Poorly children and young people at Heartlands Hospital have been getting creative to produce Safari themed artwork this summer.

The arts department have been running ‘Summer Safari’ sessions throughout August with young patients learning about different groups of animals, from insects to mammals and creating fish paintings and lion masks which have been added to the display boards in the children’s ward at Heartlands. The ‘Safari’ workshops have also been music-themed to help add to the creative atmosphere.

Georgina Farrow, musical co-ordinator at Heartlands Hospital, said: “The aim of the ‘Summer Safari’ sessions has been to help relieve children of the boredom and isolation of being in hospital and to encourage the youngsters to interact and have some fun together. We also created music linked to each of the different groups of animals. In our mammals’ session, we did a baseline jam to ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ from The Lion King.”

If you would like to volunteer and get involved with arts and music projects at Heartlands Hospital, please contact the arts department at arts.dept.music@heartofengland.nhs.uk or on 0121 424 0113 for more information.