Chain Reaction brighten the day on children’s ward!
Romfords new Queen’s Hospital welcomed bright new art on Wednesday 18th July, as colourful canvases created by local youths in workshops with Chain Reaction Theatre Company were formally presented to the children’s ward.
Chain Reaction presented canvases to the Tropical Lagoon Children’s Ward which were created during February half term, when the locally-based educational theatre champions delivered a fantastic range of art and drama workshops to over forty 6-16 year olds in the Village Ward area of the borough.
Working in partnership with Barking and Dagenham Youth Offending Service (YOS), the Barking and Dagenham Positive Activities for Young People initiative and Barking and Dagenham Teenage Pregnancy Team, the company used art and drama to explore key issues around drugs (particularly smoking and alcohol), healthy eating, aspirations, hobbies, relationships and knife crime. The participants enthusiastically designed cool canvases and colourful collages around the themes of music and sport for the children’s ward at the new Queen’s Hospital in Romford, which was in need of artwork to keep children visually entertained during their stay. Hillary Sturges, a playworker on the brand new children’s ward, gratefully received the canvases on behalf of the staff and children and commented, “We’re delighted!… Our thanks goes to the young people for their hard work - it’s great to see young people contributing so wholeheartedly to the community’s new hospital”.
