Our impact

Why art matters > Our impact

Paintings in Hospitals works to transform the UK’s health by using art to inspire wellbeing. Our artworks and creative workshops make a difference to the lives of millions of people every year. Here’s a snapshot of our work…

315 partnerships with care organisations

We work with patients and carers in 315 care organisations, including hospitals, care homes, hospices, mental health centres, GP surgeries and SEN schools, to bring the benefits of art into their daily lives.

2,173 artworks on public display

Over 60% of our art collection is out on display in public care spaces, providing inspiration for patients and care staff across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. An estimated 2 million people see our exhibitions in hospitals each year.

Sector advocacy and knowledge sharing
- - We are a Strategic Alliance Member of the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance, aiming to develop and promote the role of arts and culture in supporting the country’s health and wellbeing.
  - We work with Nesta the innovation agency for social good monitoring our impact and using the findings to develop our work so that more people may benefit.

Expanding our reach across the UK

- - Our Art Meets Book project in Public Libraries engaged a diverse range of participants in the West Midlands and London. At the start of the project, 45% of participants felt confident about discussing art and 36% did not. At the end of the project, 85% felt confident to do so. There was high level of satisfaction with the project: 82% found the sessions ‘worthwhile and valuable’ and 85% would recommend them to friends and family.
  - Our OASIS (Art for the socially isolated scheme) project worked with those at the end-of-life stage and who attended a Sue Ryder day hospice. participants were invited to rate the statement ‘the sessions improved my feelings/mood at the time’. This was highly rated by all participants and reflected a positive experience of the sessions. Participants were facing some existential issues potentially affecting them emotionally, engagement in the process gave them some space to take their minds off this, and although this was temporary, it provided a welcome relief. One participant said ‘Doing something different, gave me a chance to concentrate and try something new. Time flew by and conversation flowed easily whilst we were working.

Find out more about our impact in cases studies of our recent work…

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 – THE NEXT CHAPTER 

Paintings in Hospitals (PiH) joined with CW+ in July 2025, bringing together two organisations with long histories of improving health and wellbeing through art. Since the merger, we have been reviewing the PiH collection and shaping plans for its future within a new national context, to ensure it continues to benefit patients, staff and communities for many years to come.

Over the past year we have carried out a detailed review of the collection, its reach and its potential to support the health priorities facing communities today. This work has informed a new strategy, endorsed and supported by NHS England and the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), which outlines the development of a broader national programme called NHS Arts.

For the first phase we will be partnering with the Government Art Collection (GAC) as part of its Art Works Everywhere programme. Through this partnership, more than 1,000 artworks from the PiH and GAC collections will be loaned free of charge to NHS hospitals for five years, offering immediate benefits to care environments and providing a strong national platform for the role of art in health.

Alongside the development of NHS Arts, we have maintained PiH’s loans programme, and will continue to do so. There are currently 1,290 works in 72 hospitals, bringing great art to patients, families and those caring for them, and ensuring that PiH’s important legacy continues.

Looking ahead, NHS Arts aims to build a consistent creative health infrastructure across England, embedding high-quality artworks and community-led creative activity in hospitals and healthcare settings. Initial activity will focus on areas with limited access to arts provision, or where stronger community-health relationships have the potential to make the greatest difference.

Participating arts, cultural and community organisations will also benefit from valuable national exposure through their involvement in NHS Arts and the wider creative health ecosystem, with opportunities to contribute to creative programming, community engagement and codesigned activity linked to local health priorities.

The ambition is for NHS Arts to launch nationally in 2028, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the NHS. This will mark the beginning of a long-term, nationally consistent approach to integrating creativity into everyday healthcare.

We remain committed to the founding principles of Paintings in Hospitals – ensuring that artworks are accessible, meaningful and used for public benefit – while embracing a new framework that will allow art and creativity to reach more people, more consistently, across the country.

Further updates will be shared as the programme develops. If you would like to get in touch, please email arts@cwplus.org.uk. 

1 July 2026

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.