ABSTRACT
This chapter will focus on a large-scale art project, offering individuals connected to a hospice the opportunity to create a piece of artwork and contribute it to a public exhibition. Exhibiting the creativity, thoughts and feelings of people in touch with illness, loss, death and dying attempts to bridge the gap that exists between those supported by hospices and mainstream society. Each artwork created in the project is like a pebble that, when dropped in water, creates ripples that flow on to influence others in ways that cannot be fully known at the time of making (The 14th Dalai Lama, 2018). This chapter will explore the impact of such ripples on the communities in which we work, the field of art psychotherapy, and societal responses to living and dying in the UK in the 21st century.
