NDS Receive Artwork from St Martins Housing Trust!
Norfolk Dental Specialists recently celebrated a very important occasion: ten years at our premises on 1 Victoria Street. To commemorate our tenth anniversary, we commissioned a unique piece of artwork from our charity of the year, St Martins Housing Trust.
The piece was created by Under-1-Roof, an art group that gives service users training and development to help them enter the workplace. The group was given the brief of creating a painting relevant to dentistry, but with a quirky angle, to celebrate ten years of NDS.
The painting they created was a collaborative oil on canvas piece, which depicts our practice lounge from the point of view of the inside of an aquarium. The fish are seen looking out at the patients – and one of them even has a toothy smile. If you look closely, you can see a little congratulations message from the art group.
We unveiled the painting at a special ceremony during our tenth anniversary week, attended by members of our team and the St Martins Housing Trust.
Fiona Joyce, Under-1-Roof’s learning and programme development manager, came to the unveiling with members of the art group. Speaking to the EDP, she said:
“Norfolk Dental Specialists provided a great opportunity for our artists to have free creative rein over the painting and come up with something that everyone could be involved with. Some members of the group had no previous experience of painting in oil and so it was also an opportunity to learn new skills too.”
Hamed Karimi, our Director and Lead Clinician, presented St Martins Trust with a cheque for £400 in recognition of the group’s hard work and creativity.
He said:
“The art group were very creative and imaginative in their approach and really surprised us with their ideas and interpretation, we are delighted with the result and think our patients will love it too. Let’s face it, awaiting a dental treatment can never be deemed as the best way to spend your day and we appreciate that, so this painting provides a focal and talking point within our patients lounge and adds just the right amount of humour.”
St Martins Housing Trust have been helping homeless people in Norwich and Norfolk build a better life for themselves since 1972. As our charity of the year, we have been supporting them by raising money via collection boxes in the surgery and a sugar-free charity bake. Our team has also been running oral healthcare awareness courses to educate the Trust’s service users about good brushing techniques and regular maintenance.
Look out for the painting next time you visit us! To find out more about the St Martins Housing Trust, visit www.stmartinshousing.org.uk.