looking forward to seeing you...

There are very few tickets left for our event on October 7th. We will be operating a reserve list as soon as we are at capacity. Click HERE for more details and tickets. I can confirm that the day will have international presentations around arts and health development and aspirations from Lithuania, Japan and Finland. 

Presentations from the UK will be loosely be divided into two areas around mental health and wellbeing & elders and dementia. We will find out about the work from:

Miriam Avery works as a mental health nurse in an child inpatient psychiatry unit in Manchester who has been undertaking research into arts based interventions for children and young people hospitalised with mental health issues, and have recently completed a literature review with some interesting findings. She will share initial findings which indicate that a variety of arts based interventions may improve outcomes if used as part of conventional inpatient treatment plans. 

Alison Bowry from High Peak Community Arts and the 5 year ‘Project eARTh’, (environmental arts and health) funded by Big Lottery and learning from the previous 5 years. Project eARTh is open to people experiencing mental distress and other long term conditions. 

Rachel Radford will share the work of Creative Alternatives, an Arts on Prescription programme designed to improve the emotional wellbeing of adults experiencing mild to moderate depression, stress and anxiety and who believe that creativity lies at the root of personal health and growth, as well as contributing significantly to the development of our communities and our society. 

Sarah Greaves is an Artist and an Art Psychotherapist working in two adult psychiatric hospitals for the charity Turning Point. She is developing a service user led visual art project exploring aspects of mental health and recovery through a series of art workshops over six months culminating in a public exhibition. 

I'll be pleased to introduce research team members of the Dementia & Imagination project, including our very own Dr Kat Taylor and research artists, Penny Klepuszewska, Carol Hanson and Jeni McConnell who will share a little of where the research is up to alongside a taster of the artists responses. 

Sarah Lawton and SHARING the MAKING and her socially-engaged project at the William Morris Gallery, in Walthamstow planning and implementing an older peoples pilot project, aiming to improve participants’ wellbeing and to ‘measure’ the impacts, using the UCL wellbeing measuring tool-kit.

Stacey Coughlin is a PhD candidate and artist exploring what influences people with dementia’s engagement with creative activities? When is the moment that engagement is decided and invested in? How does an individual engage with the Arts within an Arts and Health/Participatory Arts setting? 

Liz Postlethwaite will share the work of The Stroybox Project, originally developed during her time at the Library Theatre Company, and now run by social enterprise, Small Things Creative Projects, this project is specifically designed to engage, empower and enliven people living with Alzheimer's and Dementia. On a practical level it is an engagement and communication methodology which uses performance and collaborative storymaking as a starting point.

Alongside all these presenters, there are a Wild-Cards who I'm going to make time and space for and include:

Kathryn West is a singer and a music for health practitioner who for the last two years has been working at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital as part of the 'Medical Notes Project' run by Lime Arts. Her presentation will explore how music for health work has provided a space in which to explore a more creative, authentic practice, alongside the relationships she has developed with patients, families and hospital staff.  

Head of the Manchester School of Architecture, Professor Tom Jefferies will share, SMART Health and Space. The project cross cuts between Health, Architecture, Communication Technologies, Urban Planning and Infrastructure, using health as a basis to connect technological innovation and resilience with wider society. The Scottish Highlands is currently undergoing depopulation, an ageing demographic and health problems including diabetes created by a sedentary lifestyle. This forms the context for the project, parts of which are to be piloted on location. 

Dr Langley Brown will share The ARTLINES project and the gathering-in, and in some cases rescue, of a number of important archives that together document the scope and depth of arts and health practice and philosophy over the past 40 years; and of how - and why -  these archives are now being acquired by the Wellcome Library.

So - let's tickle the ribs of our dear old Northern Quarters and share and enjoy each others company, ideas and aspirations.        I can't wait...

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