Libraries across the Isle of Wight have enhanced the local creative network by continuing to host an Islandwide Healing Art Trail.
Removed from public display in a relaxation area of St Mary’s Hospital at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the framed collection of art prints remain in the public domain.
It was during the pandemic that the collection, established over 30 years by local independent music promoter Steve Double, became the source of 50,000 free published printed postcards designed by 14 local artists. This was effective in tackling isolation and loneliness prevalent amongst older residents, during imposed separation.
The art trail extends between Lord Louis Library in Newport, Cowes Library, Ventnor Library, The Better Day’s Cafe in Ventnor and exhibition space all year round is booked at Ryde Library, Brading Roman Villa Museum and Mountbatten Hospice.
The suppression of art, imagination and creativity, provided a bleak background, where people’s hope’s for a better future could have been diminished.
