The Stairwell Project began in June 2015 as an idea born out of the lunch time exercise walk in the stairwell at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital by then RBWH Radiographer, Peter Breen*. The stairwell space has a unique acoustic resonance for live music and following a proposal to the RBWH management a successful trial run with professional musicians from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music began. With encouragement from hospital management and medical staff, the project soon grew to have its main application in oncology. Interest has grown over the past 4 years with projects trialled at Prince Charles Hospital and a pilot project run at St Vincent’s Hospital, Kangaroo Point. Initially the project was a pro-bono trial and has now grown to a funded only weekly performance of around 10 - 15 hours/week dependant on available funds. [ January 2020]

The Stairwell Project continues to expand and contract! We have been successful in funding through Arts Queensland, The Gaming Community Benefit Fund, The Carindale Westfield Local Hero [ Peter Breen] RBWH Foundation, Cancer Care Services, Motorama Charity Foundation, St Vincent’s Health and generous private. donors.

The You Can Make Some Noise pilot project in 2022 was led by Danny Widdicombe, Joe Rabjohns, Kieren Stevenson, Chris Tone and Luke Moller and launched by Harley Breen. 4 young people who were either post treatment, in remission or in treatment joined the 2 workshops finishing on October 28, 2022. To date plans are underway to record the 4 songs.

The Stairwell Project was nominated for an award for Patient Care through St Vincent’s Health in October 2022.

Due to financial constraints we are suspending all Stairwell programs from 23/12/2022 while we work on new collaborations.

*Peter Breen is the Co-Founder/Director of Jugglers Art Space Inc.

Image Credits: Cloe Veryard, December 2015 RBWH; David Kapernick, October 2022 RBWH