I sat next to a man at a symposium the weekend before last who explained that his partner organises exhibitions at the local hospital, the John Radcliffe. Oxford’s a small place, and it immediately clicked that his partner must be Gabriele Dangel from Notfamousyet – I’ve seen stuff that she’s curated before, and I’ve rated it, though I’ve never been up to the hospital to see anything that she’s programmed there.

Contemporary art in hospitals is nothing new these days, but meeting this guy, and thinking about what Gabriele is doing set me thinking about the importance of it, and the need to signpost it well, and take it seriously within the holistic hospital environment. By that, I mean that I found myself (slightly lost, geographically and emotionally) in a hospital chapel in my ‘hour of need’ a couple of years ago… but I’d have been much more appropriately placed in a gallery space.

Anyway, last week I received an email about another exhibition by Claudia Figueiredo and Jonathan Moss this one on South Street at The Churchill Hospital, Oxford. The exhibition, Windows of escape framed by hospital life, continues until Saturday 8th March 2014. I’m probably going to find myself in hospital as a patient in a couple of months time, and as such, just wanted to say thank you to those that exhibit and coordinate quality contemporary art in hospitals. I reckon I’m soon going to really appreciate something that, as a healthy member of the public, I’ve previously overlooked.