A new exhibition at John Hansard Gallery brings together art, medicine and the humanities to explore medical students’ identities, experiences and hopes for the future.

Becoming Doctors: Stories of Identity, Inequality, and the Future of Care showcases creative work by medical students at the University of Southampton. Featuring photography, poetry, podcasts, drawings, animations and zines, it offers a glimpse into who the students are, what they experience and the kind of doctors they hope to become.

The exhibition is a collaboration between the faculties of Arts and Humanities and Medicine. It is co-led by Dr Luca Di Gregorio, Senior Teaching Fellow in Medical Education, and Dr Joan Tumblety, Associate Professor in History, who are both Co-Directors of the Southampton Centre for Medical and Health Humanities. The curatorial team also includes Edward Dymond, Graduate Associate Intern in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

The project also connects with Joan’s role as Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities theme lead for culture, health and wellbeing, and is a good example of the cross-Faculty work supported by the Centre.

Reflecting on the exhibition, Joan said: “I am thrilled that the exhibition showcases the value of arts and humanities in the training of medical doctors. Exploring these other disciplinary perspectives, and expressing their own creativity, helps medical students to see patients as subjects with their own lives and opinions, rather than just as clinical objects. It also helps them understand the provisional and historically contingent nature of what becomes established as medical knowledge, and indeed to see subjectivity as a valuable form of knowledge in its own right”.

The pieces on display were created through Medical Humanities, a compulsory module for Southampton medical students. The module uses the arts, humanities and social sciences to help students explore medicine, healthcare and the human experiences surrounding them.

Students create work responding to subjects such as professional identity, illness, healthcare inequality and their relationships with patients. The module gives them space to reflect on their own experiences and on the values and perspectives they will bring to their future careers.

It also encourages students to consider challenges facing healthcare today, including pressures on the NHS, mental health, doctor burnout and the need for inclusive care. The aim is to help students become thoughtful and compassionate doctors who understand that caring for people involves more than clinical knowledge.

Luca Di Gregorio said: “With this exhibition, we wanted to give our medical students a public platform to share not just their creative work but, more importantly, their voices. We want the public to see the values, hopes and struggles that shape tomorrow’s doctors, because at the end of the day doctors are human too, and this exhibition reminds the public of the human side of doctors, with their hopes, their values, and their fragilities. It was really important to bring medical students’ creative work into a public gallery because medicine belongs in society. I really hope visitors leave the exhibition thinking that becoming a doctor is not simply about acquiring scientific knowledge or clinical skills. It is also about asking: Who am I becoming as a doctor? What kind of doctor do I want to be? That question of becoming is really at the heart of this exhibition.”

The exhibition was part of the British Science Festival when it came to Southampton from 16 to 20 September and will remain at John Hansard Gallery until 5 December.

An official opening event will take place at the gallery on Friday 2 October, from 6pm to 8pm, featuring surgeon, BBC broadcaster and bestselling author Gabriel Weston and Pascal Matthias, Associate Vice-President for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion & Social Justice at the University of Southampton. Colleagues from across the University are warmly invited to come along and see the exhibition.

Becoming Doctors was developed in collaboration with Living Well Partnership, with support from the Public Engagement with Research Unit, the Institute for Life Sciences and the Research England Higher Education Innovation Fund.

Event details

Becoming Doctors: Stories of Identity, Inequality, and the Future of Care

• Until: 5 December 2026
• Location: John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
• Official opening: Friday 2 October, 6pm to 8pm

The exhibition explores themes including physical illness and mental health.