‘Nurse in residence’ gets to art of the matter
BIRMINGHAM’S Barber Institute of Fine Arts is to introduce a ‘nurse in residence’ at its Edgbaston gallery as it launches a unique wellbeing initiative amid the Covid crisis.
The year-long project will see a programme of arts activity delivered to nearby communities thanks to a grant of £40,000 from the Art Fund’s Respond & Reimagine scheme.
The Barber’s head of public engagement, Jen Ridding, said “Many of us will be aware of an artist in residence in a medical setting, so we thought what if we switch this?
“A nurse in residence at a museum offers a novel and powerful way for cultural organisations to work with medical sector colleagues.
“If we think about the museum of the future, then we absolutely need to be collaborating with colleagues from across sectors and disciplines.
“We’re operating in a world where boundaries are blurring and finding new insights, new relevance and new applications for our collections and cultural institutions is essential. I think this is one way we can help museums thrive in the 21st century.”
The project’s nurse in residence will be Jane Nicol, senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham’s School of Nursing and a registered nurse who has specialised in palliative and end of life care.
Over 12 months, she will be looking at the Barber’s collection through her unique lens and developing ways of using these major works of art to inform community healthcare and enrich medical training.
Ms Nicol said: “This unique and exciting residency provides an opportunity to rethink the role the arts have in the education of our future healthcare professionals and in promoting the sustainable health and wellbeing of our wider community.
“Utilising the Barber’s world class art collection, we’ll be developing tools which will be practically applied in a healthcare and community settings to address some of the pressing issues facing our communities in the midst of the pandemic.”
The project has four strands: the nurse in residence, ‘death and dying community conversations’, care-home outreach and a social prescribing pilot.
For more information about Barber Health and the Nurse in Residence, visit barber.org.uk.