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Art within the Causeway H&SS Trust
The work that the Causeway Arts Care Group has been developing over the last six months within the Causeway H&SS Trust has been diverse and exciting. The charity has worked with service users and staff in the Coleraine, Ballymoney and Ballycastle areas of Northern Ireland.
DRAMA
An innovative drama project took place at Rathmoyle Adult Centre, Ballycastle. Mary Duffy facilitated the project and guided the dedicated team of staff and service users of the centre on a wonderful exploration of developmental drama. The theme of overcoming one's self-doubt and unseen fears recurrent in the workshops. The participants therefore developed their self-esteem through role-play, and the project was also great fun.
The whole series of workshops was filmed and the resulting video was shown to the service users. The video was received with great merriment and excitement. Each participant seemd very amused that ehy had appeared on Television. The centre still occasionally shows the film to entertain and show the group how much they learnt and how successful wach individual was.
Pat Brown, a senior member of staff at the centre and Kathryn nelson, Arts Care artist-in-residence, devised the project. Arts Care and Moyle District Council through their 'spreading wings' project jointly funded the project.
Due to the success of the Drama project, the Friend's of Rathmoyle with the help of Arts Care have successfully been awarded funding from Awards for All for a yearlong performing arts project. The project will include the service users and staff working with a musician, a dancer, two circus performers and also a dramatist.
COMMUNITY
A community project involved the Women's Institue who donated eight textiles to Causeway Hospital. They show scenes of the local area and are made using a variety of fabric techniques, ranging from appliqué to embroidery. They can now be seen in Rehab Ward of the Causeway Hospital. They were unveiled on the 22nd May by Mrs Jean Jefferson, Chairman of the Causeway Health & Social Services Trust, who thanked the ladies for their kindness at generously donating the eight textiles. The project is particularly important since it helps to bring a special connection and an involvement between the local community and their local hospital. This traditional work is particularly apporpriate for the Rehab Ward since most services users are elderly and love reminisci ng and the local scenes spark their conversation.
CERCAMIC
Ceramic project at Millbrook Adult Centre, Ballymoney was developed within the last few months by staff and the artist in residence. A series of painting classes took place to develop ideas for a ceramic panel. A painting of a rainbow and the theme of the 'garden of love', was used to inspire the work. The services users then made the ceramic plaque. The finished piece is to be sited in the centre's entrance lobby. Another ceramic piece was made in the Ross Thompson Unit, with the help of psychiatric patients. The piece will be sited in the entrance lobby. The work takes its inspiration from the circle and is abstract in nature.
SILK
The out patients ward of the Causeway Hospital, Coleraine also was the venue of a Causeway Arts Care Group porject. The project involved patients and staff creating two silk paintings with the assistance of the Artist-in-Residence. The staff selected the theme of 'seascape', since it was felt it would be both relaxing and calming. The two works are to be sited in a side room that does not have windows, hopefully they will reduce, anxiety and negate the instituional enclosed nature of the rooms.
Hats off to Ashgrove!
Primary one and two pupils of Ashgrove Primary School will hand-over to the Whiteabbey and Moyle Artscare Group tomorrow, Thursday 19th October 2006. The presentation is taking place at 2.30pm at McCaughy House, Whiteabbey House.
The paining depicting 'hats' will be displayed along the link corridor at Whiteabbey Hospital to brighten up a normally boring passage.
The four and five year olds were commissioned by the Whiteabbey and Moyle Artscare Group to produce the paintings.
Some of the pupils have painted their favourite hat, some have painted traditional hats and some, vry grand hats.
"They are all different shapes and colours", remarked Pete Woodell, Headmaster of Ashgrove Primary School.
He went on, "The children have really put a lot of work into the paintings and prodcued some very nice pieces."
On accepting the paintings, Alan Kane, Chairman, Whiteabbey and Moyle Artscare Group will say,
"We are delighted with the paintings. They are full colour and fun. Most importantly of all they make you smile and that's sometimes very hard to do whether you are a patient or a visitor to a hospital."
"The innocence and fun of the four and five year olds is portrayed in the paintings. We hope our patient, visitors and staff enjoy the paintings which will be displayed along the link corridor."
Dreams Art and Health research Project completed
Based within the Arts Care at the Mater Hospital, Arts Council Lottery funded 3 years Art and Health evaluation project, known as Dreams Project, completed in June 2006. A celebration, exhibition and video preview was held at Belfast's Waterfront Hall to the acclaim of around 80 guests. The project employed a range of qualitative and quantities evaluation tools whose broadness was commented by external evaluators Community Evaluation Northern Ireland. "Dreams" aimed to assess the value of participation in visual arts workshops in a healthcare setting. This involved Medical, Surgical, Psychiatry wards, Staff and community groups over two years of workshops.
A taster of the results concluded that: 95.8% reported that their experience with the project was very enjoyable. The project was particularly interested in the alleviation of stress and symptoms and a number of results address this issue directly. When asked if the activity had made them feel at ease and relaxed 95.8% of participants said that it had, with 48.9% saying very much so. 67.3% believed that their stress and worries were relieved either very much or moderately so and almost 50% went as far as to say that their pain and symptoms were relieved.
A summary report beautifully illustrated by art work from the project and detailing participant comments and the exciting statistical results in graph form is available from Arts Care at the Mater on 028 90802571.
Drama at Rathmoyle
An innovative and exciting drama project at Rathmoyle Adult Centre, Ballycastle, has received enthusiastic reviews from an invited audience who attended a highlight performance during the Four Swans Arts Festival held in the town last week.
Under the direction of special needs drama tutor Mary duffy, the show, involving fifteen potential stage stars and a dedicated team of staff from the Centre, demonstrated a wonderful exploration of developmental drama to the participants their families, friends and staff.
The drama was inspired by Adrian Mitchell's poem "Human Beings", which calls people to celebrate the humanity held in common, beyond and beneath anything that usually separates them.
The theme of overcoming one's self doubt and unseen fears are recurrent in the workshops. Participants therefore develop their self-esteem through role play, so the project both embraces the individual while at the same time being great fun to do.
The project was devised by Pat Brown, an artistic senior member of staff at the Centre and Kathryn Nelson, arts Centre Artist-in-residence for Causeway Health and Social Service Trust. Pauline Russell of Moyle District Council and David Quinney Mee, co-ordinator of the Council's Spreading Wings project that support the Four Swans Festival, also provided helpful advice.
The Rathmoyle Drama project receives funding from Spreading Wings, a partnership between The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Moyle District Council and other groups. The Causeway Arts Care group, a charity that bring arts activity into the Causeway health and Social Services Trust also part-funded the project.
Due to the success of the Drama project, Ray McLernon, Treasurer for the Friend's of Rathmoyle, is seeking further funds for a yearlong performing arts project. |
