Arts & Health January News

 

Featured case study: Creative Carers in West Cork   Welcome, We hope our readers enjoyed a relaxing and peaceful Christmas and New Year. Making time to step back, take stock and nurture ourselves (and our creativity) is at the heart of Let's Pause, a reflection by visual artist Catarina Araújo, who was awarded the artsandhealth.ie Emerging Artist Bursary 2023. January can be a difficult month for many. Catarina's reflection includes lots of thoughtful reading material and a quote from Robert Poynton that feels particularly apt as we begin another year: 'A pause allows something to happen which would otherwise not occur, and you never quite know what that will be.'   For more New Year's reading, check out our latest Perspective by acclaimed theatre designer Joe Vaněk. In Hesitant Light, Joe reflects on the rekindling of his creative spirit in the aftermath of his stroke, and finding inspiration in the work of priest, poet and philosopher, John O’Donohue, whose words have offered Joe 'an astute psychological road map for survival in an anxiety ridden, post-stroke world.'  Our News Let’s Pause – A reflection by artist Catarina Araújo Visual socially engaged artist Catarina Araújo designed her first arts and health project, Cocooning: Catch a Breath, with mental health professionals in Cork to explore their experiences of Covid-19. The need for time and space to pause reverberated throughout the project and has informed Catarina’s reflection, funded by the artsandhealth.ie Emerging Artist Bursary 2023. The bursary afforded Catarina an opportunity to embark on a fresh phase of self-discovery as an artist. The time would become a time for play, for reading, for making new connections. She considers what she has learnt from the project and how the cocoon model might evolve to embrace other communities. Read Catarina's reflection.  Sector News   Creativity for Wellbeing Workbook The Creativity for Wellbeing Workbook by Mental Health Ireland uses creative tools to guide you on your journey of self-discovery and wellbeing. The Workbook is beautifully illustrated by artist Dominika Stoppa and has been co-produced by a range of mental health experts, people with lived experience of mental distress and members of the Mental Health Ireland team. All proceeds go to Mental Health Ireland. For our readers, the Workbook can be bought at the discounted price of €9.99 using the promo code ArtsandHealth. Purchase here.    Opportunities Creative Exchanges Course 2024: Planning and facilitating arts activities for older people Are you interested in learning how to plan and facilitate arts activities for older people? Age & Opportunity's Creative Exchanges course is designed for both activity co-ordinators working in residential or day care settings, and artists interested in engaging with older people in a care setting. This two-day course takes place on 24 and 31 January 2024 at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Read more. Kildare Arts Service: Arts, Health & Wellbeing Award 2024 Kildare County Council Arts Service invites individual artists and/or art collectives practicing in any artform to apply for the Kildare Arts, Health & Wellbeing Award 2024. A grant of up to €4,000 will be awarded to support the development and/or creation and/or presentation of new artistic work that supports public engagement with the arts, in particular with hard-to-reach communities or those with limited access to the arts, whether for physical, social or geographical reasons. Read more. Kildare Arts Service: First Fortnight Award 2024 Kildare County Council Arts Service invites individual artists and/or collectives from or currently residing in County Kildare to apply for the First Fortnight Award 2024. The award, in collaboration with First Fortnight, Ireland’s Mental Health Arts & Culture Festival, aims to support the development and presentation of new work that provokes conversation around mental health and promotes mental health awareness and wellbeing. Read more. Arts Act Funding 2024 – Wicklow County Arts Office This year, Wicklow County Arts Office is accepting applications under three funding schemes: Artist Award, Artist & Community Collaboration and the Arts Festival Award. The Artist & Community Collaboration Award Scheme provides opportunities for artists and communities to create and deliver a high-quality project or programme that nurtures the creative growth of both the artist and the community. Professional artists and community groups are invited to apply for this award scheme. Deadline: 16 February. Read more.  Call for submissions: Engaging Dementia International Conference 2024 For anyone involved in programming or delivering dementia-inclusive arts activity, Engaging Dementia is currently accepting submissions for its 2024 conference on the theme of ‘Diversity in Dementia: Embracing Differences, Connecting Minds’. One of the topics is Dementia and the Arts. Proposals for interactive sessions, demonstrations, abstracts and posters are welcomed. Deadline: 31 January. Read more. The Arts Council Arts Participation Bursary Award 2024 The Arts Council’s Arts Participation Bursary Award supports individual professional artists working in any artform to develop their arts participation practice. The award is for individual professional artists who work in any of the following contexts: health, disability, cultural diversity, creative ageing, community development, other communities of place and/or interest. Deadline: 15 February. Read more. Funded PhD in Psychoanalysis and Culture at Ulster University, Belfast Ulster University is inviting applications for funded PhD projects in the area of Psychoanalysis and Culture. Scholarships will cover full-time PhD tuition fees for three years. Dr Noreen Giffney, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist and Psychosocial Theorist, is the primary supervisor. Deadline: 26 February. Read more.   Events  First Fortnight 2024: Ireland’s Arts & Mental Health Festival First Fortnight is currently in full swing, challenging mental health stigma and promoting mental health wellbeing through the arts. Discover a forest of illuminated figures in the National Botanic Gardens, take part in The Art of Letting Go at Droichead Arts Centre in Louth, join St Patrick’s Mental Health Services for an evening of music and performance, and much more. Running until 27 January. Check out our highlights here.  Friday Friends: Living Well with Dementia Art Exhibition Friday Friends at dlr LexIcon is an exhibition of artworks by members of the Living Well with Dementia art group in Dublin South. Every Friday, visual artist Caroline Hyland guides the group in the creation of artwork and provides an opportunity for participants to engage in meaningful self-expression. Running until 31 January. Read more. Talk: Thinking sociologically about the arts in palliative care St Columba’s Hospice Care in Edinburgh is launching a series of talks in 2024 about the Arts in Palliative Care at their No.17 conference venue and online via Zoom. The inaugural talk, Thinking sociologically about the arts in palliative care, will be delivered by Professor Tia DeNora, Professor of Sociology at the University of Exeter, on 19 January. Read more.   International News  Creative Health Review: How Policy Can Embrace Creative Health The Creative Health Review, led by The National Centre for Creative Health and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing in the UK, highlights the potential for the arts, creativity and culture to help tackle pressing issues in health and social care and more widely, including health inequalities and the additional challenges we face as we recover from Covid-19. Read more.   Recent resources added to artsandhealth.ie The national arts and health website is continually updated with new resources, case studies and perspectives on arts and health practice. Some recent additions include:   Perspectives Hesitant Light: Joe Vaněk reflects on the aftermath of his stroke, which curtailed a career designing for theatre, opera and dance that has spanned four decades. An opportunity to write about his experiences for the Irish Heart Foundation marked his tentative return to the artistic fold. Here, he discusses the rekindling of his creative spirit as a writer and artist in a post-stroke world. Case Studies Common Ground: Visual artist Ciara Harrison worked with a group of young people who access the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Waterford, as part of the Iontas Arts & Mental Health Programme led by Waterford Healing Arts. Over a three-week period in the summer of 2022, the group embroidered, painted, wrote, and explored many different craft and artistic mediums. This case study explores Ciara's 'gentle inclusive attitude' and partnership working with the CAMHS medical team. The Music Exploration Programme at Wexford Mental Health Association is a wonderful example of strong partnerships leading to dynamic year-round programming for people attending residential and community mental health services in County Wexford. The programme is funded as part of the Arts Ability Programme, a partnership with the HSE Mental Health Services and County Wexford Arts Department. Music Exploration Officer Emily Redmond details the programme's development and delivery, and how music is supporting mental health recovery. Creative Carers is a community-based strand of the Arts for Health Partnership Programme in West Cork, initiated in 2022. The programme creates access to engage with the arts for and with family carers, taking place at carers’ homes, in arts spaces and in community settings across the region. The programme links in with existing healthcare partners in day care and community hospitals, whilst creating a new network of community-based organisations with a focus on family carers and older people. Publications & Reports What Next? Arts and Ageing Resources What Next? is a tool for the arts sector based on practice-based learning from the artists and participants involved in Creative Enquiry: Arts and Older People in Cork. This e-publication brings together a set of findings, recommendations, reflections and references informed by a podcast and workshop series held in 2022 that revisited the project.    WHO expert meeting on prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases: learning from the arts: This report summarizes the proceedings of a two-day expert meeting on the value of arts interventions for health, focusing on initiatives for mainstreaming arts into prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases‎ in the WHO European Region.   If you would like to share a news article, event, opportunity or research in the field of arts and health, please submit your information to info@artsandhealth.ie by Monday 19 February for consideration in the March 2024 e-bulletin. In the meantime, check out artsandhealth.ie for up-to-date news. If you haven't done so yet, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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