Two large-scale murals shaped by more than 300 staff, patients and local residents now cover the stairwells of the Tees Valley Community Diagnostic Centre in Stockton.

The works were unveiled on 6 October after Hartlepool artist Lily Rose Cockfield spent several weeks turning more than 400 ideas, drawings and creative responses into two finished designs. The project links the building’s health role with the industries that have shaped communities along the Tees.

From museum objects to hospital walls

sessions took place at local hospital sites, the diagnostic centre, Preston Park Museum, the Museum of Hartlepool and Kirkleatham Museum. Participants were invited to share memories, images and ideas, while industrial objects from local museum collections provided another of reference.

Cockfield was selected as artist in residence after the University Hospitals Tees arts council and Tees Valley Museums issued a call for a local artist earlier in 2026. She developed the project with Jo-Anne Cole of Tees Valley Museums, Dr Jean MacLeod and Donna Fairhurst from the hospitals group’s arts council.

The resulting theme, “Industrial Roots, Healthy Futures”, brings steelmaking, shipbuilding, railways and chemical production into the stairwells of a modern health building. The artist also spoke with more than 90 people while painting the works, allowing conversations in the centre to continue shaping how the project was understood.

Art inside a working health centre

The murals are joined by health-themed vinyl designs created by the University Hospitals Tees design team. Together, the installations are intended to make the environment feel more welcoming while carrying practical health messages through the building.

The setting matters. The centre opened in April 2025 to provide scans, tests and checks outside a main hospital site. North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust says it has delivered more than 80,000 diagnostic procedures there since opening. The artwork therefore sits in a busy public service rather than a conventional gallery, where it will be encountered during appointments and working days.

Funding came from University Hospitals Tees charities and Tees Valley Museums, with support from Arts Council England. The Trust has not published the project’s total cost or a breakdown of the funding, so the scale of the financial investment cannot yet be assessed from the available material.

A project built from local contributions

The clearest measure published so far is participation: more than 300 people contributed over 400 ideas before the painting began, followed by more than 90 conversations during installation. Those figures describe involvement, not an evaluation of the murals’ effect on patient . No formal feedback results or longer-term assessment have been released.

The murals also connect collections held across the Tees Valley with a place used by residents from Stockton and the wider area. That approach gives industrial history a practical place in the present, without treating the region’s past as decoration alone. Museum objects, personal memories and health messages have been brought together in the same working building.

The Community Diagnostic Centre is a clinical facility, and the Trust has not announced a public exhibition programme or separate visiting arrangements for the artworks. Anyone attending an appointment can find further background on the University Hospitals Tees visual arts pages, including details of the engagement process and the artist.