J. Hugh Baron (b.1931)

During his fifty years involvement with biomedical science has also been an innovator for incorporating the arts in hospitals. In the late 1970s he arranged for a beautification committee to be set up at one hospital in which he worked, St. Charles. He recognised the need for a central initiative, to advise on the National Health Service buildings. In August 1979, he approached the DHSS and the King Edward's Hospital Fund for a scheme with the Greater London Arts Association, to commission young artists to paint murals in hospitals in London. The scheme was outstandingly successful and dozens of projects were commissioned in the hospitals of Greater London with King's Fund support. In his other hospitals he arranged for arts comittees to be set up, at St. Mary's Hospial, St. Mary's Medical School, the Royal Postgraduate Medical School/MRC/Hammersmith/Acton/Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospitals. The Hammersmith Hospitals Trust's Arts Committee also covers Charing Cross Hospital and the Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School. He conceived the national British Health Care Arts Centre, which opened in 1989 at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of art in Dundee. He has advocated these ideas in Britain and abroad and has served on, and Chaired many committees in this field. He has lectured and written extensively on this theme.