ARTS AND HEALTH

Artlink Central’s largest programme area is in health. The programme includes work across NHS Forth Valley settings, in our Artspace programme and occasional project specific work with local voluntary sector funding bodies. We have recently become coordinators for the Forth Valley region’s input to the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. 

We deliver a large programme of activity funded through the Endowments Committee at NHS Forth Valley on an annual basis. This is to provide arts experiences that improve patients’ experiences and environments in NHS settings. We work across acute and day settings, including with children, elderly and dementia wards, in mental health and learning disability settings. 

Artlink Central works with a range of partner statutory and voluntary sector arts and mental health organisations including Arts in Mind (Clackmannanshire based mental health user led group), Arts Therapy and Health Improvement NHS Forth Valley, Stirling Action in Mind and Falkirk District Associations for Mental Health.

ENQUIRIES

• small commisions

• enquiry about exhibiting artwork

• participatory activities with patients and/or staff

• requests for events and/or performances

• any other enquiry on creative work

  Please fill out the below form which will be passed on to our NHS Forth Valley Arts Coordinators and Participatory Arts team.

Current Exhibitions

Growing Old Competitively: An exhibition of photographs by Alex Rotas at FVRH, organised in partnership with the Park Gallery in Callendar House (Falkirk)

Showing from August 1st 2023

I’m delighted that my photos are being shown in a health-care setting. I’m thrilled to think they might offer hope to patients, inspiration to visitors and encouragement to health-care professionals to raise their expectations about what we are all capable of as we age. Above all, that they might make people smile.” - Alex Rotas

Curated by Artlink Central for NHS Forth Valley, Growing Old Competitively features 12 images by photographer Alex Rotas. Selected from a series of photographs exhibited in 2018 at the Park Gallery, Falkirk, the exhibition features images taken by Rotas at international contests for athletes ranging in age from 60 to 90+ plus a selection from her series of senior Scottish sports participants. Each athlete is portrayed in action at their chosen event, including the sprint, hurdles, long and high jump, pole vault and distance races, often as they achieve a record-breaking or medal winning result.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Photographer Alex Rotas, who hopes the body of work will challenge widely-held misconceptions about what growing older means and encourage fresh thinking on how older people can stay fit, healthy, engaged and happy explains:

“I first became interested in photographing older competitive sports people when I realised that as a swimmer, tennis player and runner I was becoming one myself! Yet when I studied how over-60s are portrayed in popular culture, I realised it was usually as infirm, immobile, spent and sad. So I set out to capture positive images of active elders enjoying sport and soon discovered they are not a rare and exotic species; they are present in every locality and with a select few achieving times or distances that compare very respectably with those of much younger athletes.”

Masters Athletes

Featured Masters Athletes include: Dorothy McClennan, Ireland, and Brita Kiesheyer, Germany Hugh McGinlay, Scotland Irene Obera, USA Ingrid Meier, Germany Richard Rzehak, Germany Olga Kotelko, Canada Jeanne Daprano, USA Phyllis Hands, Scotland Jim Smith, Scotland Ikuko Suzuki, Japan Dalbir Singh Deol, UK Angela Copson, UK

Staff Creativity Area at FVRH

An exhibition of art from staff member Anton Christian Lindbak was installed in FVRH, launching a new exhibition space that will feature and celebrate art and creativity from NHSFV staff members, including placement students, and showcasing internal projects.

Mini-exhibitions: About the project

The exhibition area is dedicated to celebrating the talent and creativity of our NHS Forth Valley staff and to showcasing internal participatory projects with patients or staff across NHS Forth Valley sites. The mini-exhibitions, curated by Artlink Central for NHS Forth Valley, will change regularly.

Our launch exhibition features the work of Anton Christian Lindbak, a landscape and figurative painter in acrylics and oil. Norwegian citizen, Scottish resident, European by heart, a life of experiences, currently an Emergency Department Staff Nurse here in FVRH by trade and emerging artist by passion.

‘Before I started painting, I wrote and published an Edinburgh based crime fiction trilogy, Hugo Storm, currently available on Amazon. I started painting with purpose about five years ago and now feel confident to reach out. I utterly love the creative process of creating a landscape or a figurative scene on an empty canvas with acrylics or more recently preferably with oil. I love experimenting with mediums, styles and themes, and have many influences from the classics masters to the contemporary rather splendid Scott Naismith. Creating and painting gives me joy and peace something I hope to translate to those interested in my art. I have done landscape commissions and find that equally challenging and so rewarding, please feel free to contact me if you are interested at aclindbak@hotmail.com. I am in the beginning of building my online presence, and just now have an Instagram page: @anton_lindbak_art.'

If you are a member of staff and are interested in showcasing your own work, please visit click here to complete an expression of interest form or email info@artlinkcentral.org

Past Exhibitions

Into the Woods: An exhibition of artwork by emerging artist Karla Mallis, curated by Artlink Central for NHS Forth Valley

About the Artist

Karla Mallis is a talented emerging artist based in Falkirk, Scotland. She finds inspiration in the wilderness and aims to encourage curiosity and positivity towards nature through her art. Karla captures the beauty of plants and trees in their natural environment, showcasing a range of colors and textures in her artwork. She draws inspiration from landscapes and nature in Aviemore, Scotland, using various techniques to create stunning pieces of art.

Artwork Details

Karla's artwork in this exhibition was created using techniques such as wax crayons with ink and a scratch technique to emphasize tone and sunlight, as well as polyisoprene and acrylic paint to create unique textures. She also employs a sponging technique for tree leaves and cardboard dipped in acrylic paint to create rough bark textures. Some of the pieces on display were created when Karla was just 17 years old while studying towards her Art and Design qualification, showcasing her early talent and dedication to her craft.

Exhibition Information

Into The Woods is Karla Mallis' first solo exhibition, curated by Artlink Central for NHS Forth Valley. The exhibition features a collection of Karla's stunning artwork, showcasing her unique style and creative approach to depicting nature, and will be on display until the end of May 2023. Some of the pieces in the exhibition are available for sale, and for information and sales inquiries, please contact info@artlinkcentral.org.

Lauren Bremner is an up-and-coming young Scottish artist. Lauren’s artworks are mostly inspired by two of her great loves: nature and cats. Lauren loves to develop ideas with her studio support artists, taking inspiration from her local surroundings and landmarks, as well as landscapes further afield. Lauren has a deep connection with animals; she particularly adores cats and has created a number of artworks using imagery of cats belonging to family and friends. She mainly loves to work with acrylics, watercolour, charcoal and printmaking.

In 2011, Lauren began to exhibit her work with the support of Artlink Central. Working with professional artists Nikki Monaghan and Jacqueline Marr on the Creative Leavers programme in 2011 and 2012 - a programme supporting talented young adults to make successful transitions leaving school and supporting their creative aspirations - she got to exhibit in Edinburgh with 'Gallery on the Corner '. A favourite painting of Lauren’s from this exhibition entitled “Silver Birch” led to Lauren undertaking a commission for the chairman of NHS Forth Valley in 2013. Thereafter, Lauren began an art course at Forth Valley College.

Lauren’s passion for art has also been a lifeline for her having been run over by a car aged 11. Suffering life-threatening injuries, Lauren fought back and began to build a life back for herself with her family, and in turn art, at the core of her rehabilitation.

Lauren’s strength and passion for life are evident in her determination and enthusiasm for taking on new challenges. In 2012, Lauren took part in the Children in Need Rickshaw Challenge; she teamed up with 5 other young team members to cycle a combined 400 miles in eight days, setting off from Llandudno in Wales and finishing at BBC’ s Television Centre in London.

Now aged 28, Lauren has been working in her own studio situated in the Cowane Centre in Stirling, since 2017. In 2018, Lauren participated in the Open Studio event Forth Valley Art Beat.

The year 2020 undoubtedly brought its challenges for Lauren and like many of us, her only option was to work remotely. This was a highly difficult time for Lauren, however she adapted to working online with her support artist Jacqueline Marr throughout the Covid pandemic, experimenting and implementing new ways of creating art, and working with various tools and mediums. This allowed Lauren to continue exploring her creativity, whilst additionally enhancing her creative independence, having always had direct practical studio support.

Since 2021, Lauren has finally been able to return to working in her Stirling studio space, where she currently continues to develop her creativity and explore her art passion with the regular support of artists Jacqueline Marr, Jennifer Lapsley and Laura Newbury, as well as working on time-limited projects with other artists, such as Aya Iguchi-Sherry. 2022 has also seen Lauren participate in an art residency programme at Cove Park, supported by professional artists Annette Laing and Robyn Woolston.

Visit the exhibition or browse Lauren’s artworks for sale.

Gallery