Hospital Arts Newsletter Summer 2020

Anne Elliot

Hospital Arts Newsletter

Summer 2020

In this issue:

Edinburgh Landmarks

Lost for Words

Glasshouses Garden Group

Art Games

Creative Hub at the REH

Artlink partner in delivering the Tonic Arts Participatory Programme on behalf of

H O S P I TA L A R T S

A drawing exchange with St John’s and Liberton Hospitals, Art Games is based upon a surrealist art game, where people add to each other’s art in a back-and-forth collaboration. See pages 10-11 for more information and how to participate.

NEWSLETTER - SUMMER 2020

Welcome!

We want to acknowledge the amazing work that NHS staff have been doing over the last 5 months in what are incredibly challenging times. THANK YOU. Although Anne and Trevor have not been able to work on the wards during lockdown, they have been busy.

At the beginning of lockdown, Anne kept in touch with various workshop participants setting different art tasks for them to try out, from still lifes, painting flowers to views from their windows. Keeping spirits up. As time passed, participants began setting each other tasks. A beautiful example is the Crafted by Joan series, in which one of our participants creates a whole series of craft ideas for others to follow.

The Edinburgh Landmarks exhibition presents works produced by the artists from the Royal Edinburgh Glasshouses Workshops just before we had to temporarily close our doors. Feedback has been great! Many thanks to our partners at Tonic Arts for making this happen.

At the Western General, Trevor began to look at creating a series of arts and crafts workshops with Occupational Therapists, as a way to take a 30-minute break from a very pressured working environment.

He is currently putting together a menu of activity that should get the ball rolling!

The Royal Edinburgh Glasshouses Volunteers have been catching up round a virtual kitchen table through Zoom, remotely sharing gardening stories & tips and cake! We are pulling together their latest ideas in a magazine which you will be able to view on our blog.

Anne and Trevor have also been working behind the scenes to devise alternative ways of delivering the Hospital Arts programme in the months to come.

They have been working closely with key staff members and our volunteers to create a series of imaginative projects.

Situations are still fast moving and changing so we will regularly update you via simple newsletters like this one, as well as posting on our blog: www.artlinkhospitals.art In the meantime we are excited to start working on the projects that will grow and develop as lockdown eases. The projects will be fun and offer a bit of distraction within your day!

EXHIBITION

Edinburgh Landmarks

Edinburgh Landmarks is an exhibition of drawings and paintings located in the Link Gallery Corridor and the REB Gallery Corridor at The Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

It features artworks by participants of Artlink’s Open Art Studio at the Glasshouses and opened June 2020.

Calton Hill

by Michelangelo

Ramsay Gardens and White House Close by Michelangelo

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EDINBURGH LANDMARKS

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3

5

2

4

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1. Huntly House, Karina Davies 2. Edinburgh Castle from West Meadows, Michelangelo

3. View of Pentland Hills, Grace O’Hara

4. Chessils Court, Karina Davies 5. Edinburgh Castle from

South Loch, the Meadows, Michelangelo

6. Edinburgh Castle from The

Grassmarket, Karina Davies

REH Arts & Greenspace Manager Becky Brazil and Tonic Arts Exhibition Manager Hans K Clausen install the exhibition.

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WORKSHOPS

Glasshouses Garden Group Chris’s seedlings in the sun at various stages of growth

The Glasshouses Garden Group has been adapting to lockdown. Whilst we can’t be together, they’ve been sharing tips & tricks, artwork, images of their growing projects as well as helping out with unusual plant/weed identification!

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GLASSHOUSES VOLUNTEERS

Anne sends out a regular circular to members of the Glasshouses Garden Group and we’ve collated these into a quarterly magazine.

The Glasshouses has seen a fair amount of growth over the summer, both wild and things we’ve planted.

You can view and download the newsletter from our website. artlinkedinburgh.co.uk

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WORKSHOPS

Lost for Words

Lost for Words is a fun, creative writing project with Laura Marney, a Scottish writer who is a bit of a comedian as anyone who has read her second novel, Nobody Loves a Ginger Baby will know! Laura is currently mentoring 6 people over an 8-week period, two of whom are NHS members of staff.

We have been really impressed by the commitment of the participants, who are really enjoying their individual weekly online/telephone writing classes with Laura.

Laura Marney

Lost for Words flyer

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LOST FOR WORDS

We are delighted to have Merrick Pope working on the project with us, to support patients and ensure we are following all the guidelines.

Merrick is a clinical nurse specialist at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and has worked on writing projects in the past. There has been good dry-witted banter between us all in the development of the project.

As restrictions lift, we will open the project to involve more people across the hospitals. We are currently talking to the Scottish Book Trust on how to reach more people and involve exciting writers.

Expect some exciting projects from writers of Sci-fi, romance, humour, history, nonfiction and maybe even crime, if that is what people want to learn to write about.

The author of five novels and numerous short stories and plays, Laura Marney is a member of the Glasgow G7 group of writers. Until recently Laura was a Creative Writing Tutor on the MLitt course at Glasgow University

A selection of Laura’s novels

We would love to hear from members of staff and patients who would be interested in taking part in a writing project.

Please contact Trevor Cromie at trevor@artlinkedinburgh.co.uk to start those conversations.

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WORKSHOPS

Art Games

We have started a drawing exchange with St John’s and Liberton hospitals.

The process is easy to take part in. There are 4 simple steps (poster pictured right) where patients start a drawing which is copied and added to by an artist.

It is then returned to the patient in the form of a postcard.

It’s based on a surrealist drawing game that allows a drawing to change as more people add to it and for people to get involved.

We have made this as accessible as possible, allowing people who can’t leave the wards to get involved with the support of their ward staff.

Our partners in delivering the first part of the project are the Mental Health OT team and IPCU at St John’s and Kirsty MacFarlane, CN and Fiona Walker, DCN Ward 4, Liberton Hospital.

The more people get involved the more this project will change, with different artists joining to add new perspectives with different outcomes. In the longer term, the ideas that emerge will inform a larger scale sculptural project in partnership with Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. But for now, it is all about drawing; a doodle, a sketch, a painting. You start it, we photograph it and send it to an artist. If you are interested in finding out more or want to discuss becoming involved in the future development, please contact Anne Elliot at anne@artlinkedinburgh.co.uk 10

ART GAMES

Working with us on Art Games is acclaimed artist Vanessa Lawrence, who has previously worked on Artlink projects at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

In order to illustrate how this would work, Artlink staff joined in the process working with patients.

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Creating new work at the REH Glasshouses Open Art Group

*Please note: this image is from a workshop which took place in 2019

WORKSHOPS

Creative Hub at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital

As most of you will know, the Artlink Glasshouses are temporarily closed and all workshops stopped during lockdown. We are now planning to restart some limited activity, which we will extend as restrictions ease.

Initially we will start with one-to-one activity with Anne Elliot, bookable in advance. We will also start to bring in other artists to work at the Creative Hub over time. We are currently getting the Glasshouses ready for this.

Anne will let you know when this activity will start and how to book.

Our aim is at some point to restart small group workshops, we do not have a timescale for this now but will put out information when we do. Anne cannot wait to get back to start working with people again.

To find out more about one-to-one tailored activity or volunteering at the Glasshouses, contact Anne Elliot at anne@artlinkedinburgh.co.uk 14

Artwork created in The Glasshouses back before lockdown!

COMING UP

This is just the start..

As well as the plans to open projects out to more people we will also be bringing Art in Real Time into the mix at a later stage. This will involve podcasts, performance pop ups, pop up displays etc.

Keep your eye out for more information about the projects and information on when oneto-one work will start with Anne at The Glasshouses, and if you want to get in touch about anything just email Anne or Trevor.

Anne and Trevor, Hospital Arts Team

anne@artlinkedinburgh.co.uk

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trevor@artlinkedinburgh.co.uk

Glasshouses Art Group member Joan with a few of her lockdown creations.

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