How do you create an appropriate art intervention for children and young people on a high-risk infection hospital ward?

These are photos of plant-themed artworks created by children and young people on the Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) ward at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, a highly-respected hospital that’s been treating young people and children since 1852. 

I’ve been working on a project with GOSH Arts to create art interventions and workshops with the children and young people, their carers, and the staff on the ward to better understand their experiences. These qualitative insights will form the basis of a brief for the art commission for the arts strategy of the new ward in the soon-to-be-built Children's Cancer Centre.

As part of these consultations, I’ve been undertaking art workshops with children and young people being treated on the ward.

However, these workshops are unlike any I’ve done before due to the strict infection protocol: bone marrow transplant procedures drastically reduce the body’s ability to fight off infection, so children/young people are nursed in strict isolation in purpose-built 'isolation bedrooms' to prevent infection, often for many weeks or even months! The outside world is only seen through windows. 

PPE must be worn when entering the room, and visitors and materials entering the room are extremely restricted, which means art materials to be brought in the room are extremely limited as well (no fibres, no sand or feathers, and all materials individually sealed within plastic folders).