Just A Damp Patch...

I’ve had a few days out of arts/health action and on my return, have been inundated with email and flyer's for conferences, seminars, training and events all offering the most amazing revelatory work and opportunities in arts/health and all at a premium! Events ranging from £30 to over £1000 ‘early-bird’ rates and all offering the next big thing in mental health, in dementia, design, in different cultural settings - everything to everyone, everywhere! Good grief - arts/health is becoming big business! - a cash cow, more like!! So - I’m thrilled to report I’ve been to a brilliantly organised event in Falmouth - facilitated by Arts for Health Cornwall and the team at the Academy for Innovation and Research at Falmouth University. AND IT WAS A COMPLETELY FREE EVENT and sold-out too. 

Well done everyone behind the scenes and superb to meet such wonderful craftivists practising such diverse work from giving voice to the most marginalised people to compelling work around pain management. Superb stuff. For my part, I gave a short presentation encapsulating some of the work that inspired me to explore dementia (thanks to Darren Browett again) and of course, all things manifesto-ish. The event was opened by co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Sarah Newton MP who emphasised the importance of the field, particularly in relation to her own work around care. I then opened up the evening and hope my blasting and bombardiering didn’t detract from my very seriously held belief in the power of culture and the arts to influence health, wellbeing and social-change. You can hear my talk by clicking on the film below, but beware the ‘voiceover’ done in one take and with terrible verbal typos! I was followed by the inspiring Monkia Auch who discussed her work about hand-crafting and the brain.

A HOWLING WIND

The Recoverist Manifesto event at The Brink in Liverpool last week, (apart from seeing me kipping in my car until it was safe to try and drive to Manchester) was sublime. I was as nervous as hell, standing up on that stage with a mic in my hands as I tried to warm-up those present! And what a brilliant, small but perfectly formed crowd we were. With winds of over 100mph, I was amazed anyone attended - but - BOOM - KABOOM - 22 of us hunkered down and sheltered from the elements. Thank you to all of you who came and took part. Thank you too, to the staff at the Brink and a big fat thank you to those artists, poets, photographers and free thinkers who animated the evening. More, so much more to report VERY SOON.

A ROARING GALE

Having met the artist Vic McEwan at the last Art of Good Health and Wellbeing Conference in Sydney last year, I was more than happy to write a few introductory words to a catalogue for the exhibition of provocative and quite beautiful work around the floods in the New South Wales town of Yenda. Little did I know when I wrote this in December last year, that the UK would be battered continually by rain and winds as well as recurrent high tides and sea swell. My few paragraphs may have had a slightly different slant having observed those genteel English villages of the Somerset Levels swimming in water and looking startlingly like moated castles whilst the villagers themselves railed against people to blame in the face of nature. I am reminded too, that wind turbines are all too often resisted as blights on the rural idyll. All hail our gallant MP’s who ventured out to offer support. Hurrah too, for all those prince’s who donned their stylish rubber-wear and got stuck-in too.

...and A TRAVELLING TENT

The Travelling Art Tent is an older people's community project working with participants from three residential homes and a day centre in the Stockport area supported using public funding by Arts Council England. Working with artist Stacey Coughlin and volunteers from Arc, participants will be collaborating to create artwork which will then be curated together into an immersive and interactive 'exhibition space' that will tour each of the organisations and residential homes involved. This 'sculptural' exhibition space, artwork and documentation will then be exhibited in the Arc Community Gallery and then for a final celebration at Stockport Art Gallery from 22nd February - 22nd March 2014. For more information, please contact Stacey Coughlin @ 

stacey@sams-art.co.uk or click on the image below for more details.

Wellcome Trust - Peoples & Society Awards

Funding is available under the Wellcome Trust's Peoples and Society Awards for projects that encourage public debate and understanding of biomedical science. The People Awards (up to and including £30,000) are for innovative and creative projects in the UK and/or the Republic of Ireland that engage the public with biomedical science and/or the history of medicine. They can fund small-to-medium-sized one-off projects or projects that pilot new ideas with an aim to scale up or become sustainable following the grant, or they can part-fund larger projects.

Society Awards (above £30,000) can fund the scaling-up of successfully piloted projects (whether funded through People Awards or through other means) or can fund projects that are more ambitious in scale and impact than is possible through a People Award. Society Award projects would normally expect to reach audiences with a wide geographical spread across the UK and/or Republic of Ireland. They can also part-fund larger projects. Funding can be for up to three years. Applications can be made by a wide variety of individuals, organisations and partnerships. The next closing date for applications is the 25th April 2014. Read more at: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Public-engagement/Funding-schemes/People-Awards-and-Society-Awards/index.htm

BBC Children in Need Main Grant Programme 

BBC Children in Need has announced that the next applications deadline for its Main Grants Programme is the 15th May 2014. Funding is available to organisations that: work with young people who are suffering from:

• Illness
• Distress; abuse or neglect
• Are disabled
• Have behavioural or psychological difficulties
• Are living in poverty or situations of deprivation.

The Main grants programme is open to applications for grants of over £10,000. Click on the poor but happy children in the un-newsworthy floods of Morecambe 1968.

National Portfolio Funding Programme Opens for Applications (England)

The Arts Council England has announced that its National Portfolio Funding Programme 2015 - 18 is now open for applications.  Through its National Portfolio Funding Programme the Arts Council support organisations that can help it deliver its national strategy and objectives and will provide grants to organisations and consortium's that engage people in England in arts activities or help artists and arts and community organisations in England to carry out their work. Funding for the National portfolio is limited. Successful applicants are generally expected to have an outstanding record of prior artistic achievement.  The programme of work that the National Portfolio funding would support must mainly benefit artists, participants or audiences in England, and be relevant to the lives of diverse contemporary audiences. The minimum grant that can be applied for is £40,000 per year.  In addition the Arts Council will also fund Bridge Organisations.  Their role is to provide an environment in which cultural education can flourish both in and out of school.  Bridge organisations are primarily facilitators and are not expected to directly deliver arts opportunities for children and young people. The Bridge role may be undertaken by a museum, an arts organisation or an arts education agency.  The minimum grant that a Bridge organisation can apply for is £500,000 per year. Applications must be submitted by 12 noon on Monday 17 March 2014. Read more at:

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/funding-programmes/national-portfolio-funding-programme/

This blog will be quiet for a week whilst its blogger undergoes routine maintenance. 

The night is shattered and the blue stars shiver in the distance

HEY, Wonder Woman!

Short and sweet this week from the the hub of all things Arts and Health, where its great to welcome Dr’s Katherine Taylor and Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt into the fold and two new and exciting pieces of arts and health research. Great too, that so many of you got back to me about NW Arts and Health Research Network. I’ll arrange a date and post it on this blog very soon...and we may just have a guest speaker to kick start our meetings! The Recoverist Manifesto event I advertised earlier on the blog is all set for Wednesday evening in Liverpool and finally, I have been completely overwhelmed by the number and standard of expressions of interest to be a research artist on the Dementia and Imagination project - but seriously, no more phone-calls/emails about it - as the details made clear, we’ll be responding to EoI’s around the 28th Feb. So, the header for this week’s blog is a stunning little line from Pablo Neruda and the poem at the bottom of this page is a valentines special for melancholic lovers anywhere, who happen upon this blog.

Poignant and lyrical, Mike White shares, More Musings on Arts in Health from the Chemo Circus on the Centre for Medical Humanities blog. If you only have a few moments in your busy week to read anyone's blog ramblings, leave these pages immediately and catch up with Mike. His thoughts on arts/health are consistently provocative - his framing of these ideas through his own experiences are utterly compelling. 

Women in Print: Print as an agent of change 1920-1965

Friday 7 March 2014, 10.00am-12.30pm

A morning of lively talks and debate presented by writers and academics and programmed as part of the ‘Wonder Women Radical Manchester’ season co-ordinated by the People’s History Museum, Manchester. Click on the Dorothy Shakespear below for details.

Intelligent Kindness: Culture, Compassion and Brutalisation in Healthcare
Saturday, March, 22, 2014 - 10.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.

The title for the lecture is “Intelligent Kindness:  Culture, Compassion and Brutalisation in Healthcare” and it will be presented by John Ballatt, who is the co-author of the book “Intelligent Kindness:  Reforming the Culture of Healthcare”.  The theme of the lecture and focus for the discussion in the large group is very topical at the moment and I am sure you would find it interesting and thought provoking. I realise that at £60, most of us won’t be able to afford this lecture, but I include it on the blog because it looks really intersting. Perhaps if you do attened it, you might write a short pargraph for this blog? 

http://www.groupanalysisnorth.com/activities.php 

Funding for Creative Young People (UK)

IdeasTap, a non-for-profit initiative supports young creative people between 16 and 30 years of age, has announced that its Ideas Fund Innovators is open to applications. During this funding round the Ideas Fund Innovators aims to offer 20 projects £500 each (10 for those aged 16 - 22 and 10 for those aged 23 - 30) to help get them off the ground. In the past, Ideas Tap have funded everything from dance and film projects to music videos and photography collectives. Applications from any creative field will be considered. Ideas Tap are looking for projects that are inspiring, original, innovative and that Ideas Tap think you can deliver. This brief closes on the 7th February at 5pm and is open to IdeasTap members aged 16 to 30 on the closing date. Read more at http://www.ideastap.com/Opportunities/Brief/Ideas-Fund-Innovators-16-to-22-070214#Overview   

Tengo hambre de tu boca

Tengo hambre de tu boca, de tu voz, de tu pelo

Y por las calles voy sin nutrirme, callado,
No me sostiene el pan, el alba me desquicia,
Busco el sonido líquido de tus pies en el día.

Estoy hambriento de tu risa resbalada,
De tus manos color de furioso granero,
Tengo hambre de la pálida piedra de tus uñas,
Quiero comer tu piel como una intacta almendra.

Quiero comer el rayo quemado en tu hermosura,
La nariz soberana del arrogante rostro,
Quiero comer la sombra fugaz de tus pestañas

Y hambriento vengo y voy olfateando el crepúsculo
Buscándote, buscando tu corazón caliente
Como un puma en la soledad de Quitratúe.

...love's labour's lost

I went to see The Wolf of Wall Street last weekend. It was horrible in so many ways - and also quite brilliant. Repulsive - but made me think of corruption beyond the banks - replant ongoing phone-hacking media vultures, predatory people in positions of power, 'celebrities', Berlusconi-esque politicians - hrrrrrrrr.    The adverts during the film had me a bit spell-bound though and I began to worry that I may just be taking my work home!! The headline, 'Real Men Dance' for the forthcoming Cuban Fury about an under confident, overweight man learning to dance, so he can find love and then a trailer for Dallas Buyers Club, about a HIV-positive rodeo cowboy, who goes into battle with the pharmaceutical industry. Bring it on! Of course I haven't seen this one yet, but if it questions who are the most corrupt: street dealers (who don't pay tax) or Big Pharma, (our legally registered dealers) I for one, will be watching. So - one film promoting public health (maybe) and one questioning industrial greed and control of our health and wellbeing. hmmm...sounds like a critical arts/health film-club is in the mix! However, if you'd like to strip your mind of this drivel for a moment, can I recommend listening to something sublime? Many years ago, I went to see the Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Choir. I dug out the album this week, and compiled this blog with this soundtrack to my weekend. Emotion is good, very good.

We’ve had lots of applications for the Dementia and Imagination Contemporary Research artists. A big thank you, to all of you. We hope to respond to everyone on the 28th February. As for all my  
d r o n i n g  on last week, well - it provoked one or two responses. Thanks for the links to the bizarre world of gaming culture, and in particular to UNMANNED, which you can go to by clicking on the partly shaved drone pilot. It is a disconcerting world to me, but very intriguing.

Since advertising work around dementia, I am increasingly aware of the range of opportunities and emerging projects out there and this week I’ve had a large number of emails from complete strangers asking advice on the subject, which luckily, I’ve been able  to direct them to appropriate help. It’s got me thinking about our dear old arts and health network though. Periodically I offer evening sessions here in Manchester and anywhere around the region to give people the opportunity to network and discuss what matters to them. That’s actually how the manifesto work began. Over the next few months I’ll be hosting some sessions with visitors from Australia; with Mike White from the Centre for Medical Humanities and with the three artists involved in the I AM: Art as an Agent for Change project. So lots on the horizon. But I thought, because so many people have been in touch about evaluation and research, it may be a good time for us to develop an informal North West Arts and Health Research Network. There is a national network for academics in this field, but I’m thinking more of a hybrid regional mix for anyone involved in the field. So if this is something you think’s a good idea, drop me an email by clicking HERE and let's start a conversation. Lets aim for informal, conversational, sharing and maybe, just a little collaboration.

All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts and Health

With huge thanks to Alan Howarth, Alex Coulter and Damian Hebron, the Inaugural Meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts and Health (APPG) was held in Whitehall on January the 15th. This is something that the National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing have supported the development of. With the cross-party input of the following parliamentarians, I have strong hopes for this group and its achievements for the field. I hope to report more fully on this meeting very soon, but for now, here are some of the people involved. Lord Berkeley of Knighton, Lord Crathorne, Lord Crisp, Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, Baroness Greengross, Lord Howarth of Newport, Natasha Kutchinsky, Office of Paul Burstow MP, Jason McCartney MP , Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall, Sarah Newton MP, Matthew Offord MP, Andrew Stunell MP, Daniel Tye, Office of Sharon Hodgson MP, Sarah Wollaston MP.

Are you an Artist Working in Participatory Settings – if so, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF) want you to tell them about your experiences! The ArtWorks survey* seeks to understand and develop support for artists working in participatory settings. This survey is interested in response from practising artists from all artform areas, who may engage to whatever extent with individuals, groups and communities through their practice. You can access the survey by clicking on the image below, before 19th February

PhD studentship

Project Topic: A Mixed Methods Trial on the Value of Arts therapies (and Dance Movement Psychotherapy in particular) with People with Dementias

The proposed PhD study will look at the value of arts therapies (and Dance Movement Psychotherapy in particular) for this client population through a well-designed pilot trial using mixed methods (Creswell 2009).  Quantitative, qualitative and arts-based methods will be used before and after dance movement psychotherapy (and/or arts therapies interventions), while a control group will be employed.  Arts-based methods will enable participants to find a voice without being disadvantaged by their illness.  At the same time family carers, staff and therapists will be able to share their thoughts about the process and outcome of the intervention/s. Finally as a feasibility study it will test the design and methods and assure that trustworthiness remains high, while generating some, potentially solid, initial quantitative evidence. Applications are invited from qualified dance movement psychotherapists, dance/performing arts graduates, arts therapists, psychologists and/or other health professionals with a strong research background and experience. The supervisory team will consist of specialists in dementia and arts therapies from within and outside Edge Hill University. For details about this topic, click on the exhausted PhD student below, or contact the Director of Studies: Prof Vicky Krakow Vicky.Karkou@edgehill.ac.uk 

Friend of all things art and health, Holly Marland wonders why oh why, does The British Plastics Foundation have a Facebook page with no picture and only 7 likes? They are supposed to be engaging the public in debate and action about plastic recycling! Frustrated at their apparent appathy, greed and invisibility, Holly wrote and recorded this song, which you can get by clicking on the fetid garbage bags below.

Mental Health Training for Arts Practitioners

For: Experienced, practicing arts and culture facilitators working with young people experiencing mental health issues

Dates:  3rd and 4th of March 2014 (attendance at both days is necessary)

Time: 9.30am – 4pm on both days

Location: 42nd Street, Great Ancoats Street, Manchester

This very specialised training delivered by 42nd Street will increase knowledge and skills around mental health support when working with young people in groups.  You’ll learn about the impact that mental health difficulties have on young people and learn how to work safely and more effectively with young people who are experiencing such issues.  This two day course will involve experiential exercises, an overview of theory as well as discussion.  We expect demand to exceed the number of places available, so please send a short CV and no more than 1 side of A4 explaining how you will use this training opportunity in your practice to: Julie.McCarthy@42ndstreet.org.uk Deadline: Monday 10^th February 10am.

ACADEMY SCHOLARSHIP COMPETITION 2014

For the third year, the Institute of Ideas will be running the Academy Scholarship Programme for full time students of ANY academic discipline. Successful applicants will be eligible to attend the annual Academy weekend for only £60. Read on for details of how to apply. http://www.instituteofideas.com/academy2014.html 

FANCY A TRIP TO THE BALLET? 

NESTA Policy & Research Small Grants Scheme (UK)

NESTA (the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts) has announced the launch of a new small grants scheme. Grants of up to £10,000 are available to universities and incorporated research organisations, charities, companies and consultancies for research projects. This could, for example, be developing a paper, a proof of concept or a policy idea. Priority will be given to proposals that address questions NESTA have not seen addressed before and that do not have coverage in the academic literature proposals that have a potential impact on thinking, policy or practice. NESTA plan to run the open call four times in 2014 and aim to fund up to ten projects in total across the year. The first closing date for applications is the 21st February 2014. Read more at: http://www.nesta.org.uk/Small-Grants-Open-Call

Grants to help new innovative visual arts projects (UK)

The Elephant Trust has announced that the next deadline for applications is the 14th April 2014. The Trust offers grants to artists and for new, innovative visual arts projects based in the UK. The Trust's aim is to make it possible for artists and those presenting their work to undertake and complete projects when confronted by lack of funds. The Trust supports projects that develop and improve the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the fine arts. Priority is now being given to artists and small organisations and galleries who should submit well argued, imaginative proposals for making or producing new work or exhibitions. Arts Festivals are not supported. The Trust normally awards grants of up to £2,000, but larger grants may be considered. Read more by clicking on the brilliant Lee Miller's ID card. 

Welcome Trust Peoples Awards (UK)

Awards of up to £30,000 are available under the Wellcome Trust's “Peoples” Awards for projects that encourage public debate and understanding of biomedical science. Funding can be for up to three years. Applications can be made by a wide variety of individuals, organisations and partnerships. The next applications deadline is the 31st January 2014.  The Trust also makes “Society” Awards.  These are grants in excess of £30,000.  The next preliminary application deadline for “Society” Awards is 5pm on the 28 March 2014. Read more at: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Public-engagement/Funding-schemes/People-Awards-and-Society-Awards/index.htm 

*All responses will be anonymous, and under no circumstances will individual responses be made available to partners in the project or published. The survey is being undertaken by an independent research agency, DHA. If you would like to know more about the survey or the way in which responses will be used, please contact Tamsin Cox, Head of Policy and Research at DHA, at: tamsin@dhacommunications.co.uk.

...finally we are no one