Shared Collective Heritage Exhibition

The Suttie Arts Space, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary

This exhibition is of artwork from the Grampian Hospitals Art Trust (GHAT) Art Collection. As part of a new project titled Shared Collective Heritage (SCH), and as a response to Covid-19, GHAT is currently working to create a digital version of the Art Collection, making it available free online. The reason for doing so is to enable as many people as possible to access the GHAT Art Collection at their leisure, regardless of restricted physical access to NHSG venues. The artworks in the display are some of the first ones that we’ve made digital versions of.

SCH is a project that preserves and celebrates the artistic heritage that connects people and places across the North East of Scotland. We will also tell the story of the artists and places in the Art Collection and how and why the artwork was bought or commissioned. We will do this through conservation, interpretation, film making and creative writing.

GHAT aims to ensure the artworks in the GHAT Art Collection bring to life the heritage of the North-East of Scotland and that enjoyment of local history, heritage and art are part of daily experience in NHS Grampian venues. ARI is a distinct community, with its ecosystem, sense of identity and place. It’s like a small town with no residents, but where many staff, visitors and patients spend much of their lives. GHAT’s key goal is to maximise access to a stimulating and engaging art programme that enhances the wellbeing of people accessing NHSG facilities. GHAT want everyone in the hospital to feel they have a connection to the artwork, whatever their reason for being there.

Shared Collective Heritage is a project funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund, Aberdeen City Council and the Rayne Foundation.

As part of this exhibition, there is a selection of haiku inspired by the artworks on display. These were written by local writer Shane Strachan. They reflect the quietness and stillness Shane perceives in these works, as well as the sense of the world standing still during the Coronavirus outbreak in 2020.

We would like to encourage visitors to the exhibition to submit their own haiku inspired by these works to us. They will then potentially form part of wider the Shared Collective Heritage project. For instructions on how to write and submit your own, please see below.