CCI’s ways of working have resonated with health settings since the start.
Our partnership with the arts programme of Cambridge University Hospitals began in 2014. More than 40,000 people - patients, staff and visitors - visit the main site every day, and CCI has been involved in thinking about how creative experiences can support everyone in this extraordinary community in some way.
The professional development project Trolley of Ideas worked with the staff of the play team at Addenbrooke’s, exploring creative approaches to planning and offering play to the children and young people visiting and staying in the hospital.
In 2015 we worked with scientist Dr Helen Brown from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) and a class of eight and nine year olds from St Philip's Primary School in Cambridge on a project called Future Reactive, exploring children’s ideas for how we can keep active in a mechanised world.
In 2016 and 2017, we worked with the curator of Addenbrooke’s museum on a project called Animating the Archives which invited different groups to play creatively with ideas and provocations inspired by the collection. Participants included young carers and people living with dementia and their carers, as well as children from St Philip's and Queen Edith’s Primary Schools.
Between 2016 and 2019 we collaborated with the hospital on Taking Note, a project that began with an invitation to notice - and note - moments of joy in everyday life, and culminated in the publication of a book of poems on National Poetry Day 2019.
More recently artist Filipa Pereira Stubbs invited patients and staff of the Dialysis Centre in east Cambridge in 2022 to participate in the Chalk Dreams project through a specially created soundscape.
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This project equipped our team with some fantastic skills to really help our children while they're in hospital.
Dr Denise Williams, Clinical Directors of Children's Services, on Trolley of Ideas
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What happens to our bodies when we don’t move? ....If you don’t be active you will be having a short life.
Pupil, St Philip’s Primary School
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If I was an 'eppy-deee-meee-oll-ogist' I would advise the government to .....stop being bossy, buy more exercise equipment.
Pupil, St Philip’s Primary School
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Part of our remit at CEDAR is to translate evidence about healthy behaviour into real-world action. This exciting project offers that very opportunity. Dr Esther van Sluijs and I are delighted to be combining art and science to engage and inform the children of St Phillip’s School about ways they, and their families, can stay active.
Dr Helen Brown, Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR)
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I found the vagus nerve explanation beautiful and with my eyes closed imagined it as my own chalk stream running through and soothing my body. It gave a feeling of euphoria and freedom, a drug-free trip.
Patients and staff of The Dialysis Unit