, I hope you never see it…or if you do, it’s on your way out of A&E with positive news!

Painting a mural in collaboration with the NHS was not without it’s challenges but working closely with the team at the Worcestershire Royal NHS Trust, along with the Arts Director at Severn Arts we brought a co-designed mural to life. Here’s a little of the process. If you’re designing a mural in a high traffic area or a location with tight restrictions, I’d be happy to guide you through that process. Book a free mural consultation with me and I can talk you through it step by step.

The 12m of blank wall outside the A&E department

1. Designing a Collaborative Workshop
The heart of this mural was collaboration. I started by creating a plan for 2 co-design workshops that would invite staff into the creative process. I knew we’d be working with people from different roles, with different time availability and perhaps coming from stressful work environments such as paramedics, nurses, porters, administrators. They all had different schedules and pressures.

The key was flexibility and allowing for conversations to flow. With the hospital being at the centre of Worcestershire I brought maps and prompts and we discussed the local area. Many of the NHS staff were from areas outside of Worcester, like Birmingham, so making sure they felt included was really important. I created an ‘Easter Egg’ prompt where people could suggest an icon that meant something to them to feature in the design. This proved really popular as it allowed for more diverse ideas to be suggested. I also discovered that people suggesting things they thought I wanted to hear (like Worcester landmarks etc) so being on hand to re-direct conversations towards what is really important to individuals was so important.

The Easter egg promts included symbols of nature, flowers, animals and food which held individual significance as well as more out there ideas like a shark, a lion and a rocket. We looked at visual references and chatted about how the space should feel. There were lots of ways for people to contribute ideas even if they didn’t consider themselves ‘creative.’ Mainly I was on hand to chat to everyone and make notes about how it felt to be at work and what they’d like to see in the space.

2. Turning Ideas into a Plan
Once I had pages of drawings, words, colours, symbols and themes gathered from the workshops, I began designing the mural. This stage is always a blend of intuition and logistics: finding imagery that felt joyful and calm, professional but human while also satisfying the needs of the stakeholders at the NHS trust. The dimensions for this wall were long and narrow so an evolving scene made the most sense. Within the workshops nature, wildlife and food came up often so I created a picnic scene that featured people from all different backgrounds relaxing, exercising, playing and enjoying the odd ice cream and slice of cake. This made for a whimsical design that serves as a little light relief for those visiting the A&E. The easter eggs were hidden within the design for staff to find and also create connections for anyone visiting the hospital. A busy scene for you to get lost in whilst you wait in the waiting room.

I always create a delivery plan for clients, to outline when the painting would happen, how I’d scale up the design, and how to manage the install around the health and safety guidelines.

3. Health & Safety Coordination
Painting on a construction site has its positives and negatives. On one hand, the foot traffic was a lot lighter than when the hospital would open but on the other hand, there would be possible work being undertaken that would create dust or fumes etc. From day one, I worked closely with the estates and building teams to ensure we could meet all the health and safety requirements. I undertook some on site training and wore my own steel toe cap boots on site.

We considered everything, from PPE and induction protocols to completing risk assessments and method statements. I have PASMA training for working at height and experience putting up scaffold platforms but we didn’t need scaffolding as a hop up was just enough for me at 6ft tall to reach the top of the wall. It has some benefits!

I really wanted to invite staff and patients to paint with me but unfortunately this wouldn’t pass muster with the H&S team, even with a plan to use gloves, aprons, small tubs of paint and to guide people through the process. This, I feel, would have taken the project to the next level and is something I feel passionate about including for future collaborative projects. If you work in a site with strict health and safety protocols consider what measures can be put in place to make something possible. I’m a glass half full kinda gal and tenacious at making things happen.

4. Painting & Installation
The final stage was the easy bit: the paint goes on the wall! This is where all the planning, conversations and sketches come to life.

I painted the mural in stages over 8 days. It’s always a little quiet at the beginning when the first patches of paint go on the wall and people wonder what on Earth you are doing. But as the colour evolves and the details start to make sense people started walking through and recognising shapes and ideas they’d contributed. This is the best part, when you see the power of public art to connect people to place.

Murals have the power to change a space, to make you look, wander, daydream, imagine..inside a space that once felt empty. This one tells the story of the NHS staff who are incredibly busy keeping us safe. I hope the mural will bring some light relief to those visiting A&E and the colour can act as a little escapism on those difficult days in A&E.