The Anne Dawborn Bequest
Anne Dawborn graduated as an Occupational Therapist in 1953, beginning her career at the Repatriation Hospital in Melbourne, before travelling to Canada via the UK and New York to work at the Kingston Psychiatric Hospital in Ontario. Returning to Australia several years later, Anne worked at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and became Head of the Occupational Therapy Department.
Anne also trained and worked as a primary school teacher, bringing her creativity into every lesson. Anne developed a lifelong love of drawing, sketching and painting in water and oils. She was a member various Art Societies and exhibited in galleries around Melbourne.
Anne believed in the therapeutic nature of engaging in the arts, in any form, and facilitated others to be creative in her role as Occupational Therapist, Teacher, relative and friend. Anne passed away in 2013. Thanks to her legacy, a pilot arts-in-health project was initiated at the Royal Hobart Hospital that led to establishing Inscape Tas.
OUR STORY
In 2015, a 6-month pilot Arts Health project was successfully implemented at the Royal Hobart Hospital in Southern Tasmania.
It took place on the Acute Older Person’s Unit (AOPU) where older people with acute illness, including many with dementia and delirium are cared for. The pilot aimed to improve the experience of older people, their family, carers and staff through engagement in art activities, including music, visual arts, participatory art making and storytelling. An evaluation was implemented in partnership with Dr. Karen Ford, ADON Research and Practice Development, RHH and was published in the International Journal of Older Persons Nursing.
This paper received the journal’s Award for Outstanding Scholarly Contribution to Gerontological Nursing Practice in 2018.
The pilot was made possible by a bequest from Anne Dawborn. It led to the founding of the Arts Health organisation, Inscape Tasmania, still going today.
Inscape has since developed its programs to meet the needs of patients and staff throughout the entire hospital. A team of musicians and artists are contracted for artist residencies, sessional work offering music and artmaking at the bedside, illustrative work capturing patient’s stories and public musical performances.
Inscape is committed to supporting artists to work in health care with regular professional development and mentoring. Inscape also contributes to research, evaluation, and offers education to health care staff about the value of arts in health settings.
Currently Inscape has:
Completed a total of 220 Life-Scape illustrations all gifted to patients and their families.
Facilitated regular education sessions for health staff/community groups.
Weekly public duo/solo performances in sites around Tasmanian Health Services-South.
Engaged an average of 30 participants in bedside musical visits each week at the RHH site.
Initiated ‘Care Through Creativity’ residency project with 3 visual artists working within the hospital in 2021/22.
Initiated and supports 2 x artist residencies a year at the Community Rehabilitation Unit at the Repatriation Centre, 2023/24
Initiated and supports ongoing artist residencies at The Roy Fagan Centre and New Norfolk District Hospital.
An arts-health facilitator providing support and mentoring.
Sound governance from a committed voluntary board, and part-time administrator.
Alyssa Bermudez and Jenny Masters working on Life-Scape illustrations during a Professional Development day, 2017.
Evaluation
In 2015, the Inscape program was evaluated with ethics approval and the results showed many benefits and positive outcomes for staff, patients and visitors.