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Artists in Residence in Service to People at End of Life 

Artists in Residence in Service to People at End of Life 

In 2023, with funding from Creative Ireland, Irish Hospice Foundation’s Arts and Cultural Engagement programme embarked on a groundbreaking project titled “Artists in Residence in Service to People at End of Life”.

By partnering with hospitals to integrate artists into care settings, the aim of the project was to provide patients, families, and staff with a unique outlet for self-expression and to foster compassion in the acute healthcare system.

Below, you’ll find a short documentary video about the project and Art By Their Side, a book featuring interviews with participants and showcasing the creative work that emerged from the residencies. You’ll also find three short animations, illustrating the complex experience of working creatively with people at end of life.

About the Project

Two artists were selected to work with a hospital: BAFTA-winning writer and bardic poet Kevin Toolis at University Hospital Limerick, and visual artist Caroline Schofield at St Luke’s General Hospital Kilkenny. Their aim was to operate somewhere between an artist-in-residence and an artist “on call” to create an atmosphere of creativity and reflection.

Both artists began their residencies with introductory briefing sessions for wider staff and hospital groups before settling into a regular pattern of being on site for a few days every week.

In Limerick, Kevin led a reading and writing group for cancer patients and also spoke at Bereavement Network events. Caroline was connected to wards in St Luke’s Hospital and also to the Home Care team.

To date Kevin has written three poems inspired by the experience, and Caroline has produced many drawings, both in partnership with patients and on her own.

This short documentary video is about Caroline’s residency at St Luke’s General Hospital Kilkenny. Staff reported that both they and the patients involved benefitted hugely from the programme in terms of better communication and a more personalised stay for patients.

As Consultant Geriatrician at St Luke’s, Dr Rory McGovern, said:

“For us, it’s all about the process and trying to make patients better. But for those who come in, you can feel they’re completely at sea. I’ve seen Caroline work with patients with multiple medical and psychological issues. I’ve seen them engage with her and then suddenly smiling and finding themselves as people again.”

This was echoed in feedback repeatedly from others, such as Margaret Ryan, St Luke’s End-of-Life Care Coordinator, who told us:

“It showed us what’s important. Dame Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern hospice movement, encapsulated very well that you can live well right to the end. It doesn’t have to be big gestures – small little things can make a major ripple effect.”

Artists in Residence in Service to People at End of Life was also featured as a case study in Arts+Health.ie, the national website for arts and health and managed by Realta (Ireland’s national body for arts and health). Read the case study here.

Art By Their Side

As part of the Artists in Residence in Service to People at End of Life project, we commissioned health journalist Sylvia Thompson to interview the artists and some of the hospital staff and support teams involved.

The resulting book — Art By Their Side: Artists in Residence in Service to People at End of Life — features interviews with participants and showcases the creative work that emerged from the residencies, demonstrating the profound impact of art on end-of-life care.

A photo of four people (three women and one man) holding Irish Hospice Foundation's new "Art By Their Side" book.
From left to right: Caroline Schofield, Visual Artist; Margaret Ryan, St Luke’s End-of-Life Care Coordinator; Dominic Campbell, Manager of Arts and Cultural Engagement at Irish Hospice Foundation; Paula O’Reilly, CEO of Irish Hospice Foundation

The book is available to read online below. We are also distributing copies of the book through our Hospice Friendly Hospitals, Caru, and Care at End-of-Life networks, among others. Read more about the book launch.

Art-By-Their-Side-Artists-in-Residence-in-Service-to-People-at-End-of-Life-Irish-Hospice-Foundation

Animations

In addition, we commissioned three animators to respond to stories from Caroline and Kevin about their experiences. As can be seen in the videos below, each animator used their own unique style to illustrate the complex experience of working creatively with people at end of life. 

About the Artists

Caroline Schofield

Caroline Schofield is a Visual Artist who studied Textiles in the National College of Art and  Design, Dublin. She also holds a Masters in Art and Process from Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork. Over the past eight years she has worked with Waterford Healing Arts (now Reálta) on numerous projects. This includes developing Open Gallery, an ongoing arts project showing University Hospital Waterford’s Art Collection to patients and nursing homes – a pilot art programme with palliative care patients. Caroline’s work is found in public and private collections and has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She is currently one of our Artists in Residence working “in service to people at end of life”.  For more, visit Caroline Schofield | Visual Artist.

Kevin Toolis

Kevin Toolis is a BAFTA-winning writer and bardic poet who is the author of three acclaimed works of creative non-fiction. He is the author of the creative memoir ‘My Father’s Wake’, a seminal work on Irish wakes, and is an internationally recognised TEDMED speaker and Death Thought Leader. His second death book ‘Nine Rules to Conquer Death’, was published by One World in 2020. ‘NineRules’ is a life manual to help us all navigate our way through our mortality in a Covid-19 world sprawling into chaos in pandemic. He is also the writer of a highly praised chronicle of Ireland’s Troubles ‘Rebel Hearts’ published by MacMillan. Kevin was awarded a Seed Grant to create Gone, a bardic poem on the losses of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, he is currently one of our Artists in Residence working “in service to people at end of life”. For more visit Wonders of the Wake.

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