Hauser & Wirth, a contemporary and modern art gallery, has launched the Digital Art School exhibition in collaboration with Hospital Rooms.
Hospital Rooms is a London-based charity that brings artist-led digital workshops and free art materials to every NHS inpatient mental health site in England.
This year will mark the third time the gallery and charity have worked together. To celebrate this, the two have launched an exhibition.
The Digital Art School exhibition will run from Thursday 22 August – Tuesday 10 September 2024.
In addition to the exhibition, two fundraising auctions with Bonhams, auction house, in London will take place on Wednesday 11 September 2024, and an online-only auction at Bonhams.com on Thursday 12 September 2024.
This year will mark the third time the gallery and charity have worked together
Through their ongoing three-year partnership, Hauser & Wirth and Hospital Rooms aim to raise £1m to transform the experiences of patients in NHS mental health services across the UK.
Over the last two years, Hospital Rooms and Hauser & Wirth have raised over £725,000 with the exhibitions and auctions, Like there is hope and I can dream of another world (2022) and Holding Space (2023).
Digital Art School
This year marks the launch of Hospital Rooms’ latest and most wide-reaching initiative, the Digital Art School, the exhibition will recreate the Digital Art School format in the gallery space, delivering live in-house creative sessions hosted by artists such as Abbas Zahedi, Shepherd Manyika, and Eileen Cooper RA.
As well as filmed art activities projected in cinematic style onto the walls of the gallery, hosted by artists and designers including Giles Deacon, Sutapa Biswas, and Sarah Dwyer.
Visitors will be invited to spend time making artwork of their own in the space, using free art materials provided in the gallery.
Through their ongoing three-year partnership, Hauser & Wirth and Hospital Rooms aim to raise £1m to transform the experiences of patients in NHS mental health services across the UK
The exhibition offers a chance for visitors to experience the various gatherings that are taking place in mental health hospitals across England and to contribute to the charity’s investigations and experimentations into new models and methods of humanising mental health spaces.
Artworks created by visitors during the sessions will be installed on the walls throughout the exhibition.
The floor of the gallery will be covered with an adaptation of Nengi Omuku’s artwork created for Hellesdon Hospital in Norfolk, UK, depicting a clear blue sky that people will be able to walk, sit and create on.
Hot air balloons featured in the artwork will be transformed into bean bags for the public to sit on and draw, and will later be installed in Hellesdon Hospital.
The exhibition will culminate in a live fundraising auction at Hauser & Wirth London, hosted in partnership with Bonhams
Niamh White, Hospital Rooms co-founder, said: “Digital Art School is a programme that is very close to our hearts, and we are so excited to bring it to life as an immersive studio experience. The exhibition and accompanying events programme at Hauser & Wirth will interrogate modes of arts education and invite visitors to participate in accessible, inventive, and provocative sessions led by our extraordinary artist tutors."
"Digital Art School is designed to cultivate connectivity, collaboration, and dreaming within mental health spaces and we hope wider audiences will be able to join in this summer,” White enthused.
Fundraiser at Bonhams
The exhibition will culminate in a live fundraising auction at Hauser & Wirth London, hosted in partnership with Bonhams, on Wednesday 11 September 2024, and an online-only auction at Bonhams.com on Thursday 12 September 2024.
Both auctions will showcase works donated by artists across the UK, including Do Ho Suh, Rana Begum, Sutapa Biswas, Peter Liversidge and many more.
These works will be shown in the gallery throughout the duration of the exhibition.
The exhibition offers a chance for visitors to experience the various gatherings that are taking place in mental health hospitals across England
All proceeds from the auctions will sustain the year ahead for Hospital Rooms, with plans to deliver new projects to transform mental health care units in cities from London to Bristol, Norwich, Wakefield, and beyond.
Neil Wenman, Global Creative Director & Partner of Hauser & Wirth, said: “As long-time supporters of Hospital Rooms, we are inspired by the incredible difference that Niamh, Tim and their team make, cultivating joyful spaces for healing that offer patients hope and dignity within mental health services across the country. This third year of collaboration shines a light on the importance of arts education with the Digital Art School and we are pleased to support them in bringing this to a wider audience."
"We are also thrilled to welcome new Gallery Circle members, who have also committed to supporting Hospital Rooms," Wenman said.
