'Beauty and the Hospital in History', a three-day conference organised by the Mediterranean Institute in collaboration with the University of Warwick, has proceeded successfully at the University of Malta Valletta Campus.
Convened by Prof. John Chircop, the conference has gathered together over twenty international scholars to debate hospital aesthetics from an array of scholarly perspectives, ranging from architecture and the role of colour in hospitals, to artistic patronage, experiences of the senses, graffiti culture internal design, hospital landscaping, and other areas of research.
Convened by Prof. John Chircop, the conference has gathered together over twenty international scholars to debate hospital aesthetics from an array of scholarly perspectives, ranging from architecture and the role of colour in hospitals, to artistic patronage, experiences of the senses, graffiti culture internal design, hospital landscaping, and other areas of research.
Beauty, and its perceived absence or loss, has been a part of hospital experiences, therapies, and planning throughout history. The conference has in many ways succeeded in shedding new light onto the history of beauty and health by exploring the subjective concepts of beauty, 'normality', and their opposites within and around the hospital.
The conference has evaluated the relationship between beauty and the hospital in history through an examination of five key themes: (1) the arts and the hospital; (2) landscape and environment; (3) restoring beauty; (4) patient and staff experiences and (5) beauty and the senses.
'Beauty and the Hospital in History' is the 11th Conference of the International Network for the History of Hospitals, and is supported by the Society for the Social History of Medicine and the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health.