2 minute read
The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, 4-22 October
from FOCUS Autumn 2023
by DG Unlimited
The DG Creative Wellbeing Network is helping to coordinate Dumfries and Galloway’s contribution to the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2024.
Working in partnership with Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, NHS D&G Public Health, DGRI, The Crichton and RBC Film Theatre, DG Creative Wellbeing has worked hard to bring two exciting and important events to audiences.
DG Creative Wellbeing, led by Outpost Arts invites you to visit the ‘Keep Turning the Page’ exhibition of art works from the OutPost Arts, Art Journal Project, and to join them for a special screening of ‘Up the Middle Road: Stories of Resilience and Recovery’, a Q&A with a special guest panel including inspirational speakers from NHS D&G, the Crichton Trust, and Outpost Arts.
OutPost Art’s Creative Wellbeing Network will also be launching its ‘Creative Wellbeing Manifesto’ - the start of a year of creative consultations where together, we hope to build a wellbeing manifesto for D&G. Watch out for more info being shared soon about these specific events, and how you can take part.
We spoke to Lucy MacLeod, Creative Health & Wellbeing Director about the Art Journal Project and she shared how it all started.
“During lockdown in 2020, Outpost Arts delivered a small pilot ‘Art Journal Project’, funded by the Scottish Government Supporting Communities Fund. The ‘community well-being’ programme consisted of guided workshops, bespoke tuition, and specialist support from professional artist tutors, aimed at adults struggling to manage stress or to ‘make space’ in order to achieve balance and well-being in their lives. The project targeted carers, key workers, people suffering from physical or mental health issues, people struggling with loneliness, isolation, grief, and trauma. The project culminated in an exhibition that showcased curated samples from participant’s art journals and larger scale pieces that graduates had worked towards by developing their skills via art journal workshops and feedback sessions. The exhibition featured as part of an open weekend linked to Spring Fling, and the response was overwhelmingly positive - both from visitors and participants.
To advance and galvanise Outpost Art’s creative wellbeing activity, we embarked upon a six-month research and development project to expand the project’s reach and scope the potential of a regional partnership network to advance creative wellbeing in D&G. In partnership with NHS Endowment Fund, Holywood Trust, and other strategic partners, OPA used the momentum gathered following the delivery of Art Journal Project to widen access points for participation and form a strong and effective creative social-prescribing model; building relationships with partner organisations and creating clearer ‘next steps’ for people wanting to continue their creative well-being journeys.”
This powerful work continues and this year, as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, an exhibition of the works from the Art Journal Project, samples of work from the Art Journal Class of 2022/2023 is being exhibited at DGRI, entitled, “Keep Turning the Page”. The exhibition is open to the public, patients, and staff who can view works created by the Art Journallers.
