Royal Visit, Duchess of Cambridge

As part of the launch of her book project Hold Still: A Portrait of our Nation in 2020, The Duchess of Cambridge paid the Royal London Hospital a visit, to meet with Vital Arts to discuss our approach to Arts and Health at Barts Health NHS Trust, and to view some of our commissioned artworks. The Royal Visit formed part of a day of events organised by Her Royal Highness to highlight the importance of the arts in relation to health and wellbeing.

Our Director, Catsou Roberts, conducted the 20-minute presentation, and the two were later joined by Dr. Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, giving them the opportunity to view examples of works by Tom Gauld, Chris Haughton, Morag Myerscough, Ella Doran, Haroon Mirza, Peter McDonald and Ruth Ewan. Her Royal Highness, who studied Art History, was engaged with our programme–and was particularly taken with our glittery limited edition print by Kate Bright, noting that her daughter, Charlotte, ‘would love that.’

During the visit, ‘Melanie, March 2020’ by Johannah Churchill, was unveiled. The photo features on the cover of the Hold Still  book which The Duchess developed in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery. The work can now be viewed on the ground floor of the Royal London Hospital, alongside Vital Arts’s limited editions which we sell to raise funds for art projects and health charities.

The visit generated a lot of interest in our programme and we received coverage in the Evening Standard, USA Today, Hello! Magazine, Metro, and Tatler to name a few.