For hospitals
Deciding on art for a healthcare setting
Use these steps to assess a commission or donation, prepare a proposal and plan the work’s long-term care.
Understand the case
Read the short brief on institutional purposes, relevant research and the limits of the evidence.
Assess your proposal
Record the purpose, intended audience, proposed setting and decisions needed for a specific project.
Plan delivery and care
Work through commissioning, installation, ownership and maintenance, and estimate the full cost of the project.
Plan evaluation
Decide what you want to learn and what information to collect before installation.
Why consider art here?
- Welcome and identity. Mark an arrival point and give shared spaces character.
- Remembrance and cultural expression. Recognize people, histories and communities.
- Experience of the environment. Provide interest and improve the character of shared spaces.
These are reasons institutions commission art. They should be distinguished from measured health effects.
What might suit our setting?
Explore documented examples in three types of setting. Review each work in the context of its own institution.
Photo: Patche99z, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Image courtesy of CW+, reproduced in Foster et al. (2025), PLOS One, Figure 4, CC BY 4.0.
Photo: Prosperosity, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
What must we arrange?
A checklist to work through before commissioning or accepting a gift. The commissioning guidance explains the reasoning behind it.
- Purpose and brief: the purpose, the people who will encounter the work, where, and who decides.
- Site: structural loads, foundations or suspension points, sightlines, circulation, emergency routes, lighting, weather exposure and future building works.
- Access: viewing from seated, wheelchair and walking positions; whether touch is permitted; information for people who cannot see or reach the work.
- People: involvement of patients, staff, local community and accessibility representatives, and at what stage.
- Agreements: ownership and title; commission, gift or loan terms; the artist’s moral rights, which in some countries restrict alteration, relocation or removal; reproduction and photography rights; credit.
- Safety and approvals: planning and building permissions; engineering sign-off; fire and infection-control review for indoor work; risk assessment for climbing, sharp edges or water.
- Fabrication and installation: schedule, lifting and access, protection of the site, disruption to services, and out-of-hours work.
- Stewardship: a maintenance and cleaning plan agreed with the artist or a conservator, condition inspections, insurance, security, and a policy for relocation or decommissioning.
- Documentation: a record of the work, its dimensions and materials, and photographs with permission to publish.
- Evaluation: the question, and baseline observations taken before installation.
What will it cost to own?
A donated work still has costs. Budget for site preparation, transport, installation, permissions, insurance, maintenance and eventual relocation or removal. Record a gift’s valuation separately from expenditure.
How will we evaluate it?
Decide the question before installation, so that baseline observations can be taken. The evaluation planning template includes a worked example for an entrance, and the short evaluation guide summarizes the principles. Both are proposed documents that need local adaptation.