In Good Company. A four-week creative residency at the Adolescent and Young Adult Hospice, Manly, exhibited at the North Shore Health Hub, St Leonards.
For four weeks, a room at the Adolescent and Young Adult Hospice in Manly was not a clinical space. It was a studio.
There was paint, and there was company. Young adults living with life-limiting illness, and the people who love them, came together each week to make things, talk, and simply be in each other's presence. What grew there was something none of us quite expected.
The residency
Earlier this year, ART AID partnered with the North Shore Health Hub, owned and managed by Dexus, and the Adolescent and Young Adult Hospice in Manly to deliver a four-week creative residency for young adults living with life-limiting illness and their families. The sessions ran at the Hospice in Manly, and the work they made would later be exhibited at the North Shore Health Hub in St Leonards.
The idea was simple, and deliberately so. Each week, patients and carers came together to paint and create, outside the clinical environment, with no expectation other than to be there. The sessions were built to be welcoming and flexible, so that people with different abilities and different energy on different days could still take part and still make something, together.
It was a pilot program, and it was two years in the making. From first concept to that opening week, ART AID developed the idea and secured the corporate sponsorship from Dexus that made it possible to deliver, at no cost to the Hospice, its families, or the young people taking part.
We did not set out to produce an exhibition. We set out to make a good room. The rest followed from that.
Each week, the room filled with work, and with company.
In Good Company
Over four weeks, friendships formed and conversations flowed. A group of remarkable young people found joy, dignity and connection through making art. Week by week, the works on the walls grew, and so did the atmosphere in the room.
On Wednesday 22 April 2026, we celebrated everything they had made with an exhibition at the North Shore Health Hub in St Leonards. Titled In Good Company, it brought together the young adults, their families, carers, staff and partners for an evening that was, by every measure, something special.
The work on those walls belonged to them. We were simply fortunate enough to be in the room.
The exhibition evening at the North Shore Health Hub, 22 April 2026.
The film
Some things are difficult to put into words, and should not be forced into them. To document this, we worked with Nat Ma of Studio Soul, whose short film captures not just what was made, but what it felt like to be in that room. We share it here with the permission and trust of everyone in it, and with enormous pride.
In Good Company. A short film by Nat Ma, Studio Soul.
With thanks
This program would not have been possible without Dexus and the North Shore Health Hub. ART AID brought the idea; Dexus made it real. Their support is what turned a two-year proposal into a room full of people, delivered at no cost to the Hospice or the families taking part. We are deeply grateful for it.
A heartfelt thank you to Laura Grant and Megan, and to the volunteers Allison, Joni, Julie, Susan and Talia, whose warmth and commitment created the foundation for everything that followed. To Eric and Quentin from the North Shore Health Hub, thank you for your encouragement and for believing in what this program could be.
To Bianca Yrure, thank you for creating a space where everyone felt safe to create, laugh and just be themselves. And to Nat Ma of Studio Soul, thank you for holding this story with such sensitivity and care.
The pilot did what we hoped a pilot might. It is our intention, with our partners, to run the program again.
Most of all, thank you to the young adults and families at the Adolescent and Young Adult Hospice who trusted us to be part of their world. This project belongs to them.
ART AID is a purpose-driven consultancy working at the intersection of art, community and place. To find out more about our programs visit art-aid.co or follow @artaidau.
