praXis Creative Remedies Arts and Health Awards 2011 - Award Winners Announced!

praXis and Creative Remedies are pleased to announce the winning and highly commended projects for the Arts and Health Awards 2011.

We had a fantastic response to the Awards and were really impressed and inspired by the innovation, energy and dedication shown in so many of the projects that entered.

The winning and highly commended projects are:

praXis Social Care Projects
Winner: B Arts for Soundstories
Digital technologies project with residents of Abbots House Care Home in Abbey Hulton, suffering from moderate to severe dementia. The project explored how photography, video, sound-recording and the ipad can be used to creative audio-visual stories that capture the past experiences of residents.

Highly Commended: The Courtyard Centre for the Arts for Dementia Poets in Residence
Poetry project based in residential care settings working with people with dementia. Four local poets were mentored by the world renowned ‘dementia poet’ John Killick and all five were resident in specialist dementia care homes across the county working collaboratively with the residents to put their words into poems.

praXis Public Health Projects
Winner: Walsall Council Creative Development Team for Walsall Feeling Good Project
Visual arts project focused on engaging with young people about emotional wellbeing, encouraging them to express their thoughts and feelings. Walsall Feeling Good Project took place over a three-year period with 823 young people from Walsall, aged 8 – 19, accessing the tailor-made visual arts programme of workshops in schools and community venues.

Highly Commended: The Cultural Sisters for A Picture of Sexual Health
An interdisciplinary participatory project with NHS Stoke on Trent Sexual Health Improvement Team who commissioned a range of artists to work with current and potential service users to plan, design and create a range of art works that would enhance the new Integrated Sexual Health Centre.

Telford and Wrekin Council & NHS Telford and Wrekin Healthy Spaces Award
Winner: Walsall Council Creative Development Team for Goscote Monumental Arts Project
Integrating arts into the development, design and build of Walsall’s New Palliative Care Centre (St Giles Hospice Walsall)

A Judges’ Commendation was also given to Esther Whitney for her project A Thimble Full, a contemporary art project about living with Asperger’s Syndrome.

All the winning, highly commended and long-listed projects will be featured in full on the new West Midlands Arts, Health and Wellbeing being website when it launches in February.

The selectors for the awards were Jenny Peevers (Arts Council England), Alexandra Coulter (Arts & Health South West) and Etty Martin (WCC/NHS Warwickshire).

The Arts and Health Awards have been a real success and they will run again in 2012, details will be announced in Summer 2012.

Selector Information:

Alex Coulter (Director Arts & Health, South West) has been working in arts and health since 1998. Prior to this she was a practising artist and taught Fine Art and Art History. She has been the part-time Arts Coordinator at Dorset County Hospital for 13 years and has also worked as a free-lance arts and health consultant for a number of acute hospital trusts as well as co-ordinating the regional REACH arts and public health partnership project 2007-10. In June 2010 she was appointed as the Director of Arts & Health South West.

Etty Martin (Joint Commissioning Manager - Sexual Health, WCC/NHS Warwickshire) has worked at local regional and national levels and has been employed for over 25 years in the public sector. Covering a range of roles, Etty has worked in primary and secondary care and her recent roles have included working with sexual health professionals to integrate services and as Director of Children’s services. Her experience over the years includes working as a Counsellor, Managing Infertility Services, Primary Care Development, Local Strategic Partnerships, Health Promotion, Children and Young People Services and Safeguarding. A real Art in to health enthusiast, Etty has over the last twenty years commissioned a range of exciting projects to improve health and improve service provision.

Jenny Peevers (Relationship Manager, Regional Planning Arts Council England) has worked in the arts for the last 16 years following a degree in Fine Art and MA in Photography. Previous work includes the role of Arts Development Officer at Solihull MBC and Public Art Officer for Arts Council, West Midlands. Jenny then studied urban design before working for Bryant Priest Newman Architects as an Urban Designer/Arts consultant where she involved artists in the process of masterplanning. She later became a freelance consultant working on urban design/community development projects. Jenny returned to Arts Council, West Midlands in July 2010, appointed as the Relationship Manager for Regional Planning.

Arts and Health Awards 2011