Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital
Ward 86 Mosaic
Working in Collaboration
Sarah worked in part collaboration with the children on Ward 86 to create a large mosaic mural that is now proudly displayed outside the ward as the entrance sign that welcomes families to the ward. Sarah was commissioned by the hospitals charity in 2021 to work on a mosaic that could be used as ward signage. Sarah suggested that she would like to include the children and young people on the ward with the project work which was warmly welcomed. Sarah began the project by creating a short video that was then shared with the children on the ward to introduce the project. Working with the Play Leaders children were asked to start drawing and contributing visual ideas for what they might like to have included within the design. Lots of images arrived that were inspired by the fish tank on the ward, a design theme was quickly decided upon! The final design depicted the journey of a boat crossing a storm and making it to paradise island, words were added to the mosaic ‘The Bigger Your Storm, The Brighter Your Rainbow’ and Ward 86 was placed within the sunshine. Sarah worked with the children over several days on two visits to the hospital, mosaics were made on mesh and children were also given the opportunity to paint ceramic sea creatures that Sarah had hand cut, these were all added into the mosaic.
“All of the children I worked with on the ward were truly amazing, everyone that I worked with added something really special to the mosaic and made it a mural to be really proud of. It was working with the children that made this project so very special. Amy was a young girl I worked with quite a lot and her enthusiasm was just brilliant, she created lots of the mosaic sea creatures including the big octopus”Sarah Harper
‘When we moved Wards in July 2021 many of our families were sad to be losing what they saw as their second home. As a team we wanted to make our new ward more colourful and inviting so that families would enjoy the new Ward as much as they enjoyed the old One. We wanted a welcome sign that really stood out and separated us from other areas. We saw the work Sarah had done in local schools with the children and thought it would perfect for us. Sarah visited the Ward on several occasions and worked with the children to help create the mosaic, some of our children are very unwell but Sarah was patient and understanding and worked with them at their own pace so that they could be as involved as possible. Since the sign went up we’ve had so many lovely comments about the mosaic and I’ve watched families and staff walk past it and smile. Its lovely to think that the children have helped Sarah to create something that will be around for many years to come and I can’t thank Sarah enough for all her hard work’.
— Claire Mulhall - Ward 86 Manager