Art for Wellbeing Toolkit

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Art Wellbeing Toolkit

A collection of creative activities designed to be used with groups of adults, to improve and support mental wellbeing

Development of the Art for Wellbeing Toolkit These activities were developed as part of our Art for Wellbeing, Practitioners Training A small team of practitioners, Artists and Emotional Support Workers participated in this training program. The training aimed to increase awareness of boundaries, communication, administration requirements and inclusive practice amongst the team.

The team also took part in skills sharing activities, supporting team development and sharing best practice. The Skill Sharing sessions formed the basis of the activities within this toolkit.

How can I use the Art for Wellbeing Toolkit?

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Cartwheel Arts, Art for Wellbeing courses are led by experienced Artists and supported by Emotional Support Workers. We work with independent adults with mild to moderate mental health issues.

who would like to participate in creative wellbeing activities.

The activities do not need an Artist or Emotional Support Worker to be used and are designed to be simple, effective methods of engagement.

This toolkit has been designed, to be used with groups of adults

Materials are low cost and instructions clear and adaptable.

Contents Art for Wellbeing Toolkit activities Page 4

Creative Spaces

Page 5

Embracing Imperfection - DIY Books

Page 8

Structured Experimentation

Page 9

Cut, Paste and Create

Page 10

Creative Play

Stacey Coughlin Lisa Risbec Elaine Fox

Cartwheel Arts

Jodie Silverman

Art for Wellbeing Practitioners Biographies Page 11 Stacey Coughlin Lisa Risbec Jodie Silverman Elaine Fox

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Stacey Coughlin

Creative Spaces This activity works well when locations/rooms/ venues do not lend themselves to being creative or inspiring spaces, such as hospital wards or day centres.

Often many factors are out of your control, the spaces are multi-functional – changing from dining room, to activity space, to space of relaxation but there are some tips and techniques that make the space even more welcoming and

conducive to the activity.

The facilitator could consider how the physical space can be transformed for the activity too, such as moving furniture, table cloths, wearing aprons, access to materials and resources, background or arrival music. Another consideration is resetting the room so that entry into the room is not the focal point, this will help to reduce the anxiety of people joining the group.

Wellbeing Potential

This activity explores how changing the physical delivery space can encourage a supportive relaxed and creative environment.

What you will need ● Large pieces of sturdy card ● Tape/Glue/String ● Paint/Markers ● ‘Patterned’ collage paper (wrapping paper, old cards, junk mail, newspaper etc.) and fabric scraps ● Things that inspire individual creativity photographs, magazine cuttings, colour swatches

The Activity This activity is focused on creating your own creative space. The finished piece can be used as a personal ‘art booth’ to work in or can be used to display work already created in a ‘mini gallery’.

The group could begin by discussing distractions during creative times. E.g. Mobile phones / Things to do later /noise /lack of personal space.

They are then given sheets of thick cardboard to create a 3 sided folding ‘space’ by taping together the three pieces along the long edges of the card.

The outer flaps should be able to fold in so the ‘space’ can be stood on the table; this also allows

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the space to be portable and to keep the inside of the space protected.

The participants are encouraged to personalise their space with paint and markers, maybe adding their name, project title or an edging border. They may wish to decorate with inspirational photos or pictures from magazines, maybe adding swatches of colour or fabric to build up a ‘moodboard’ of ideas. Alternatively they may wish to create a background with a colourwash, using mark making or creating a patterned design.

Lisa Risbec

Embracing Imperfection - DIY Books

DIY books are a great way to save and display art work or to explore ideas. This activity could be used at the beginning of an art program or the end to collate, collect and

present art work together.

There are lots of different styles of handmade books including Zine Books and flip books which can be researched and shown as examples.

Wellbeing Potential

The hand-made aesthetic of this activity means the focus is on experimental, not ‘perfect’ work. This makes DIY bookmaking ideal for building confidence.

What you will need • Photocopied instructions, see page 8 • Coloured paper (A3 & A4) • Craft knives and cutting mats or scissors • Spoons or flat utensils for folding creases • Selection of art materials such as inks, paint, pencils, pens etc.

• Markmaking tools such as brushes, sticks, object to print with (cotton reels, forks, letter stamps)

The Activity Create a ‘Messy Table’ with the art materials, water pots and mark making tools set out.

Create a ‘Clean table’ with paper, spoons (for making creases) and a photocopied instruction sheet for each participant. Begin by following the instructions on the photocopied sheet to create a simple folded book out of the instruction sheet.

If you are using scissors cut a narrow slot instead of cutting a slit.

Then follow the same instructions using the coloured paper to form your folded book.

Move onto the messy table to decorate your

DIY book. Firstly participants could concentrate on creating backgrounds on each page of the book, exploring and playing with the different materials, applying paint with different tools, creating prints, making delicate marks or using bold patterns. Experimentation and imperfection should be encouraged.

When backgrounds are completed, participants are encouraged to personalize their book, maybe adding words, pasting in images, creating a front cover and signing and dating the book to add individuality and value to their book.

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Elaine Fox

Structure for Skill Building This activity explores how structuring a session can increase productivity and develop a range of skills in a short period of time. It is a great activity to begin a project and allows

participants to build up a ‘reference file’ of different techniques, which can then be referred to at a later stage in the project or during self directed work.

Wellbeing Potential Some participants respond well to structured sessions, helping participants feel secure as they have advance understanding of the timings and plan.

Participants build a range of skills allowing them to make informed choices when using these materials in the future; this increases confidence in creative ability.

What you will need • Paints / Chalks / Pencils / Collage Material (Materials dependent on the techniques you would like to introduce; this could include watercolour/oil or chalk pastels/ sketching/collage etc.)

• Glue • Paper / Card / sketchbook • Mystery object (this could be anything...

Quirky is good!

Ideas include, a teapot, cacti, musical instrument or watering can)

The Activity The room is set up with a number of workstations, each with paper or sketchbooks, materials and tools for a different art technique.

In the centre of the room the Mystery Object is placed, perhaps on a table, within view of all workstations. Each work station should have a number of people seated, then within a set time period, maybe 15 minutes the participants should create a piece of work. This might focus on a detail of the object, be representational or abstract. The aim is to try out using the materials

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and technique at that workstation.

At the end of the time period, participants are given 5 minutes to annotate their piece, maybe noting what they enjoyed about using that material, what worked, what they found difficult or how they used the specific tools.

Then the participants move on in a carousel style, and repeat the activity, using the different materials at the next workstation. This process is repeated until all participants have worked at each workstation.

Cartwheel Arts

Cut, Paste and Create An introduction to collaging, a technique which is an accessible way of representing ideas and exploring a theme. Participants use magazines

and newspapers which they relate to or which represent a theme, then explore composition by pasting cuttings on a sheet of card.

Wellbeing Potential

Using collage removes the barrier of ‘I can’t draw’ or I’m not good at art’ allowing participants to gain confidence in developing ideas.

What you will need • A selection of newspapers and magazines (check these first to make sure they are appropriate, sexual or offensive images, headlines or words should be avoided) • Stiff card • Scissors • PVA and spreaders or glue sticks • A selection of themes written on slips of paper, folded and placed in a bowl (themes could include Nature, Movement, Space, Senses, Sleep, Circus etc.)

The Activity Participants are each given a piece of stiff card, the bowl of themes is then handed out and each person selects a theme at random. This theme is then glued to the centre of the card.

Participants should then be given a selection of magazines and newspapers. Food and gardening magazines are good for colour, hair magazines are good for images of faces, music and photographic magazines have good imagery and newspaper weekend supplements are a good source of different styles of typography and topical images. Junk mail, free supermarket magazines, old leaflets and flyers can be good cheap sources also.

Participants should gather cuttings of colour images and words that they feel relates to

their theme, these don’t have to be obvious connections but could have personal or tenuous meanings.

When a collection has been gathered, participants could be encouraged to mount the cuttings on their card, thinking about how the images words or colours could relate to each other, maybe overlapping pieces or using torn or precisely cut edges as preferred.

At the end of the session the group should clear the space and then look at everyone’s work together. Participants are encouraged to give positive feedback to each other to share skills and ideas and conclude the session in a supportive manner.

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Jodie Silverman

Creative Play Creative play with art materials can break down barriers to engagement. As children art comes naturally to us but as adults we may have lost confidence in our ability to be creative, due to negative judgment from

others or worries over getting it ‘right’. We all share the capacity to be creative and these simple activities can help people to loosen up and begin to experiment with materials.

Wellbeing Potential

Participants may feel inhibited and struggle to get started; these activities are hard to control the outcome of so encourage a more relaxed attitude to art making.

What you will need • Activity 1 – Plastic tray, brush, marbling ink, paper and water • Activity 2 – Felt tip pens, large sheet of paper and glue • Activity 3 – Ink, paper, toolsbrushes, sponges, fingers, sticks, rollers, textured objects

Activity 1 - Marbling Marbling works well with apprehensive people as it is very had to control the end result. Some great abstract images can be created by letting go and enjoying the process.

Marbling ink is added to a tray of water, paper is laid on the water surface to “pick up” the ink.

If you like you can use a brush or other tool to manipulate the ink. The paper is then set to dry and can be used collage, bookmaking or any other paper arts.

Activity 2 - Rip it up and start again This activity is done as a group and helps people to ‘let go’ of the original image as it is destroyed and remade into something else.

The group will work together on a large sheet of paper laid on a table. The group uses felt tip pens

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to scribble all over the sheet of paper, for about five minutes. If they like people can move around the image and work over each others areas. The group will then rip up the image and select some shreds of paper to create something new. They can do this by collaging, folding or drawing on top of the paper. They will need about fifteen minutes to do this.

Activity 3 - Ink Exploration This is a great way of helping people to learn about mark making without the pressure of having to make a finished piece.

Explore how many different ways ink can be applied to paper. Use a variety of tools to apply and experiment with ink. Paint, smear, splatter, sponge and scrape. Use water to create washes and drip the ink down the page.

Art Wellbeing for

Practitioner Biographies Stacey Coughlin Stacey Coughlin is a Community Visual Artist, Counsellor and Emotional Support Worker. Working with a number of organisations, groups and participants her practice has developed through working with a variety of age ranges in different settings on projects and one off sessions for individuals to explore their wellbeing and creativity to various medias.

These have included workshops with children and young people’s in youth group activities and public workshops, to adults with mental health issues and her main area of interest working with older people in the community and permanent residential care.

A recent project that Stacey has developed is The Travelling Art Tent – a mobile art gallery that visits residents in residential homes funded by Arts Council England. www.travellingarttent.co.uk As an emotional support worker, Stacey provides counselling skills one-to-one in an art group setting.

She has also provided counselling for older people in their own homes through Age UK Stockport.

Within her own artwork she is currently exploring the essence and architectural features of space and how these create a sense of place through photomontage and building materials.

Lisa Risbec Lisa Risbec is an artist who, after a BA in photography and film making, creating animations and running a photography business, returned to making work by hand. She is currently experimenting with collage, paint and crafted objects and works on art projects as well as selling her work online.

Her artwork flows between textiles, crafted object, photography, collage, printmaking and animation.

Making something out of nothing and creating surreal worlds, dreamlike images and handmade oddities and objects with a variety of found materials, she is inspired by dereliction and the textures of cities, collections, nature thriving in unusual spaces, silver birches in the winter, hidden things, the colour palettes of new places and handmade books.

Keen to share skills with others and having worked on many projects in the past, inspiring others to create and promoting good mental health and wellbeing is an issue that is important to her. www.lisarisbec.co.uk

Jodie Silverman Jodie Silverman is a Manchester based Artist and Art Psychotherapist, registered with both BAAT and the HCPC. She has worked with Adults with mental health difficulties since qualifying in 2009. She has experience of working in a busy adult mental health service as part of a multidisciplinary team, providing therapeutic interventions to a client group with severe to complex needs, as well as working on a variety of Art for Wellbeing projects within the wider community.

Jodie has been enthusiastically creating ever since she was old enough to hold a pencil. She is a practicing figurative artist working in a variety of mediums. Jodie incorporates surreal and symbolic elements into her figurative work, allowing emotions to be articulated and enabling the construction of a narrative around the subject. She values her own creative practice and sees it as essential to her own wellbeing, enriching her personal development and informing her work with others. www.jodiesilverman.com

Elaine Fox Elaine started her artistic career in 1978 when she completed her foundation course at Wigan & Leigh College; she went on to study at Wolverhampton Polytechnic on a Fine Art Degree. Owing to financial reasons this was cut short and a career in sales soon became her focus, as did a family and all the responsibility that this ensues.

The innate love of the arts continued and this resulted in working for an Art Gallery, which reinvigorated her desire to continue her education in the arts. So then began a two year degree at the University of Salford in Visual Arts. This led onto a Masters Degree in Contemporary Fine Art, whilst completing a Certificate in Education at the same time.

All this led to a career working in Post Compulsory Education teaching Fine Art and Life Drawing. In tandem to this Elaine worked with Full Circle Arts Manchester enabling disabled students to access arts based activities and experience new avenues of creativity. Elaine also has extensive knowledge and experience of working in Community Arts projects with all sectors of the general public and this is where she feels that she can make the most of her experience. By helping others to enjoy the freedom of creative expression has become the main focus of her future and drives her own creative development to enable others to enjoy the arts. www.facebook.com/artsincommunity

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Thank you

To our Art for Wellbeing Practitioner team, for providing the resources in this toolkit. To Caroline Schofield for managing the Art for Wellbeing Practitioner Training and delivering Teramap communication training. To Ruth Malkin of Inclusion Inc. for providing Inclusion Training. Thanks also to Dandelion Create, Museum of Wigan Life and Rochdale Community Fire Station for providing training space.

For more information about Cartwheel Arts, Art for Wellbeing courses, please contact:

Kerry Bertram, Project Coordinator kerry@cartwheelarts.org.uk 01706 361300 www.cartwheelarts.org.uk

Follow us on Twitter @CartwheelArts Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/CartwheelArts Visit our blog www.artforwellbeing.org.uk

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