After the War – Arts and film practice in hospice care

Interested in the breadth of visual and material practice in healthcare? Keen to learn more about methodological innovation, critical enquiry and interdisciplinary collaboration? The ‘Lab Coat Lunches’ series will highlight diverse and often hidden methods and approaches from clinical, academic and community practice.

Brought to you by the Visual and Material Lab, Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities, Durham University. To subscribe to the Visual and Material Lab's newsletter, please visit our Lab site and scroll to the bottom of the page.

In this Lab Coat Lunch talk, Steve Geliot will explore the differences between working as an artist in acute hospital settings and working creatively in ‘end of life’ care. With terminal diagnoses often represented as a ‘battle’ or a ‘war’, the spaces and practices of different healthcare settings play a direct role in the emotional and social side of treatment and palliative care. Visual and material arts engagement across different media and forms of delivery can be transformational against this backdrop. In hospice care, for example, when the ‘war’ is over, the experiences shared by patients, loved ones and clinical teams can be vivid and even joyful.

About Steve

Steve Geliot is an artist working in the fields of public art, films and events as well as providing public art consultancy. His diverse work in public art and healthcare spaces seeks to give audiences an intensity and intimacy of experience, whether it is brought about using film or a more complex encounter with solid materials. Previous projects include Glittering Landscape (a sculpture commission for St Wilfridʼs Hospice in Eastbourne), sculptural and photographic commissions for the Royal Sussex County Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital Haywards Heath, and Molecular Human, 14 short films based on the findings of the Open University’s Enduring Love? project.

This event is free to attend. Please note that the Zoom link will be circulated closer to the date.

Explore the full Lab Coat Lunches 2026 programme:

Wednesday 4th February 2026, 1-2pm

Lab Coat Lunch 1: Bringing together glass art and tissue engineering to improve cancer care (Matt Durran, glass artist)

Wednesday 25th March, 1-2pm

Lab Coat Lunch 2: Maternal Machines and other fantasies of care (Paulina Yurman, designer and researcher)

Wednesday 29th April, 1-2pm

Lab Coat Lunch 3: After the War – Arts and film practice in hospice care (Steve Geliot, visual artist)

Wednesday 13th May, 1-2pm

Lab Coat Lunch 4: Combining 3D bioengineering technologies and arts practice for patient engagement (Giovanni Biglino, bioengineer)

Wednesday 8th July, 1-2pm

Lab Coat Lunch 5: SOUL PAINT: Where are you feeling? (Sarah Ticho, immersive reality designer)