Pandemic memorial artwork painted by local students unveiled at Teesside healthcare trust

Memorial artwork created by college students to commemorate the challenges faced by a community during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been unveiled at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.

Students from Stockton Sixth Form College were commissioned to paint duplicate pieces for installations at both North Tees and Hartlepool Hospital sites, after successfully winning a competition.

The installation was originally entered as individual pieces before the college and trust agreed that a bigger piece featuring all of the artworks would be a poignant memorial – highlighting the pandemic on the fifth anniversary year of the first lockdown.

Dr Jean MacLeod, lead medical examiner and chair of the visual arts council at the trust said: “As a healthcare organisation throughout the pandemic we were very conscious of what staff, patients and families were going through. But it was only afterwards we realised that we had no specific memorial as a trust to mark and reflect upon what we all went through as a community.

“Following the formation of our Visual Arts Council, we wanted to invite local schools and colleges to have the opportunity to create a visual piece that would reflect that moment in time and would showcase how the pandemic affected our younger generation.”

A record and reflection on the pandemic

The circular ‘bubble’ pieces are a clever representation of the isolation and ‘social bubbles’ that society had to form throughout the pandemic.

The paintings also speak for the thoughts and feelings of nine students Nikita Chenjerai, Daisy Bell, Finn Clarvis, Lucinda Fox, Lily Kennedy, Divine Mesole, Maisy Thomas, Emilia Vaughan and Sophie Wilks during the pandemic.

The unveiling of both sets of paintings took place at both hospital sites on world health day, inviting Stockton Sixth Form College, local council, the organisations Chief Executive and Chair as well as key community stakeholders.

During the unveiling the trusts chaplaincy team held a small memorial service and offered blessings, with people encourage to share their own memories from the pandemic on special COVID-19 Memorial trees in each of the chapels.

Trust chair, Professor Derek Bell OBE, said: “I have to thank the visual arts committee and governors who worked through and judged all the brilliant submissions, alongside helping to pull this day together.

“I’d also like to thank our NTH Solutions team and Castle Construction who helped with the installations and spotlights to show off our brilliant new artwork. The North Tees and Hartlepool Together charity also helped to make this day possible.

“But most importantly, I’d like to thank Stockton Sixth Form College and ultimately the students, who have made such meaningful memorials for us to mark the pandemic and to reflect just some of the emotions and experiences we all had during this time.

“At a time where things changed rapidly, this artwork reminds us that it’s important to reflect on what has happened so we can also look to learn for the future.”

A chance to celebrate our young local artists

Stockton Sixth Form College, art teacher, Clair Wilson said: “It’s a great honor for the students to have won the competition and to know their work has pride of place on two hospital sites. Winning the competition been inspiring for them and important for their education, but it has also humbling to have been selected to commemorate the pandemic.

“Hopefully, viewers will be able to enjoy the work as they walk past and it will make them pause and reflect on how each of the students’ individual messages resonates with them.”

Second and third place in the competition were won by two students from St Hild’s School in Hartlepool and the pieces will go on display at the trust in May.

More information about the COVID-19 Memorial artwork and each of the individual student’s artist statements can be seen here: https://nth-new.mixd.co.uk/about/visual-arts/covid-memorial/