Issue 11
October 09

We are Live!

Welcome to the October issue of praXis. The exciting news this month is that our community pages are at last up and running on the praXis website! This is where you get the chance to contribute to the blog, comment on issues raised or events that have happened and access notes, presentations and photos from inspirational activities all over the West Midlands. We can post a certain amount of information on these pages, but they are primarily intended for YOU - the arts and health community - to have your say.

To go straight to the Community Pages, click here, then go to 'register'. Once you have done this you can access a wealth of extra information and network with others on-line. There is an amazing amount of work, dialogue and debate happening across the region, so why not let everyone know about it and really contribute to a vibrant arts and health network for the West Midlands.

The community pages are intended as a forum for discussion and support around learning and reflective practice in participatory arts and health. We want to hear from you, your colleagues and friends. Let them know about praXis - don't forget to send them this email and they can be part of the network too!

What is Happiness?

Don't forget the 'What is Happiness?' exhibition opens at The Public, New Street, West Bromwich, B70 7PG from Tuesday 20 October until Friday 27 November (during building opening hours). The exhibition will provide visitors with a fascinating visual insight into what makes people from across the Black Country happy. It consists of an estate of 'Happiness Houses', made by seven diverse community groups working alongside artists from Multistory.

There will be a special launch event with guest speaker Dr John Middleton (Director of Public Health for Sandwell Primary Care Trust) on Thursday 22 October from 5pm - 7pm.

There is also a text, email and postcard campaign running as part of the project and anyone can contribute. Just text 'Happiness is...' and your answer along with your name, age and postcode to 60300 or email the information to happiness@multistory.org.uk. All the responses will contribute to a virtual Black Country Happiness Map at www.multistory.org.uk/happiness and will give a fascinating insight into what makes people from across the Black Country happy. If you would like to know more about the project please contact Karen Bell at info@creativehealthcic.co.uk

'WisH' Workshop © Multistory

Artist Professional Development Programme 2010

A reminder that the Arts and Health Artist Professional Development Programme (APDP) will be running for a third time, in February 2010. The initial closing date for applications is October 30th 2009. For more details about the course and an application form please click here. For an informal chat please ring Kate Gant on 0121 778 5695

If your organisation is involved in delivering arts and health work and you are interested in supporting artists develop their skills, then you could provide a placement opportunity for the course. If you are interested in finding out more go to praXis website. You can also ring Kate Gant on the number above or email kate@creativityteam.co.uk

©Tony Jones, blueshawk: www.atypical.me.uk &
www.lettinginthelight.org.uk/artistdetails.asp?aid=39

Creative Remedies

Don't forget to visit Creative Remedies, the main partner to the praXis network:

Step by Step with May and June

Step by Step MayJune pic obesity
May & June © Michael Aduwali, Women & Theatre

You may have seen two dinner ladies, 'May' and 'June' on the evening BBC Midlands Today programme on the 28th September. In 2010, Walsall schoolchildren will have the opportunity of seeing a lot more of this inimitable duo. So what are they all about?

Two years ago Walsall Council Creative Development Team in partnership with NHS Walsall Community Health commissioned an arts and health project to help raise community awareness, education and understanding around the importance of healthy lifestyles and the prevalence of the rising rates of obesity. Using creative approaches and consultation, actors Janice Connelly and Ternia Talbot from Birmingham based Women and Theatre took on the roles of May and June. They travelled about Walsall and gathered people's stories, ideas, views and experiences around the root causes of obesity and reflected on the part food plays in our lives. Everyone was very willing to consider and share experiences about food, eating practices, exercise, and tips for living happy and healthy lives, as well as identifying problems & barriers to achieving this.

The insights gathered alongside health promotion messages were used to devise, script and rehearse a 40-minute performance which combined local stories, music, humour, dance and discussion. This provided a format to explore the roles played by diabetes, breastfeeding, healthy balanced diets and nutrition, exercise and smoking cessation in people's everyday lives. The performance focused on encouraging and inspiring audience members to think about positive steps and realistic action that could be taken to improve health and wellbeing. At each performance health professionals were on hand to offer advice and information and sign post to local services.

18 performances between 2007 and 2009 were toured to local community centres, libraries, hospital, day centres, schools and children's centres to an audience of 800+. Alongside the performance additional promotional resources were produced such as a May and June Discussion DVD (in English and Hindi); May and June's Top Ten Tips posters; and specially produced tea towels.

Audience feedback highlights that many people found the project useful and informative especially around the area of education on Trans-fats / Hydrogenated vegetable oils and prevalence of obesity in children. It was felt that the audience participation aspect of the performance provided opportunities for active learning, which proved invaluable for encouraging people think about key health messages. Grant Thornton, Independent Consultant for the NHS highly commended the process, end products and messages delivered through the project:

"We were shown a particularly impressive professionally-produced Walsall DVD (May and June - two troubleshooting dinner ladies) which explains the importance of diet in promoting better health. In our opinion, the DVD was light and non-hectoring, believable and realistic. It identified 10 'top tips', each of which was clear and inclusive - the implication was that each tip had come from the community not from authority. It also had a good soundtrack and nice touches - including the subtle use of the 'first person plural' within the stated overall objective to eat so that we don't get bigger than is good for us"'.

For more information on Walsall Council Creative Development Team's Arts into Health work, contact Rachel Parker on 01922 653114 or parkerr@walsall.gov.uk Alternatively you can visit their website

Your Projects

Below are details of two arts and health learning-based projects which we have received from one of our members recently, via the praXis website. Apologies to others who have sent us information on your projects and events - we only had room to feature one this issue! However you can find other projects on the Community Pages of the praXis website here

We are particularly interested in profiling participatory arts and health work which improves public health and wellbeing and supports community cohesion and regeneration. Events or projects which tackle major health priorities and issues, improve the quality of health care and health settings and have a positive impact on mental health will also be considered.We look forward to hearing from you!

Nourish

Until February 2010, artist Sarah Wilson is working in partnership with Consort Healthcare and the Regeneration Team at University Hospital Birmingham (UHB) to develop a child-led project called Nourish, using art to raise awareness of Diabetes. A steering group of partners and key individuals has been established to inform the process, input ideas from the wider construction team and raise awareness amongst staff.

Young people from Watermill Primary and Harborne Hill School are producing animations and music videos incorporating key messages around diabetes with support from the Diabetes Team at UHB. Sarah Wilson is passing on her skills to enable the young participants to make the most of the equipment, techniques and final edit. She is also working closely with school staff teams to encourage creative techniques in the classroom beyond the project. Watermill School in particular have embraced the Nourish programme, being keen to implement a cross-curricular approach.

Staff at Consort Healthcare and UHB will be sharing how effective an arts and health approach is to raising awareness of key issues. This will be done in formal gatherings, stakeholder meetings and discussion papers, as well as on the internet.

The new hospital hopes to work in this way much more and Diabetes UK is supporting the Nourish project at a joint event at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham in early 2010. Keynote speakers from UHB and Consort Healthcare will be discussing the benefits of the programme in the context of arts and health, and the impact it has had on raising awareness of this key issue. Young people will be able to share what they have learned with an invited audience. A teaching tool will be produced which will be widely distributed to continue to raise awareness of diabetes and give advice on collaborative arts and health approaches.

Swanfall

A new project from Grove of Seven is currently taking place in both the West Midlands and Wales. 'Swanfall' is an arts for bereavement service tailormade to the requirements of groups and those working for and with them. It brings together storytellers, creative writers, visual artists, sculptors, and a variety of others to produce performances and workshops which help to tackle bereavement for children and adults.

'Swanfall' is encouraging co-operation and partnership amongst arts professionals; team work, building strategies and adapting them to serve the needs of the project and the groups it works with. The project is intended to open up the debate about how people deal with bereavement and how it can help to fill in the huge gap in provision and understanding. It already has the support of bereavement support services in Wales such as crusewales and the Samaritans. For more information, visit www.swanfall.co.uk

Facilitator Required

Warwickshire County Council Arts Service are seeking to fund an individual or organisation to develop and deliver a short programme of workshops, designed to develop a new Sub Regional Partnership between Local Authority and Health partners in Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire. For further information about the work, please contact the County Arts Service on 01926 412492 or email countyartsservice@warwickshire.gov.uk. Deadline for expressions of interest is Thursday 22 October 2009.

Contact Us

Email us on info@praxisartsandhealth.org.uk if you would like further information about praXis or to let us know what you think.

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