As one of the largest acute Trusts in the UK, MFT employs more than 20,000 staff working across nine hospitals and in the community, providing care for approximately 750,000 people per year.

Situated in the Peter Mount Building, on the Oxford Road Campus, the Lime Arts and Wellbeing Centre is the first dedicated fully facilitated arts studio in a hospital setting in the UK and presents a global landmark for culture and wellbeing in healthcare at MFT. Made possible by a £200K grant from Barclays Bank, the centre opened in Autumn 2021 and is celebrating its first birthday.

The multi-purpose arts centre is accessible to all MFT staff, including health professionals, students and trainees, and is the focal point for the wide range of arts activity on offer from Lime to support NHS staff health and wellbeing. Artforms such as visual art, printmaking, creative writing and digital arts form part of the workshop offer for MFT staff, alongside Team Building workshops and Create+, our new staff arts referral programme.

The centre also acts as a base for research into embedding culture and creativity into healthcare settings, somewhere where we encourage learning and experimentation for arts and health professionals, researchers, students and trainees. The space includes a fully equipped studio where we can host artists residencies and the production of high quality, original, innovative artwork. Lime’s award-winning core team of visual artists and musicians are also based at the arts and wellbeing centre, providing the expertise and driving force behind the centre’s initiatives from within the Trust.

The centre creates a synergy and lays a strong foundation for nurturing vital links between healthcare and creative communities to support staff wellbeing across MFT. Celebrate with us by becoming a member and join the Lime Arts Portal, where you can find more information on our creative wellbeing offers for NHS staff.