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The Long-Term Health Benefits of Participating in the Arts: An International Evidence Base

Readers of this blog will remember that the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Arts for Health to conduct research into the evidence that exists around the longitudinal relationship between arts participation and health. We are pleased to announce that the first output from this project was launched at the annual conference of the UK Faculty of Public Health on Thursday, where Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt and I spoke.

Available by clicking on the image above, or by visiting http://longitudinalhealthbenefits.wordpress.com/ this online repository includes short summaries of each of the studies to have included arts participation in long-term considerations of health, together with links to the majority of the original research articles. While these results are tentatively presented, the combined evidence shows a positive association between attending arts events or engaging in creative practice and physical/psychological health. As ever, we present these studies while remaining mindful of questions around who has access to the arts and health.

URBAN PSYCHOSIS will run from 14.07.14 - 22.08.14 with work by John Baldessari – Matthew Buckingham – Sophie Calle – Marc Camille Chaimowicz – Moyra Davey – Luke Fowler – Gillian Wearing – Catherine Yass 
Only a few tickets left for the Will Self talk...

Preview, Friday 11 July, 6-8pm

I AM - WE ARE - a free s y m p o s i u m

I AM: Memoirs of Addiction Recovery: an exhibition

17th July at MMU. Details and booking by clicking on logo above

GSK IMPACT Awards 

It’s that time of year when I receive my publicity for the GSK Impact Awards in the hope that I’ll publicise them and encourage you, the hard-pressed arts and health community to get your entries in and have the chance of winning up to £40k plus bucket-loads of GSK publicity and national recognition. Hey - I am doing! In fact, I know some great organisations who have applied and won. It certainly does get you publicity. But hang on for a second, before you apply for the GOLD, let’s remember GSK is GlaxoSmithKline, one of the UK’s biggest industries and the provider of all your pharmacological needs, so let’s think about the publicity machine that you’ll be part of.

In terms of clinical trials, GSK have been found guilty of promoting two drugs for unapproved uses and failing to report safety data about a diabetes drug to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and fined $3bn - the largest healthcare fraud settlement in US history. Thanks to the forensic work of the GP Ben Goldacre and others, I’ll share some of the reasons why I continue to feel a little unrest, at GSK’s oblique affiliation with the arts/health movement.

The case I’ve referred to concerns 10 drugs and GSK’s admission of their promoting antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin for unapproved uses, including treatment of children and adolescents until a ban in 2003 over concerns it triggered suicides. Seroxat or Paxil is a common anti-depressant prescribed to millions of UK patients every year. 

Additionally GSK were found guilty of paying bribes to doctors. The US attorney Carmin Ortiz comments, "The sales force bribed physicians to prescribe GSK products using every imaginable form of high-priced entertainment, from Hawaiian vacations [and] paying doctors millions of dollars to go on speaking tours, to tickets to Madonna concerts." This catalogue of dodgy dealings, is again under the spotlight in China, where a bribery investigation is underway alleging that GSK as a company has orchestrated payments - said to total £321million - offering prostitutes to doctors to persuade them to prescribe its medicines, and funnelling the money through travel agents. One of the arrested GSK executives, Hong Liang, told Chinese state TV, that bribes paid to doctors and officials pushed up the prices Chinese patients pay for GSK drugs by as much as 30%. (click on the 'sex-tape' image above for recent updates on this)

Whilst the company is valued at £113billion, the fines GSK is accruing amount to small fry, but this kind of fraud and deception isn’t limited to GSK - far from it - it has been endemic across the pharmaceutical industry, with “66% of fraud cases in the US involving the pharmaceutical industry…”

Ben Goldacre asserts that the industry in general, spends around twice as much on marketing and promotion as it does on research and development - of which it feels like the Impact Awards are your oh-so-discreet and saccharine-laced opportunity to add to the marketing strategy. (or is that strychnine-laced?)

And if that all isn’t sweet enough for you, in our market-driven world where The American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is sponsored by Coca-Cola and the Chair of the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Commission on Nutrition has served on the European advisory boards of both Mars and Coca Cola, and is said to be sceptical that sugar is the cause of obesity! The same man sits on the UK government’s Calorie Reduction Expert Group ultimately influencing public health in England. And by-the-by, the British Nutrition Foundation takes funding from Tate and Lyle, who argue the money has no influence on their scientific independence! Well that’s reassuring then.

Yes, all your pills and potions are legitimised by the state and pedalled to you exclusively by often misinformed clinicians, whilst our alcopops, vodka-shots, cheap supermarket booze and pop - well - they’re all paying their taxes, so what the hell? Not like those nasty dealers on street-corners eh?

And the media have a big part to play in all this too. In terms of mainstream media the more sensational the story, the more column inches are given over. Newspapers, in print and online, are the gatekeepers for what we receive and science and medicine journalists are not immune to prioritising sensation over the more mundane and helpful facts. 

Alasdair Forsyth’s quantitative exploration of drug fatalities in the popular press, reveals that in 1992 you needed to have 265 deaths from paracetamol poisoning for one story to appear, but every death from MDMA received, on average, one story. Similarly a study of the BBC’s coverage in 2003 revealed 8,571 people dying from smoking would result in one story, whilst there were three stories for every death from the more sensational variant CJD (Mad Cow Disease).

Perhaps whilst the popular press more blatantly sensationalises and controls the news that we consume, those illustrious academic journals too have their fair share of gatekeepers. In a 2010 federal court case in Australia against pharmaceutical giant Merke Sharpe & Dohme the court heard that the manufacturing company had engaged in misleading practices to promote the prescription and usage of Vioxx, including "fake" journals and guidelines to "drug reps" that minimised the adverse cardiovascular risks. These much hallowed journals were published by none other than Elsevier, who once rumbled, issued their profound apology! 

Goldacre discusses fake journals, ghost writers and the all out abuse that Big Pharma wage on us; the gullible public as well as the clinical world. His ourage at withheld negative data is something quite palpable.

So, as you prepare your bids to dear old GSK, remember that you’ll also be providing some feel-good marketing for them: actually, can you imagine how cheap you are as a marketing tool?

Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

Do you work across the wide field of Design, Heritage Crafts or Carpentry? Would you benefit from travelling overseas to meet others with the same specialism as you? The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust are seeking people working in carpentry, traditional heritage crafts, the applied arts in architecture, interiors, product and graphic design.  The Designers category is the first year of a joint partnership with the British Council, as part of their new development programme for architects and designers. Successful applicants in this category will be eligible to apply to the British Council's Architecture, Design and Fashion department for a grant to follow up their Churchill Fellowship. These grants will help with events, exhibitions and further international collaboration. Read more here: http://www.wcmt.org.uk/report-categories/designers.html 

Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship

The Trust awards travel grants to men and women who will be able to undertake research overseas and on their return disseminate their new knowledge and examples of best practice. Applicants must demonstrate that their project will have a wider benefit within their community or field, in addition to their own personal development. You must be over 18, and a British Citizen under the 1981 Nationality Act, who must also be resident in the UK. No qualifications are required.http://www.wcmt.org.uk/ 

Depression & Cancer

By Brad Zehring, DO @DrZehringDO

“Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It
cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my
soul”  - Jim Valvano

But, what
happens when it does?

Depression
is a multifactorial disorder that requires acknowledgement of the biological,
psychological, and social aspects of a person’s life. Professionals in the
mental health community describe this as the biopsychosocial model. It provides
an understanding of the factors influencing a person’s mental and physical
state of being.

When mental health professionals talk about depression they
often do so in regards to Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). According to DSM 5
(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), 5 out of 9 criteria
are needed to diagnose MDD. It requires a depressed mood or anhedonia (lack of
enjoying what was previously enjoyed) for greater than 2 weeks including:
disturbances in sleep, guilty/hopeless/worthless feelings, poor concentration,
low energy, changes in appetite (weight loss or weight gain), psychomotor
agitation or retardation, and suicidal ideation.

Depression affects your entire body. But, the physical
aspects of depression are often overlooked. It is common for people with
depression to experience weight changes, digestive problems, headaches, back
pain, muscle and joint pain, and disruptions in sleep cycle. Many symptoms that
are present in cancer.

Depression has been linked with many health problems,
including cancer. Cancer is a heavy word. The enormity of the word brings many
images to the forefront of our imagination: radiation, chemotherapy, losing
hair, sickness, weakness, and death - among others. There is so much symptom
overlap between cancer and depression it can be hard to recognize the etiology
of the symptoms.

It is important that health care professionals, family
members, and other caretakers
are vigilant with a person’s mental well being after they are diagnosed with
cancer. Even if a person has never experienced depression previously, their
risk of depression is increased when they find out they have cancer. Research
shows that the incidence of depression increases proportionately with the
cancer’s progression. It is believed those with depression have increased
likelihood of depression because of increased immune response (cytokines)
within the body.

It is important not to assume that someone with cancer has
an appropriate depressed mood due to his or her circumstances.  This is why it is important to screen for
depression in those diagnosed with cancer. Screening for depression can help
“tease out” symptoms related to depression and symptoms related to the cancer. Treating
depression in patients with cancer can help them focus on their treatment and
have the motivation to do everything needed to possibly achieve remission.
Proper treatment gives them the ability to focus on their future. Cancer alone
is enough, but when combined with untreated depression the results can be
deadly.

After recognizing depression in someone with cancer, there
are ways to treat depression in parallel with cancer treatment. There are two
forms of treatment. One involves medication and the other involves
psychotherapy, or talk therapy. The typical medications for depression are
antidepressants like Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI) and
Serotonin and Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRI). These medications have
been around for a long time and are generally well tolerated. They take
anywhere from 2-6 weeks for clinical efficacy. These medications should be
monitored with cancer treatment, as there can be drug interactions and side
effects that may not be present in someone taking these medications without
cancer. In addition to medications, psychotherapy can be effective. More
specifically, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help people change their
negative thoughts about cancer and their future. For the most efficacious
treatment a combination of both should be implemented.

Cancer is a serious illness and a well-developed
multi-disciplinary approach is necessary to best treat the patient. Cancer can
cause a lot of different disturbances in physical and mental health. It is
important to have health professionals, like psychiatrists
and psychologists, part of the treatment team to ensure proper treatment of the
whole patient.

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Limited tickets are available to two free events over July at Manchester Metropolitan University. If there’s a good chance that you can’t make the events, please don’t book tickets only to cancel at the last minute. Both these events are extremely popular.

URBAN PSYCHOSIS will run from 14.07.14 - 22.08.14 at the Holden Gallery with work by John Baldessari – Matthew Buckingham – Sophie Calle – Marc Camille Chaimowicz – Moyra Davey – Luke Fowler – Gillian Wearing – Catherine Yass
    

The modern city has frequently been identified through its intensity - a busy and bustling environment of potentially creative and productive activity. For the spectator, this intensity can also tip over into a state in which reality is temporarily obscured. It is this finely balanced state which the exhibition explores, the condition of urban psychosis is presented as a recurring theme, a shadow which continues to haunt the city. We'll have more details of the exhibition itself next week. On the evening of 25th July, we are thrilled to be hosting An Evening with Will Self. Find out more about the exhibition by clicking on the logo above. For more information and to reserve tickets for the Will Self event, click on his image above.

ADVANCED NOTICE...Very soon we’ll be announcing details of the Urban Psychosis Symposium which includes Professors Richard Bentall, Peter Kinderman and John Read who will consider the psychology and treatment of psychiatric experiences. Richard Bentall has edited and written several books, most notably Madness Explained, which was winner of the British Psychological Society Book Award in 2004. I am thrilled that this event will be happening and we’ll announce the date next week. Biggest thanks to Dr Kat Taylor for making this happen.

I AM - WE ARE s y m p o s i u m +

I AM: Memoirs of Addiction Recovery 

The 2 year European project led by Portraits of Recovery; an Oldham/Manchester based, visual arts charity has been developed in partnership with Arts for Health, at Manchester Metropolitan University, Gruppo Incontro and F.E.D.E.R.S.E.R.D - Italy, and the Turkish Green Crescent Society, Kütahya branch. Working with international artists: Ali Zaidi, founding Co Director of Moti Roti – UK, Cristina Nuñez of the Self Portrait Experience – Italy and Selda Asal, founding Director of the Apartment Project – Turkey, it’s all about looking at how the arts and culture can support people in recovery from substance misuse to develop new life-opportunities through self-portraiture.

The symposium on the 17th July will share some of the artistic outputs, learning and responses from people taking part in the project. We will share an emergent Recoverist Manifesto that seeks to place individuals in recovery and others affected by addiction at the heart of proactive advocacy for cultural change in the way substance misuse is publicly perceived. We are thankful to everyone who has supported this project.

This free symposium with input from all three partner countries will also share the voices of participants and artists involved in the project. The day will feature the opening of the exhibition, I AM: Memoirs of Addiction Recovery in the Link Gallery at MMU to which delegates are invited between 4:00 and 6:00pm. We will confirm reserved symposium places a week before the event. Click on the arm above to find out more and apply for a ticket. 

Who's your Svengali?
So, Tracey Emin’s My Bed is up for auction this week with a guide price of £1.2 million and of course, there’s histrionics in the tabloids. Putting her personality-politics aside for a moment, it would be easy to lay into (no pun intended) this work as easy, lazy, contemporary nonsense. It’s not art surely? But I beg to differ on this one. 

Whilst people will obsess with the cult of Emin and the bed’s sale-tag, everyone’s favourite performance artist, Marina Abramović is posing and preening with the needy gallery going masses, all desperate for some existential fix. Abramović is concerned with ‘nothingness’ and ‘more and more of less and less’ apparently. Visitors to the Serpentine, where she’s going for her Guinness world record on Svengali-Art, ‘will both literally and metaphorically leave their baggage behind in order to enter the exhibition: bags, jackets, electronic equipment, watches and cameras may not accompany them.’ Poor visitors - it’ll be a big strain and probably frustrate most of them, not being able to get their communion with art, all posted up on youtube. Still, they can take comfort in the fact that ‘the public will become the performing body, participating in the delivery of an unprecedented moment in the history of performance art.’ Like an on-trend, quick-hit mindfulness exercise for busy and important people. 

I was in TATE Britain at the very moment in October 1999 when a couple of students started jumping up and down on My Bed. It might have been a Stuckist attack, or spontaneous whimsy, but it made me smile. I love a bit of art terrorism; Banksy sticking up his own masterpieces and fake labels on the real McCoy, or Robert Montgomery pasting up anti-consumerist poems on the marketeers very own bill-boards.  

Whilst the Serpentine remind us that, ‘Abramović is a pioneer of performance as an art form, using her own body as subject and object, she has pushed the physical and mental limits of her being,’ if it weren’t for her sometimes dubious political comments, I’m more inclined to the honesty of Emin and her bed. I’ve facilitated many public workshops with people outside the vapid world of the cultural elite and often use images of the bed as part of serious and passionate discussion with people who have really experienced the ‘limits’ of physical and mental being. And no, this isn’t instrumentalism - it’s engaging with contemporary art at the deepest level.

Go on Stuckists, Banksy, Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army or free-wheeling anarchists - how will you subvert this existential free-for-all? 

                            The artist has a migraine

BBC Children in Need Small Grants Programme 

The next deadline for applications to the BBC Children in Need Small Grants programme is the 1st September 2014. Through the Small Grants programme, funding up to £10,000 is available for projects that combat disadvantage and improve children and young people's lives. In particular, grants are available for projects that help children and young people experiencing:

Illness, distress, abuse or neglect

Any kind of disability

Behavioural or psychological difficulties

And / or living in situations of deprivation.

Read more at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4fJVTzz5QmQx5rx0S4NVg0Q/small-grants

People's Postcode Trust Small Grants Programme 

(Scotland, Wales and South of England excl. London & Greater London)

The People's Postcode Trust has announced that its small grants programme has will re-open for applications on the 7th July 2014. Through its small grants programme, the Trust offers grants of between £500 and £20,000 to small organisations and community groups for projects lasting up to 1 year (for organisations in Wales 6 months) in the areas of:

• Poverty Prevention
• Advancement of Health
• Community Development
• Public Sports
• Human Rights
• Environmental Protection.

www.postcodetrust.org.uk

Artists in Residence Grants 

The Levehulme Trust is offering grants of up to £15,000 to UK universities and museums to foster a new creative collaboration with an artist (visual artists, creative writers, musicians, poets) working in a discipline outside the institution's usual curriculum. Artists may not apply directly - all applications must be made by the host institution. There must be a distinct contrast between the artist and host department's expertise (for example, a poet being hosted by a physics department, a composer by a geography department). The residency must be a newly constituted collaboration between artist and hosts. The grants provide a stipend of up to £12,500 for the artist and consumable costs, such as artist's materials, of up to £2500. A typical residency would be for ten months based on the artist being present at the host institution for two days per week. The deadline for applications is 16th September 2014. Read more at

www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/AIR/AIRc.fm

Nurse Ratched: 'The best thing we can do is go on with our daily routine...'

The sun shines, infinite things are born and die and a warm breeze here and now, reminds me we're alive.

Over the last 6 months I’ve been involved in the facilitation of workshops with people in recovery from substance misuse. We’ve been meeting in small huddles, discussing life, discussing big things and small things. These have happened in Manchester and Liverpool, in Pistoia and Pescara and just this last week, the beautiful city of Kutahya and the streets of Istanbul. Whilst there are obvious cultural differences between those of us taking part in these conversations, there are things that bind us. We want to tell a story, shine a light, blow away the myths and stand proud. We want to generate new possibilities for people in recovery by challenging and changing attitudes. 

I AM - WE ARE

a   s  y  m  p  o  s  i  u  m         

I’ve been involved with a European Union, Life Long Learning Programme – Grundtvig funded project over these last few years, which comes to fruition on the 17th July with the opening of an exhibition here at MMU and a free symposium. This symposium will share some of the artistic outputs, learning and responses from people taking part in the project. We will share an emerging Recoverist Manifesto that seeks to place individuals in recovery and those affected by addiction at the heart of proactive advocacy for cultural change in the way substance misuse is publicly perceived. We are thankful to everyone who has supported this project. We will be circulating all details via an Eventsbright link for registration, with priority given to people in recovery and those involved in the field.

An evening with Will Self

I’ve been asked by so many people about the Will Self event on the 25th July that I’ll have to organise an Eventsbright page for details and registration. I’ll do this, this week and post them on this blog, on twitter and facebook. Next week, I’ll share details of the exhibition that’s bringing Will to Manchester: URBAN PSYCHOSIS and another unique and incredibly exciting public event that explores some of the myths and facts around psychosis, with groundbreaking and radical thinkers in psychology and from the Hearing Voices Network. Thanks to the LAHF for its generous contribution to the Will Self event through its Creativity and Wellbeing Week initiative.

Faculty of Public Health Annual Conference

This years conference is taking place in Manchester on July 2/3 where I’ll be speaking about Authenticity in Arts and Public Health. I’m thrilled that my friend and colleague Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt will be presenting some of her findings for the AHRC’s Cultural Value project where she has been investigating longitudinal impact of arts engagement on health and wellbeing in Nordic countries...and so much more. We'll be sharing this work soon on a dedicated website. 

All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing

Regular reders of this blog will know that the National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbing have been instrumental in establishing an All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (APPG). Whilst the group was formally established a few months ago, its first formal meeting will be held on July 2nd and its special subject will be The Care Act: How the arts and culture can contribute to improving the quality of care following the Francis Inquiry. I’m thrilled that Robert Francis QC who is widely recognised for his public inquiry into Mid-Staffordshire Hospitals, will be a speaker at this event. For my part, since I wrote A Bird in a Gilded Cage last year, I’ll be keen to see how the arts can influence broader thinking in the filed of care.

Also attending will be Dr Ellen Storm is a paediatric trainee in the Mersey region and the mother of three-year-old twin girls. She has been writing poetry for ten years and has had poems published in a vaiety of magazines. Ellen will read her poem Out of Hospital Arrest, which won the 2014 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine in the NHS category, of which Francis is a judge. She blogs at 

Nikki Crane, Head of Arts Strategy at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity and Dr Suzy Willson, Artistic Director of Clod Ensemble (Performing Medicine) will also be speaking, and both are working with King’s College London Medical School to embed arts-based learning into the curriculum for medical students and with the Simulation and Interactive Learning Centre (SaIL) at St Thomas’ to integrate a training programme for healthcare professionals that addresses the recommendations of the Francis Report.

The discussion will be chaired by the Rt Hon. Paul Burstow MP with Co-Chairs: Rt Hon. Paul Burstow MP, Rt Hon. Lord Howarth of Newport CBE, and Sarah Newton MP. I’ll report back on the proceedings after the event and as ever, extend my thanks to Alliance member Alexandra Coulter, for leading these important political developments.

The top 10 hospital stories

Author Sarah Moss suggests her top hospital stories, commenting, “I'm interested in writing about institutions because they are almost always in some sense utopian projects, attempts to intervene in the ways of the world. Schools, hospitals, orphanages, reformatories of all kinds, begin with the idea that an organisation could make things better, redress some of the damage we do to each other. And usually, whether they succeed in the original aim or not, institutions end up doing damage of their own, because power corrupts and visions don't work in practice and we are all hopeful but fallen beings.

I find hospitals particularly fascinating because of the harmony or discord between the stories of nurses, patients and doctors, and because of the complicated relationships between power, suffering and healing.” Read her selection by clicking on Nurse Ratched

One Thing, Many Stories

People’s History Museum

21 June 2014 — 10 July 2014

Photographing opportunity – Free family event day 21 June 12-4pm

Pod Collective has been funded by the Arts Council to showcase an exhibition at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, 21 June - 10 July. A celebration of shared collective memories and common experiences amongst refugees, asylum-seekers and a variety of other community groups, the exhibition takes the form of an embroidery installation combined with a photography exhibition. Click on the banner below. 

New Programme to Support Innovation in Public Libraries 

The Carnegie Trust has announced that it will launch a new programme in September 2014 to support public libraries. Called "Carnegie Library Lab" the programme aims to nurture innovation and leadership in the Public Library sector and will offer learning opportunities, mentoring, networking and a project funding. The project funding will be used to help successful applicants develop and implement innovative projects in relation to public libraries and services. The programme will run for three years, from 2014 to 2017. Read more at: 
http://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/changing-minds/knowledge---culture/carnegie-library-lab

Women Make Music Grant Scheme 

The Performing Right Society (PRS) has announced that its Women Make Music grant scheme is now open for applications. Through the programme, financial support of up to £5000 is available. The next application deadline is the 29th September 2014. Read more at 
http://www.prsformusicfoundation.com/Funding/Women-Make-Music

Carnegie Challenge 

The Carnegie UK Trust has announced that it is offering up to ten not-for-profit organisations from the UK and Ireland the opportunity to win grants worth £3,000 to hold inspiring debates on how to improve people’s wellbeing.  The Carnegie UK Trust has been arguing that focusing on delivering economic growth as the sole indicator of social prosperity is flawed. Instead, the Trust believes the time is right for the UK and Ireland to shift its emphasis from economic production to improving people’s lives more broadly.  The Carnegie Challenge aims to support events around the UK and Ireland that will deepen understanding of what influences individual and societal wellbeing; explore how best to measure wellbeing and how this can be used to shape policy and practice; or examine what practical steps can be taken by third sector organisations and governments to improve wellbeing.  There will be three funding rounds in 2014 and the  closing date for the last funding round  is the 14th July 2014. Read more at 
http://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/changing-minds/carnegie-challenge

A serious question: 
Does Michael Gove Exist? 

Click on the dashing young Gove to find out more… 

...a thing of fairy tales

Last Thursday evening saw Manchester School of Art welcome Vic McEwan from the CAD Factory to a free North West Arts and Health Networking event. Thanks to Vic and all of you who attended. Those of you came won’t quite know what a diverse group of people we were and I can tell you that there were a very rich mix of artists, curators, health professionals, academics and on this occasion, I’m thrilled to say - members of the general public - who gatecrashed the party!

Vic shared the work that he's been involved in with a community that had been devastated by floods in Australia, and all of us there were enthralled by his integrity, sensitivity and creative vision. He exposed us to what we so often hear cultural bureaucrats bang-on about: exceptional artistic quality. For my money, Vic could certainly give this presentation to the entirety of the School of Art and illuminate the wider social impact of what it is we all do. So, many conversations about ‘putting memories back into the landscape’ whilst holding negligent authorities to account. Vic shared some hard earned truths too, particularly about early resistance to artists having a role in traumatised communities.

He responded to difficult questioning, particularly around deficit of imagination, so often present in those resistant to change. For me, he reminded us of the importance of thinking about our arts and health agenda beyond narrow notions of individual pathology - and more broadly - communal wellbeing. Here are some comments from those who attended.

Here’s what some people said:

For starters, WOW! 

Vic's lecture was incredibly engaging, inspiring and almost magical: it was like BEING there, on the other side of the planet - witnessing all those fantastic ways of making art in the greatest possible way, which is HANDS ON. 

...impressed by Vic's work in Australia. It's amazing how the arts help people get through traumatic experience.

One of the most insightful, contemporary artist talks I have ever been to.

...a very useful and inspiring night...

Inspirational, sensitive, ethical, caring.......... joined up thinking....you can't beat it! 

Contemporary art practice can be what I think it should be!!!

His work is what I have been looking for for the last 5 years. Thank you for inviting him. I feel inspired and refreshed.

I’m pleased to be working with Vic over the next few years exploring musicality in everyday environments and maybe, just maybe sharing some new stories with you as we grow. You can read lots about Vic and his work by clicking on the images in this text and follow his blog/diary by clicking on the image below. A big THANK YOU to Vic from all of us.

Central to Vic’s presentation was the marriage of immersive high-quality practice and imagination, so it was strange to read reports (or perhaps knee-jerk misreporting) of the normally compelling Richard Dawkins lambasting children's fairy tales as being something that could cause great harm, suggesting that it was "pernicious to instill in a child the view that the world is shaped by supernaturalism.’ But hold on a minute - wasn’t this, as usual, taken out of context by the obvious newspapers? I know he comes over as pompous, especially when he’s got a book to peddle, but the essence of what he was asking was: "Is it a good thing to go along with the fantasy of childhood?," {…} "Or should we be fostering a spirit of scepticism?." I’d like to think that imagination fostered through fiction, song, poetry and all the arts, is not something to be cast-off in adulthood, but embraced throughout life - and who knows - that imagination might just foster a spirit of rebellion, of anarchy and action beyond words. As a committed humanist, I tend towards what I hope is a healthy scepticism and a simpletons knowledge of contemporary arts, would suggest a billion artists do too. 

Albert Einstein, when asked how we could make our children more intelligent, famously replied, "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." He understood the value of reading and the imagination.

Just a thought, but if I were to ask - in the case of a black hole - how is it possible to have something with zero volume and infinite density? I would be curious as to how an artist would respond and how a scientist would formulate a hypothesis! 

For artists wanting to play with this, my dim understanding of it is, spacetime around a black hole has infinite curvature, and matter is crushed to infinite density, under the pull of infinite gravity. So that’s three sets of infinities. At the singularity of the black hole, what we understand as the ‘laws’ of physics break down, so we are left (scientists and artists alike) to imagine, or if you prefer, hypothesise. For those with less confidence in their imagination, or blind panic at lack of empirical evidence, you can always turn to supernaturalism for your easy answer. (for my money, an artist like Bjork might offer interseting thoughts on the cosmos)

...an imaginative song that Richard Dawkins would in all probability enjoy

NEWS FLASH

Friend of Arts for Health and director of Lime Arts, Brian Chapman is one of the earliest pioneers of the Arts and Health movement.  After 38 years working as an artist in health care he is due to retire at the end of 2014. The details of the replacement post are not yet finalised but expressions of interest will be sought soon. Watch this space! But don’t ask questions prematurely! 

Ithell Colquhoun - Scylla - 1938

DEMENTIA & IMAGINATION

...a brief update. A long time ago, in a blog far, far away, I shared news of the AHRC funded research project that I am a part of called, Dementia & Imagination. More recently I  advertised3 research artist positions. We were inundated with brilliant applicants. Thank you all. I’m please to announce that the research intervention begins in earnest this month across the three sites in Derbyshire, the North East and North Wales. If you want to find out more about the project and keep up with all our emerging news, please visit the project website by clicking on the photograph below. Both Dr Kat Taylor and I have written blogpostings on that site for you to get a felling of where we’re coming from and what we hope to achieve. Click on Pears by William Scott for more information. 

The Wingate Foundation: Performing Arts Grants 

Performing arts (excluding music) grant. Particular emphasis is given to providing financial support for not-for-profit companies with a record of artistic excellence that require additional funding (not available from public sources or commercial sponsorship) to broaden their repertoire or develop work. Assistance also considered for training and professional development for creative talent or the technical professions. Deadlines: 23 Jun, 19 Sep & 12 Dec 2014. Read more by clicking on Green for Danger.

Healthy Hearts Grants 

Heart Research UK has announced that its Health Hearts Grants Programme will re-open for applications in July 2014. Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Grants support innovative projects designed to promote heart health and to prevent or reduce the risks of heart disease in specific groups or communities. Grants of up to £10,000 are available to community groups, voluntary organisations and researchers who are spreading the healthy heart message. The closing date for this funding round will be the 31st August 2014. Read more by clicking on paradise!

Urban Community-Owned Shops Pilot 

The Plunkett Foundation has announced the launch of new initiative, the Urban community-owned shops pilot. Working in partnership with Locality and funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the pilot aims to support urban communities to create and benefit from new and sustainable community-owned shops. The shops will offer better access to good food, enhance community cohesion and provide robust retail solutions. The pilot will include a programme of events, enterprise support including specialist advice and resources, and financial help including grants, fundraising guidance and loan-provision.  The programme starts in April 2014 and will run for two years. Communities will be able to secure support for their idea at events to be held later this year. For more information please contact Hannah Barrett on 01993 810730 or at

http://www.plunkett.co.uk/newsandmedia/news-item.cfm/newsid/747