Artworks for health and community care
Paintings in Hospitals provides art to help create person-centred care spaces. All types of healthcare and community care organisations can borrow artworks from our collection.
Paintings in Hospitals is the country’s leading creative health charity. Since 1959, we have developed a unique art collection of 3,000 artworks specifically for healthcare and community care. Our art ranges from paintings and drawings to sculptures and animations, some by the world’s greatest artists.
All types of health and community care organisations can borrow art from our collection. We currently provide art for hospitals, hospices, care homes, GP surgeries, healthy living centres, mental health facilities and many more.
“There is no doubt that art enhances our clinical environment and helps alleviate anxiety. We are very grateful to Paintings in Hospitals for enabling us to have such wonderful artworks on loan.”
Dr Susan Rankine, Partner, Lees Place Medical Centre, London
We offer bespoke creative workshops and activities that provide the knowledge and confidence to get the most from visual art. These activities involve patients and carers choosing the artworks they want for display, giving them a say in their own care environment and care experience.
We’re recognised by The Department of Health, NHS and Arts Council England as a leading provider of arts in health services. Our practice is recognised as best practice by the Care Quality Commission.
Find out how to get artworks for your care spaces
paintings in hospitals
Welcome to Paintings in Hospitals. We provide art for a range of health and community care providers to enhance environments and boost wellbeing. We represent a range of national artists and have an online shop so that you can also experience the power of art and its effect on people.

PAINTINGS IN HOSPITALS TO BE INCORPORATED INTO LEADING NHS CHARITY
Paintings in Hospitals (PiH), which has been lending original pieces of visual art to health and care providers for over 65 years, is transferring its renowned art collection and merging with CW+, the official charity of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
PiH was founded by Sheridan Russell in 1959. His job was to help distribute aid and support to patients being treated in hospitals. He noticed that when he put original pieces of art on the wall, it helped everyone to feel better. His founding vision for PiH was that all patients in hospitals, their families, visitors and staff, could benefit from experiencing original pieces of art. Now with nationwide reach, the PiH collection has grown to over 3,000 artworks by more than 1,000 artists. Many are very well known, including Bridget Riley, Antony Gormley, Maggi Hambling, Yinka Shonibare, Helen Chadwick, Elizabeth Blackadder, Josef Albers, Anni Albers, Gillian Ayres, Ben Rivers, Alexander Calder, Elisabeth Frink and Ian Davenport. The charity’s artist patrons include Ian Davenport, Sir Antony Gormley OBE, Maggi Hambling CBE, Anita Klein and Bridget Riley CH CBE.
For over 30 years, CW+ has worked alongside Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to create a new type of hospital setting in which art is an integral element of the healing environment. The charity benefits from an established network of patrons, artists and healthcare providers, and has a pioneering Arts in Health programme that builds on the robust body of evidence that outstanding design and engagement with the arts can improve physical and mental wellbeing. The charity’s renowned collection of more than 2,000 artworks is primarily displayed at its two main sites – Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and West Middlesex University Hospital.
The Chair of PiH, Professor Jane Anderson, said: ‘The visionary work PiH started 65 years ago as an outlier is now mainstream. Creative health – the idea that we pioneered – evidences the physical and mental health benefits of exposure to beautiful and inspiring art. Our founder’s innovative approach has since been solidly confirmed by evidence-based science, and the beneficial impact of creative health is now accepted by hospital administrators, funders and legislators.
'And so, to fulfil our mission to bring great art to patients, families and those caring for them, we are transferring our collection to CW+, a leading charity embedded within the NHS, with a long history in the creative health field.
'We share values and a passionate commitment to promoting and furthering the profound benefits of original art in health and care settings. With our combined sector experience of almost 100 years, we welcome this new era for the Paintings in Hospitals collection and are confident that CW+ will add significant value to the Paintings in Hospitals legacy.’
Current loans will remain where they are and CW+ will announce plans for the future of the Paintings in Hospitals collection in 2026.
Chris Chaney, Chief Executive of CW+, said: ‘We are excited to be merging with Paintings in Hospitals, whose work over the last six decades has had such a profound impact on countless people across the UK. We know from over 30 years of experience that visual art can play a hugely positive role on wellbeing and recovery, and we are committed to the long-standing shared vision of the two organisations that art be made available to as many people as possible in healthcare settings.’
For any questions regarding the collection or loans, please email arts@cwplus.org.uk.
29 July 2025
About our collection
Our art collection is the only national arts in health collection. Over 1,000 artists are represented, including Bridget Riley, Antony Gormley, Maggi Hambling, Yinka Shonibare, Gillian Ayres, Ian Davenport and many more and many more.
Paintings in Hospitals makes it easy for health and community care services to benefit from our art.