Towards the end of last year, we extended our Words from the Wards project, collaborating with illustration students from Edinburgh College of Art to create work visualising the stories we’ve been collecting from the old Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (now the Edinburgh Futures Institute, our new festival home).

In Spring 2024 we called for people from Edinburgh to submit stories about the former Royal Infirmary, to capture and honour the experiences and memories that people connect with the building’s previous life. We received an enormous number of submissions with people sharing memories, histories, thoughts, feelings, and reactions to both the building and the incredible people who visited its wards and wings.

Then in August, during the Book Festival, we held eight ‘Words from the Wards’ events at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. At each event we platformed some of the writings submitted, superbly performed by the writers themselves to sold out audiences!

Our performers varied, from seasoned writers adding to their wealth of work to first timers looking to express a memory or experience and share it with others. We had nurses, patients, house officers, cardiologists and family members who had felt the second-hand effects of hospital life, to name but a few.

Since the festival, we have been thinking about ways to continue to share and explore the mountain of stories and memories we gathered during 2024. Our yearly collaboration with illustration students from the Edinburgh College of Art (see 2023’s collaboration here), presented the perfect opportunity to bring to life and visualise these stories further.

It was great to be able to select 47 pieces of writing which were then paired with students to create wonderful, vibrant illustrations. We held an initial briefing morning where Communities Programme Assistant, Jodie, introduced students to the Words from the Wards project and had a chance to view initial sketches.

Then in November, we were delighted to go back to see the students, bringing with us several writers to view the final illustrations. It was a lovely morning as writers met artists and exchanged stories of process and practice as well as investigating the details of the memories themselves…we even had a few impromptu readings!

The work from this collaboration can be viewed in this blog post here. We are also hoping to share this collaboration in a physical format over the next few months, so stay tuned.

Thank you to everyone who submitted a piece of writing to the Words from the Wards project, the Edinburgh College of Art illustration students involved, the Edinburgh Futures Institute, Harvey Dingwall (Programme Director, UG Illustration), the Players of People’s Postcode Lottery and the PLACE fund for making this collaboration possible.