Tonic Arts
Enhancing environments and enriching experiences.
Tonic Arts is NHS Lothian Charity’s vibrant, award-winning arts in health programme, creatively enhancing the patient, staff and visitor experience at NHS Lothian.
Working in partnership with staff and patients, we deliver a diverse arts programme of events, workshops, exhibitions and site-specific art commissions that help improve staff and patient health and wellbeing across the NHS Lothian community.
Watch our video to find out more about how we use art and creativity to enhance health and wellbeing
Latest news
Edinburgh Artist Reunited with Long-Lost Painting at t…
What began as an ordinary hospital visit turned into an extraordinary moment of rediscovery for one Edinburgh artist and a heartwarming reminder of the stories hanging on the walls of our hospitals.
New Staff Wellbeing Space Officially Opens at St John�…
We were delighted to official open the new dedicated staff wellbeing space at St John’s, designed to provide a calm and restorative environment away from the clinical setting.
NHS Lothian Charity: Tonic Arts Welcomes Trolleydarity…
Trolleydarity’s Scratch n Sniff Staycation for the Discerning Static Traveller is an innovative new project by artists Shona Reppe and Alan Grieve co-curated for patients and staff across NHS Lothian presented by National Theatre of Scotland and NHS Lothian Charity: Tonic Arts.
Art Exhibition Shines Light on Scotland’s First Rena…
A moving and inspiring art exhibition created by young adults living with kidney conditions, is now open at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh marking a milestone moment for NHS Lothian’s pioneering Renal Young Adult Service.
What’s on
Healing Arts Scotland | National Conference
As part of a week long celebration of Arts in Health, join the Tonic Arts team and peers for a […]
Healing Arts Scotland | Edinburgh & Lothians Day
Join the Tonic Arts team and peers for a day of sharing practice, celebrating achievement and connecting with others working across arts and health in Edinburgh and the Lothians.
BOLD by Caroline Sikkenk
A photography exhibition highlighting the experiences of women living with breast cancer including patients from the Western General Hospital. We […]
Art for Health – Scottish Healthcare Collective
A Scottish NHS Arts Partners Touring Exhibition: two touring exhibitions of visual artworks by RSA Academicians and award winners.
Spotlight on: Havens
NHS Lothian Charity’s programmes, Tonic Arts and Green Health, in partnership with Stills Gallery, are proud to present ‘Havens’ – a series of portraits and stories documenting NHS Lothian staff members’ work-life experiences.
Our Work
Tonic Commissions
Tonic Collection
Tonic Exhibitions
Tonic Participation
💻 We’re back online!
Our website is now up and running again. Thank you for your patience and understanding while we completed essential updates - we really appreciate it 💜
If you experience any issues following the updates, please let us know by emailing [email protected]
🔧 Temporary website downtime
Our website is currently unavailable due to essential maintenance and system upgrades. We’re working to restore access as quickly as possible and expect this to be resolved within 24 hours.
If you need to get in touch in the meantime, please contact us directly:
- Charity funding and general enquiries: [email protected]
- Fundraising, donations, etc: [email protected]
- Charity finance, invoicing or procurement: [email protected]
- Tonic Arts enquiries: [email protected]
- Green Health enquiries: [email protected]
Thank you for your patience and understanding. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
We are excited to bring Daniele Sambo’s beautiful, personal and thought-provoking artwork to our #TonicArts Hospital Exhibitions Programme following its successful run at the Glasgow School of Art’s Garnethill Gallery.
The exhibition consists of a series of blind embossings on paper, photograms and small terracotta sculptures created using tidewrack (manmade marine debris) collected on the Scottish coastline and made during a residency at Hospitalfield.
The growing season is getting off to a great start as we start using the staff growing space at the Western General. None of this would have been possible without the time and efforts of the Estates Grounds and Gardens Team, who helped deliver every aspect of the project including identifying a suitable site, coordinating deliveries and building and filling the raised beds. 6 members of staff from radiology and physiotherapy came along to a seed sowing workshop ‘after work’ from 5-6pm on Monday, where together they sowed leek, rocket and sunflower seeds.
We’re looking forward to our first growing season and to bringing more greenery into this space that was previously dominated by gravel and concrete.
We are just over half way through June which means we are just over half way through our Walk 100 Miles Challenge! 👟
How are you getting on? We hope you are smashing those goals and having so much fun! Good Luck for the rest of the month! 🤩
Our Nature Ranger, Aisling, has been working with staff and patients at Astley Ainslie, helping them enjoy and connect with the outdoors while sharing her knowledge of plant teas and the benefits of everyday plants found in nature. 🌱
We are proud to have supported a memorial cricket match, held in loving memory of Dr Dhruv Abhi, a dedicated oncologist at NHS Lothian’s Edinburgh Cancer Centre.
Teams from the Western General Hospital and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh came together on the day, with more than 200 people attending. It was a wonderful chance for colleagues from both hospitals to connect outside of work, enjoy the outdoors, and share in a meaningful tribute to Dhruv.
This event was made possible thanks to the remarkable fundraising efforts of Dhruv`s friends and family over the past year. Many took part in the Edinburgh Marathon Festival last year as the `Beers in the Sun` team, and his brother Shaurya then went on to run the TCS London Marathon for us this year!
Their wish was to support an event that would honour Dhruv’s memory - and this cricket match did exactly that.
This is the match report, courtesy of Dr Stuart Walter, Clinical Oncology Consultant at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre, who played a key role in bringing the event together:
"Clear blue skies at start of play but gradually became overcast and a little chillier than we would have liked by stumps. The Royals won the toss and chose to bat first setting a target of 108 for 9. The Generals made a strong start with a rapid run rate in early overs but after a flurry of wickets by the penultimate over they were 10 runs behind with only one wicket remaining. With scoreboard pressure building the Royals got a run out to end the game, leaving the Generals at 98. The Infirmary Royals winning by 10 runs."
Our #TonicArts team and the CAMHS teams at Penicuik and Musselburgh have been collaborating with designer @smithgordondesign to improve the waiting spaces and treatment rooms across the departments, with family and youth-friendly furniture and designs. Here`s a sneak peek, in advance of the finished spaces!