Community arts charity Impact Arts was recently commissioned to add artwork to the newly designed garden at the Kyle Chemotherapy Unit at Ailsa Hospital in Ayr 🌿 ✨

This artwork commission, decorative steel panels known as ‘Light Through the Leaves’, is now on display and we’re so excited to share this project with you.

🎬 Watch our case study video below to hear from the people involved and learn more about the project, creative process, and final designs.

For this wonderful project, we teamed up with the talented Bespoke Atelier design studio and it was important to us that patients and staff were involved in the initial brainstorming phase and creative process.

So, we hosted a consultation session where we distributed collage packs and questionnaires to allow patients and staff to get creative, discuss the design elements they liked, and share their ideas with us. Their feedback helped shape the final design of the decorative panels you can see in the garden today.

Light Through the Leaves features plants, wildlife, colours, and shapes, all carefully chosen to reflect the thoughts, feelings and experiences of patients and staff. They have been strategically placed in the garden to allow patients to see them from the treatment room windows.

When viewed from specific angles, the panels align to form two archways, symbolising support, strength and stability 💚

On this collaborative project, we also worked alongside RePollinate, a pollinator conservation charity, who did a magnificent job on the garden design and landscaping 🌸🌿

From the whole team at Impact Arts, we would like to give a huge thank you to everyone involved for trusting us and our partners to bring more colour and joy to this beautiful space 💖

A special thanks goes to NHS Ayrshire & Arran for commissioning us, and to Hewlett Packard for funding this fantastic initiative.

🎨 Commission Impact Arts

Do you have an idea for a creative project in your community?

Whether you’d like to commission one of our art programmes, a creative workshop, public art like a mural, or a community consultation, Impact Arts can help you make it happen.

We regularly work with people of all ages as well as companies, local authorities, and other charities to transform lives through creative engagement. Let’s make art that makes a difference to your community ❤️

Visit our Commissions page to learn more or email us today at development@impactarts.co.uk to find out how we can support you.

Impact Arts is a community arts charity based in Scotland. Since 1994, we’ve been delivering creative arts and support programmes for children, young people, adults, families, and older people who are facing disadvantages or barriers to progress in life. Our mission is to tackle inequalities, address poverty, and transform lives through art and creativity.  

Make a donation to be automatically entered into our prize draw to win one of three framed artworks!

Impact Arts is offering these prizes as part of our new fundraising campaign for Impactful Starts, our creative employability programme for young people aged 16–24 in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

This programme provides a safe, creative space where young people can build confidence, make friends, and explore art activities. Through creative and alternative learning, they also gain skills, qualifications, and support with their next steps.

Impactful Starts is especially suitable for participants who have: experienced trauma, are new to Scotland, are LGBTQI+, are neurodivergent, or have disabilities.

Sadly, this programme is facing a significant funding shortfall. We urgently need to raise £10,000 to keep Impactful Starts running in Glasgow and Edinburgh — and ensure no young person is left behind 💖

Why donate to Impactful Starts?

Not every young person thrives in a traditional classroom. Some face challenges like anxiety or bullying and leave school still needing help with their next steps.

Without an arts-based organisation bridging the gap, we won’t reach the young people who are more likely to fall through the cracks. We want to make sure no young person is left behind.

Impactful Starts offers something different: a safe, creative space where young people aged 16-24 can build their confidence, develop new skills, gain qualifications, make friends, and progress into further education, training, or employment.

Through art and creativity, we help them reimagine what’s possible for their future.

The positive impact of our work with young people

Impactful Starts is changing lives. Our participants have the opportunity to take part in creative activities like painting, drawing, and filmmaking; go on field trips; and contribute to local community art projects – all while building life and work skills they can take into adulthood.

Of the young people who took part in our Impactful Starts programmes in 2024-25:

  • 90% gained accreditations
  • 71% went onto further education, training, or employment
  • 87% reported an improvement in their mental health
  • 94% grew in confidence
  • 88% built resilience and better coping skills
  • 90% became more engaged in learning
  • 94% improved their employability skills

“This has really helped me feel less isolated and has kickstarted a lot of my creative ideas.” – Previous participant

How you can help

There are lots of ways you can support young people to thrive through creativity – whether it’s donating, fundraising, or spreading the word.

Ways to support Impactful Starts 🎨

There are lots of ways you can support young people to thrive through creativity – whether it’s donating, fundraising, or spreading the word.

  • Donate today and pay it forward for a young person interested in art – and be automatically entered into our prize draw!
  • Fundraise for Impact Arts at the Edinburgh Kiltwalk on September 14 – check out our fundraising guide to learn more
  • Sign up to Easyfundraising and make free donations to Impact Arts when you shop online: find out more
  • Help us spread the word with people you know who care about Scotland’s young people

Your support will help us give more young people the creative outlet they need to express themselves and get support towards a positive destination. 

Art changes lives. Change a young person’s life by making a donation

We need your support to secure the future of Impactful Starts.

Please donate by August 31 to help young people in Glasgow and Edinburgh build bright futures – and you’ll be in with the chance to win a framed artwork!

Donate today

Impact Arts is a community arts charity based in Scotland. Since 1994, we’ve been delivering creative arts and support programmes for children, young people, adults, families, and older people who are facing disadvantages or barriers to progress in life. Our mission is to tackle inequalities, address poverty, and transform lives through art and creativity.  

We are delighted to let you know that Outdoor Creative Play Govan is now fully funded and will go ahead this summer 2025 at Elder Park! 🎨🌿☀️

What is Outdoor Creative Play Govan?

In May 2025, Impact Arts launched a fundraising campaign to secure crucial funds for Outdoor Creative Play Govan.

This programme is a six-week-long playscheme set to take place at Elder Park. To give 60 children an amazing summer, we were up against the clock to fill a substantial gap in funding.

Thank you for your kind support!

Thanks to the help of the public and local organisations, Outdoor Creative Play Govan has now received the full funding required!

From the whole team at Impact Arts, we would like to extend a huge thank you to YOU – all the kind supporters who made donations and helped us spread the word.

A huge thank you goes to Glasgow City Council, Govan Housing Association, Linthouse Housing Association, and JSM McNaught Charitable Trust whose contributions helped us make this project possible.

Thank you also to Sunny Govan Radio, Glasgow Times, and That’s TV Glasgow for sharing this story.

What’s involved in Outdoor Creative Play?

Outdoor Creative Play is for primary school children aged 5-11 in Govan who are: living in poverty; experiencing hardship or trauma; struggling with behavioural difficulties; have low mood, anxiety or low levels of physical activity; or struggling to making friends at school.

In this programme, children have the opportunity to:

  • Create abstract sculptures from organic material
  • Build birds’ nests and dens in Elder Park
  • Take part in forest treasure hunts
  • Engage in storytelling and painting with mud
  • Enjoy a nutritious meal
  • Play outside and learn about nature
  • Make friends with other children

We’re so grateful to everyone who supported this campaign to give 60 children a summer to remember! Every like, comment, share, and donation – big or small – made this possible.

Impact Arts is a community arts charity based in Scotland. Since 1994, we’ve been delivering creative arts and support programmes for children, young people, adults, families, and older people who are facing disadvantages or barriers to progress in life. Our mission is to tackle inequalities, address poverty, and transform lives through the power of art and creativity.