As children and young people move through the hospital, from waiting rooms to wards, corridors to clinics, they are also journeying through life in deeply personal and emotional ways. 

Every young person’s hospital experience is unique, yet it is also something quietly shared: with those around them, those who came before and those still to come. These moments are woven into the fabric of the hospital—etched into the walls, echoed in footsteps, and carried in hearts.  

The Role of Art in Children’s Hospital Experiences 

When the SCHF Art Program was invited to deliver a patient-led artwork for lifts as part of the redevelopment’s broader Arts, Play and Discovery initiative, we set out to make these shared experiences visible, and reflect them through art. 

To ensure it was patient-led, our artist educators consulted directly with children and young people in hospital. Their feedback shaped the creative direction, highlighting a strong preference for bright colours, text, and an element of gamification.

Collaboration with Artist Nadia Odlum   

This inspired a collaboration with Sydney-based artist Nadia Odlum, whose artistic practice uses play, games, and familiar visual symbols to explore how we move through and experience our everyday environments. 

We invited Nadia to work alongside young patients at both Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead to explore playful ways of moving through space.

Patient-Led Creative Workshops 

Working with SCHF artist educators, Nadia led creative workshops where children and their families wrote down different ways of moving on index cards, verbs like 'sliding', 'jumping' and ‘cartwheeling’. These words were then shuffled and recombined into surprising and delightful pairings, like ‘floating-flop’ or ‘dancing-somersault’.   

A total of 20 workshops were delivered across hospital schools, within the Adolescent Medicine Unit, the Saunders Unit, and at bedsides with 63 children working to bring this concept to life.  

“It was incredibly meaningful for me to have the chance to meet and play with children in the hospital, and to work alongside the amazing SCHF artist educators. As we played the word game, I enjoyed seeing the children's faces light up, as they imagined the strange movements the words evoked, or watching their grown-ups act out the silly phrases. I hope the lift design brings continued joy to the hospital community.”

– Nadia Odlum

A Vibrant Interactive Artwork for Kids in Hospital

The result is a vibrant interactive artwork: a visual maze of directional arrows, bright colours and the joyful movement words created by patients and families. As children, families, and staff ride the lifts, they're invited to follow the path and share in the words created by those who have journeyed before them, transforming an everyday lift ride into a space of creativity, imagination and play.

Amplifying the Voices of Young Patients 

The work also reflects the art program’s broader commitment—to centre the voice of children and young people with a lived experience and to amplify these voices through creative platforms for observing, engaging, making, and sharing. 

This article is from the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation Impact Report for the 2025 financial year.