Art is not only pleasing to the senses; it can serve other, broader purposes.

A long-running multi-disciplinary project at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre (Samoc) is proving how art within a clinical space can foster a warm, comforting, therapeutic environment for the patient and reduce isolation and anxiety, while assisting with the treatment and management of a patient’s condition.

The Deep Shelter Project, created and curated by artist Pamela Baldacchino and organised by Valletta 2018, in collaboration with Mater Dei Hospital, Samoc and the University of Malta, includes site-specific art installations, artist performances, as well as various sensory workshops for patients and students.

The art programme structured for Deep Shelter encourages collaborating artists to engage with the space at the Oncology Centre, as well as with the needs of the patients, relatives and staff, and create and donate paintings to make the space less clinical and more personal.

Thanks to this project, the Oncology Centre now has several paintings installed in its halls and therapy rooms.

The aim of the project is to trigger a feeling of being at home

“The themes of home, connection and presence are especially important in this context,” said Ms Baldacchino. “Patients need to relate to the artworks. The aim is to trigger a feeling of being at home, where one is understood and sheltered.”

Renovations in the multi-faith room and interview room were also carried out as part of the project.

Through artistic research conducted with Benna Chase, the principal psychologist at the Oncology Centre, which included workshops led by Marika Fleri, coordinator of the National Cancer Platform, it was found that the works on display encouraged the process of narration on the patient’s part and helped the empathic process with the self to begin.

“As we struggle to find our centre, our being in the present, research at Samoc shows that we need to turn to a deep connection with our commonality. This is embedded in our spaces of living; our natural landscapes, our cities and our homes, both as a place of residence and as a physical, bodily experience,” the researchers said.

“Revealing stories of illness through a mediating artistic tool leads to an engagement with individual narratives. These stories share a common thread as they weave together ways of understanding health and illness within a local context.

“Bringing to light these singular yet common insights, enables the researcher or practitioner to identify ways in which the ill person is called to navigate a territory that is essentially about living and dying, a process that contemporarily brings us together and separates us.”

The researchers concluded that “although illness brings with it a need for detachment, somehow this is facilitated through attachment. Creating a holding space through presence and art-based modalities supports the patients in their letting go and surrendering to the illness experience”.

For more information, visit https://valletta2018.org/cultural-programme/deep-shelter-project/ .