Private View: ‘Hospital Rooms. Digital Art School’

Join us to celebrate the opening of ‘Digital Art School,’ a new exhibition that will transform Hauser & Wirth London, in partnership with arts and mental health charity Hospital Rooms.

The final project in our three-year partnership with the arts and mental health charity, the exhibition is a physical manifestation of their Digital Art School initiative. The program brings artist-led digital workshops and free art materials to every NHS inpatient mental health site in England. The exhibition will recreate the Digital Art School format in the gallery, delivering live in-house creative sessions hosted by artists such as Abbas Zahedi, Shepherd Manyika and Eileen Cooper RA, as well as beautifully shot 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 or participating through handheld digital devices and in print. 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 humanizing mental health spaces. Artworks created by visitors during the sessions will be installed on the walls throughout the exhibition.

The exhibition will culminate in an auction hosted in partnership with Bonhams on 11 September 2024, showcasing works donated by artists across the UK, which will be shown in the gallery throughout the duration of the exhibition. The auction will feature works by Do Ho Suh, Sutapa Biswas, Peter Liversidge and many more.

Tickets are free, however if you are able to make a donation, this will support Hospital Rooms’ charitable work within NHS mental health hospitals. We anticipate that this event will be busy so please register in advance to help us understand visitor numbers. If we reach capacity in the gallery, we will ask you to queue for a short time.

The exhibition will be on view from Thursday 22 August — Tuesday 10 September 2024.

About Hospital Rooms
Hospital Rooms was founded when a friend of artist Tim Shaw and curator Niamh White was sectioned and admitted to a NHS mental health hospital. On visiting her, they were shocked to find the hospital environment was cold and clinical at a time when she was so vulnerable. Having both worked in the arts for 10 years, Shaw and White felt they had the skills and community to be able to transform these spaces with unique and site specific artworks.

The charity envisions a new world where abundant and meaningful creative opportunities are readily accessible to people with severe and enduring mental health diagnoses, and where mental health hospital environments are inventive cultural spaces offering solace, comfort and dignity. Since 2016, Hospital Rooms has undertaken a number of acclaimed projects, completed in some of the most challenging mental health settings. A roster of artists is carefully selected for each Hospital Rooms’ project according to the needs of each community.

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Please be advised that photographs will be taken at this event for use on the Hauser & Wirth website, social media and in other marketing materials.