Arts Well – creativity has never been so important
SSE Cornwall Start-Up Fellow and Trade-Up student Jayne Howard from Arts Well CIC has had to adapt in light of Covid-19...
Arts Well is a social enterprise with the aim of championing the role of the arts, culture and creativity in improving health and wellbeing for individuals, groups and communities. Established in 2017, Arts Well works in collaboration with other organisations, large and small, to develop projects and programmes that respond to identified need and add value to the work of others.
Our work rests on a belief that the arts, culture and creativity are fundamental to our wellbeing and this is supported by powerful evidence that the arts can help to keep us well, aid recovery and improve our quality of life. Our founder and managing director is Jayne Howard, who has extensive experience of working in arts and health, leading a countywide charity from 2001 to 2015 after a 20 year career in the NHS.
Prior to Covid-19 we were working on community projects with artists, delivering training and professional development programmes and leading on the establishment of a countywide Creative Health and Wellbeing Partnership for Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, funded by Cornwall Council (the Culture and Creative Partnerships and Public Health teams).
Since March, like many others, we have reprioritised and adapted our work all with the aim of staying connected and continuing to grow arts and health activities. We are hosting a weekly zoom meeting for anyone interested in this work to share ideas and challenges with others; our training programme has gone online and we are planning new programmes in response to the crisis.
Over this crisis we have seen the value that people place on arts and culture, as a huge range of initiatives at all scales have been developed – from doorstep singing in villages to Grayson Perry’s Channel 4 Art Club. We want to know what you are making/listening to/looking at for your wellbeing. Share on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram using the hashtags #CreateWell2020 and #creativityandwellbeing
We are delighted to have received Feast funding to deliver a new project on behalf of the Creative Health and Wellbeing Partnership – Creating Space – aimed at NHS staff. The project will deliver mindful creative activity packs to our community and hospital staff containing activities and materials that people can carry out in short periods of time and that are designed to relieve stress and anxiety and provide a moment of calm.
These activities draw on evidence about the impact of such activities on mental health and wellbeing (and information on this will be included in the packs) and include writing haikus, mindful doodling/zentangling, a version of ‘Desert Island Discs’, using visual imagery. We are also calling out for other activities from our local artists.
The aim is to encourage staff to address their own stress and anxieties in short breaks they might have in the workplace as well as sending a message that we care about their wellbeing and want to contribute something practical to help.
The Partnership is also planning a creative programme that responds to the grief and trauma that this crisis has brought, recognising that the effects will be long-lasting. We are all experiencing loss - whether of our freedoms, our relationships, work or people - and once we are through the immediate impact of Covid-19 there will be a need for further healing. At this stage we are inviting anyone interested in working with us on this to let us know with a view to convening a series of conversations to develop a programme of action. If you would like to be part of this, please get in touch and we aim to convene the first of these in June.
Our programme of workshops, Arts Well: Grow has moved entirely online and is proving very popular. One of the advantages of this is that people from further afield are able to join us – over the last series we had people from London and Sydney taking part, as well as from across the South West region. The workshop programme includes sessions on Outcomes and evaluation, Writing funding bids, Self-care, Social prescribing, Creativity for mental health and Creativity for dementia. At the moment these can be accessed for a donation, rather than the usual price of £25 – although as a small social enterprise if people can pay more that would be very welcome. All sessions are bookable on Eventbrite – just search for Arts Well for the next series which starts in June.
Do get in touch if there is anything you would like to discuss or share with us.
Keep connected and take care of yourselves
Best wishes
Arts Well
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