The BBC published a piece on Kurt Jackson’s sculpture made from recycled personal protective equipment (PPE) that was recently unveiled at Treliske hospital to mark six years since the first Covid lockdown.

Kurt Jackson designed The Nurse’s Hands – a pair of cupped hands wearing surgical gloves – as a tribute to “those who care and those we lost” during the pandemic.

The piece now stands in the Critical Care Healing Garden at Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

Jackson used PPE that had been collected and recycled on site, after learning about the hospital’s efforts to reuse materials. Dr Joe Parker, who works in intensive care, said using PPE to make the sculpture would “be heard and felt by everyone” at the hospital.

Click here to read article on BBC Website

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“Dedicated to those who care, and those we lost.”

Kurt Jackson: The Nurse’s Hands. 2024. Recycled PPE.

Last week, Kurt delivered this sculpture dedicated to nurses of Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust and those who’ve passed in their care.

Kurt’s sculpture is made from recycled PPE gloves, and was inspired by the tireless work of NHS staff during the Covid Pandemic and those who sadly lost their lives during that period.

It also serves as an ongoing sign of respect and appreciation for their ongoing hard work and daily dedication in looking after all of us.

The Nurses Hand’s are now in situ at the Critical Care Garden at Treliske Hospital, Truro.

The Critical Care Garden was the brainchild of explorer, author, and environmentalist Robin Hanbury-Tenison, who worked to fundraise to create an oasis of calm within the hospital grounds, where patients can reconnect with nature, even if they are bed bound.

The Nurses Hand’s sit amongst other pieces of sculpture created by Kurt Jackson including number of playful bronze birds scattered at different heights and locations throughout the garden.

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Today, to bring a bit of warmth and colour, Kurt donated a handful of framed limited edition prints and archival posters to the Phoenix Ward at Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro.

The Phoenix Ward specialises in looking after patients who have suffered a stroke. 

The Phoenix Ward team were aware of all the charitable work Kurt has done for various departments at the hospital in terms of fundraising and donating his time and art to improve otherwise sterile medical environments. These departments support those going through some of the most difficult moments of their lives.

The Phoenix Ward contacted Kurt asking for help to spruce up the drab room where patients are informed of their condition.

The room was rather functional and bleak, so the team were thrilled when Kurt showed up with artwork to humanise the space and give the patients something beautiful to focus on.

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Kurt Jackson’s newest exhibition Sea Flower is now open at the Jackson Foundation, St Just.

“What is a sea flower? A plant by the sea? Or a plant of or in the sea? It could refer to the coastal floral community, or to the seaweeds, or even those extraordinary marine creatures the sea anemones. Basically, it’s about making a body of work that combines and juxtaposes two common subjects in my work. The sea and plants.” – Kurt Jackson

View exhibition here

Kurt Jackson: Sea Flower – Solo Exhibition
March 22 – August 9 2025.
Jackson Foundation
North Row, St Just,
Cornwall, TR19 7LB.

For more info..

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In Biodiversity, Jackson opens windows onto different locations across the UK and explores the spectrum of plant and animal life found there. From train tracks to ancient woodland, peat bogs to urban streams, ecological processes come under the scrutiny of his painterly eye.

Through paintings, sculpture, and mixed media works, Jackson shows what an ecologically rich world we still live in, but also how things are changing.

The varied collection of work which makes up Biodiversity extorts the viewer to look again at the natural riches that surround us, even in the most unexpected of places. For example, collages such as Bioblitz of Vauxhall Bridge Road, London explore manmade environments by combining found rubbish with plant specimens and sketch-like paintings, demonstrating Jackson’s zoologist training and artists’ observational skills. The work is made both in situ, allowing for an environmental involvement through chance and serendipity, and in the studios.

By urging visitors to stop and look, appreciate and marvel, Jackson is using the greatest tool at his disposal to encourage us all to cherish and protect the earth for future generations.

Kurt Jackson’s Biodiversity runs until July 7th and the newly reimagined Cornwall Museum & Art Gallery, River Street, Truro, TR1 2SJ.

For more info…

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Kurt Jackson has contributed beautiful sculpture to a new rehabilitation and sensory healing garden for critically ill patients at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

The new Critical Care Healing Garden, which is located immediately below the Critical Care Unit at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, has been filled with sensory plants, two outdoor hospital bed spaces, a rehabilitation bridge, peaceful seating areas for families, carers and staff, and beautiful bird sculptures made from Cornwall granite and bronze, designed created and donated by Kurt Jackson.

Kurt said “I am delighted that this series of my sculptures is to be seen in the Critical Care Garden at Treliske Hospital. With my artistic endeavors involved in The Cove Macmillan Support Centre and The Urology Diagnostic and Treatment Unit at Treliske it seems fitting to be in the garden now as well.

“Four generations of my family have used the health facilities here at the hospital in recent years so I am forever grateful to the staff here for their tireless work and pleased to be able to make this small offer in return.

“To me the birds [doves] symbolise freedom and peace, something we should all aspire to; Cornish bronze and Cornish granite, they are born of this place.”

••••

Full Press Release Below

Dedicated Healing Garden Opens for Critical Care Patients

Posted on: 21 September 2023

The installation of external piped medical gases, amongst the first of any NHS Trust

A new rehabilitation and sensory healing garden for critically ill patients has officially been opened at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro by leading explorer and founder of Survival International, Robin Hanbury-Tenison OBE.

The new Critical Care Healing Garden, which is located immediately below the Critical Care Unit at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, has been filled with sensory plants, two outdoor hospital bed spaces, a rehabilitation bridge, peaceful seating areas for families, carers and staff, and beautiful bird sculptures made from Cornwall granite and bronze, donated by Cornish artist, Kurt Jackson. 

The serene courtyard space is also one of the first therapeutic gardens in the country to have medical gases directly piped into a dedicated outdoor space. This enables patients to spend as much time as they are able experiencing the healing powers of the natural environment.

The design, creation and installation of the Healing Garden has been funded entirely by charitable donation, greatly assisted by Robin Hanbury-Tenison and his wife, Louella’s magnificent fundraising campaign. 

Robin, who lives in Cornwall, believes that the Healing Garden at University Hospitals Plymouth saved his life after he contracted Covid-19 and vowed to encourage all acute hospitals in the UK to create critical care gardens. Kym Vigus, RCHT Critical Care Staff Nurse, has also long campaigned to create a Healing Garden at the Royal Cornwall Hospital.

The design for the Critical Care Healing Garden was created by local landscape design company, Lavigne Lonsdale, who were inspired to create a stunning yet practical garden following consultation with Critical Care Unit staff and ex-patients.

Cornish civil engineering contractor Cormac Ltd, together with South West Surfacing Specialists Ltd built the garden with local materials and meticulous attention to detail, whilst expert Cornwall-based gardeners, Alasdair Moore from Heligan, Charles Fox from Glendurgan and Mark Holman, the Palace Gardener, came together to design the planting scheme, rich in vibrant colours and textures. RCHT Project Manager, Rob Hague, has seen the garden through the construction and gas installation phases, after initial consultancy and cost advice was donated free of charge by Truro-based property and construction consultants, Ward Williams Associates. 

The entire project has also been filmed voluntarily by local filmmaker, Peter Champness, who is producing a local documentary for RCHT about the creation of the Critical Care Healing Garden.

“My wife, Louella, and I are absolutely delighted to see this wonderful Critical Care Healing Garden officially opened today,” says Robin Hanbury-Tenison OBE. “It’s been three years since we started on the journey to create this oasis of calm and tranquility, and I hope that many critically ill patients here at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, together with their outstanding team of healthcare professionals and carers, will benefit from the healing and rehabilitation powers of the great outdoors for years to come. 

It has been a tremendous team effort and I want to thank all the RCHT staff and contractors who have been involved with the project, as well as the army of donors, supporters and volunteers whose generosity, knowledge and kindness have made it possible.”

“This Critical Care Healing Garden is a huge asset to our unit,” adds Kym Vigus, RCHT Critical Care Staff Nurse. “For clinical teams to be able to bring patients down to the courtyard to feel the fresh air and see the sky, to smell the plants and hear birdsong, is very special. It will generate incredibly positive experiences for our patients as part of their individual pathways to recovery.”

Andy Berryman, Cormac’s Infrastructure Operations Contract Manager says: “Cormac is really proud to have been a part of creating this garden. It looks fantastic, and it will provide a pleasant and peaceful space for patients to connect with nature.”

“This is an exceptionally important day for the Royal Cornwall Hospital,” says Steve Williamson, Chief Executive Officer, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust. “We’re excited to be amongst the first NHS Trusts in England to have enabled piped medical gases directly into our new Critical Care Healing Garden, as this will be so beneficial to our most vulnerable and sickest patients. 

To have such a beautifully-designed space at the heart of our hospital, which is also highly accessible and practical, even for the most critically ill patients, is superb. I want to thank everyone who has played a part in creating this very special place. I know our dedicated Critical Care team is very grateful and are looking forward to using the space to continue delivering outstanding care.”

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Kurt Jackson has been involved with the creation of a Critical Care Healing Garden at Royal Cornwall NHS Hospital, Treliske, Truro, creating and donating artwork to bring a touch of nature to the heavily sanitised medical environment.

A large, previously unused and inaccessible quadrant courtyard below the hospital’s Critical Care Unit is in the process of transformation into a life-changing sensory garden of healing to benefit some of Cornwall’s most poorly patients.

Once complete, medical gases will be directly piped into the garden so that critically ill patients and their families can spend more time in nature. The garden itself, which is located immediately below the Critical Care Unit, will be filled with sensory plants, seating and dedicated areas for patient’s hospital beds.

Jackson has designed and created a selection of bird sculptures to sit on granite posts at various heights to sit throughout the garden. The staggered elevations and siting of the birds is such that some are low enough to run your hands over, but others are much higher so that patients unable to physically visit the garden will be able to capture glimpses of the birds through their window.

One of the project’s early champions and most well-known fundraisers is the explorer, photographer and co-founder of Survival International, Robin Hanbury-Tenison who in the early stages of the pandemic spent five weeks in intensive care with Covid-19 at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. Hanbury-Tenison credits Derriford Hospital’s healing garden for playing a crucial role in his recovery.

Robin Hanbury-Tenison since has raised around £100,000 to make the project happen.

Robin said: “It’s a sort of recognition of all the wonderful nurses who saved my life and all the physios later who made me fit again, because I really was incapable when I came out of hospital. It’s not just the treatment in ICU that matters, it’s the post-relief care”.

After ending up in a coma in Derriford Hospital – Robin was given a 5% chance of survival or recovery.

He added: “That moment when I opened my eyes, saw the flowers, felt the sun on my face and thought, I’m going to live”.

Robin continued: “Now they’re beginning to understand, really the healing power of nature is a reality. Even when you’re in intensive care, you’re really ill, in a coma and in intensive care like I was, being wheeled out into a garden really makes a difference”.

How you can help:

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust Charitable Fund are running a crowdfunder campaign to help support the project. Find out more here – www.justgiving.com/campaign/CCUGarden

From their Just Giving fundraiser page:

“Early rehabilitation in critical illness has shown to be incredibly important. Inside a Critical Care Unit, patients can lose all sense of time and place as day blends into night and they stare at the same four walls for weeks on end. 

“Our garden will be a place for healing and rehabilitation, not only physical but for the mental and emotional self too. Smelling different scents, the sound of the breeze through the leaves and maybe some water features. 

“It gives people a grounding and a reminder of what they have to aim for to keep them pushing through their recovery and rehabilitation. 

“There is no truer saying than the Healing power of nature and no more so than in Cornwall where our patients are used to the outdoor life and being surrounded by this beauty daily. 

“We want to make sure being in critical care doesn’t take that opportunity away from our patients for long.”

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