The Waterford Healing Arts programme are delighted to unveil The Night Garden, a stunning stained-glass lightbox installation by visual artist Rayleen Clancy, in the birthing pool room at University Hospital Waterford (UHW). This bespoke piece transforms the clinical space into a soothing and immersive visual experience, supporting a sense of calm, empowerment, and focus for expectant parents during labour.
Created in close collaboration with the UHW maternity team, The Night Garden features a full moon surrounded by stars, planets, and flourishing plant life. Suspended above the birthing pool, the lightbox offers a tranquil focal point, drawing on natural imagery and the quiet strength of the night sky to evoke peace and serenity.
Rayleen says, “The intention is to transport the viewer into a serene night garden, creating a beautiful relaxing space.”
Victoria Byrne, Midwife Practitioner and member of the maternity team at UHW shared how meaningful the artwork is in practice:
“The artwork is a powerful piece and represents mothers feeling empowered for a positive birthing experience and to be in control of their birth. The art reflects and represents a safe place—when the lights dim it represents a cave or a safe place to zone out but remain in control and alert, a meditative state, a transitional stage of life.”
This installation is part of the Waterford Healing Arts programme’s ongoing mission to enhance the hospital environment through meaningful arts experiences. By integrating art into healthcare settings, the organisation seeks to reduce stress and anxiety, promote well-being, and make clinical spaces more welcoming for patients, families, and staff alike.
In addition to this permanent installation, Rayleen Clancy will present a solo exhibition of her work at UHW in winter 2025/26, offering a wider audience the chance to experience her beautiful work.
Réalta is the national resource organisation dedicated to developing arts + health in Ireland. Through its national programme, Réalta delivers training; provides information, mentoring and advice; supports networking; engages with the HSE and other policy makers to increase understanding and support for arts + health; and provides the encyclopaedic national resource website artsandhealth.ie. At local level, Réalta delivers its extensive Waterford Healing Arts programme, which brings music, visual art, creative writing and storytelling to the bedside of patients at University Hospital Waterford and other healthcare settings to promote creativity, connection and discovery, and reduce isolation, anxiety and stress for patients, family members and staff. The Waterford Healing Arts programme also provides rich examples of good practice, and research, pilots and evaluates new ideas, all of which informs Réalta’s national work. Réalta is core funded by the Arts Council and the HSE.
Further info: info@realta.ie /051-842664
ENDS
