An NHS mental health centre is opening its corridors to an art show for Pride Month

A mental health centre in north London is turning its corridors into a gallery for Pride Month.

The exhibition, named SPECTRUM, has taken over the art space at the NHS Tavistock Centre on Belsize Lane until 4 July, as the first collaboration between the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.

Seventeen artists are taking part, all from the college’s MA Fine Art: Digital cohort, working across painting, ceramics, photography, printmaking, textiles, sculpture and moving image.

Timed for Pride Month, the exhibition uses the corridor as a shared route for patients, clinicians, artists and the public, with care and collective wellbeing as its themes. A series of talks and conversations runs alongside the installation, looking at equity in healthcare and the role institutions such as the Tavistock play in shaping future support.

The project began with co-creators Daniella McNulty, a member of the cohort, and Max Fendrich, who works for the NHS and suggested the Tavistock as a partner. “SPECTRUM invites each member of the class to interpret the theme in their own way,” McNulty said, “through reflections on mental health, Pride, the summer solstice, and the many emotional and cultural spectrums that shape our lives.”

Who is showing

The line-up reaches well beyond London. Ben Lingard, London-born and now in Glasgow, shows a data set painting in acrylic, ink, graphite and spray paint. Claire Ferguson, working from the Black Country, presents stitched works on cork drawing on domestic languages of care. Gail Deptford’s painting The Remembering was made after her mother’s death.

Felicity Talman’s soft pastel study of plant life sits alongside Rachel Emberton’s photopolymer etching from the Scottish Highlands. Keely Hunter casts repurposed polystyrene into work mapping the coastline; Olga Szynkarczuk’s Matrescence uses a reclaimed fridge door to explore motherhood and new mothers’ mental health. Sofi Stern’s large oil Exit / Exist places a small figure among many doors. Tracie Anglo Dizon, from the Philippines, shows a print on ecology, politics and resilience.

Also exhibiting are Alex Murdoch, Ben McGuigan, Hicham Bensassi, Juliette Watkins, Laurie Strachan, Nicola Garvey and Timothy Marvell, across performance-led image-making, mixed media, video and ceramics.

Spectrum runs daily until 4 July at the NHS Tavistock Centre Art Space at 120 Belsize Lane, London NW3 5BA – entry is free.