Liskeard – Liskerrett Centre on the 1st May between 5pm and 7pm

Bodmin – The Borough Arms on the 14th June between 5pm and 7pm

We hope this will be a great opportunity to meet other people with an interest in arts and health in your local area, and talk to us to find out more about what we are up to and discuss ideas for projects.

It would be great to see you there, no need to book!

Journal 05: Raising Expectations and Aiming Higher

Watch Your Health was organised by LINk in Cornwall, an independent and volunteer led network that gives people in the community the opportunity to work with the people who plan and run health and social care services to make positive changes.

They brought together different agencies and organisations they had worked with for a fun activity day with lots of interesting information and advice.

We were very pleased to work again with Andrea, a second year Events Management student at UCF who volunteered to design and prepare the activity. On the day we were joined by a fantastic team of volunteers – Chris, Gracie, Lucie and Jak.

The activity was designed to encourage the community to think about how they felt about areas of their health and well-being including their body and mind, their local environment, family and friends and how they spent their time. Each of these was represented by a colour – yellow, orange, red, purple or blue. People were asked to select 10 coloured squares of fabric that represented how they felt that day. For example if they were feeling good about their family and friends that day they might have chosen 4 yellow squares, then maybe 2 orange to represent time, 1 red square for body, 1 purple for local environment and 2 blue squares for mind.

Everyone then had the opportunity to sew these together into a strip, which were then put together to form a quilt. The hand operated 1953 Singer sewing machine generated a lot of interest amongst both young and old, and inspired many people to give sewing a go at home!

It was really interesting to see how different everyone’s pieces were and we had some great conversations with people taking part.

View Photo Album

These free training sessions will offer you an insight into what’s happening in the Memory Cafes, ideas for inspiring activities and practical sessions, and a discussion of the benefits for health and well-being.

17^th April – Truro CRCC Offices, 2 Princes Street, Truro, TR1 2ES

24^th April – Hens Horn Court, Helston, Cunnack Close, Helston, TR13 8YE

26^th April – Camelford Hall, Clease Road, Camelford, PL32 9QX

30^th April – Liskerrett Centre, Liskeard, Varley Lane, Liskeard, PL14 4AP

The sessions will start at 10am and finish at 1.00pm.

To book please call 01326 377772 or email sarah@artsforhealthcornwall.org.uk

The event, organised by Arts and Health Southwest, will focus on the use of the arts in primary care, including creative consultation for patient involvement, arts on prescription, and the links with medical humanities and medical training.

Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, Plymouth
March 29th 2012
10.30am – 4pm

For more information and to book a place please download this flyer - The Arts and Primary Care.

St Austell Library Wednesdays 3.30pm – 4.30pm

St Ives Library Fridays 10.45am – 11.45am

All Saints Community Centre (Pool/Camborne) Mondays 3.30pm – 4.30pm

Truro Library Wednesdays 10.30am – 11.30am

Liskerrett Community Centre Wednesdays 10.30am – 11.30am

Led by experienced Lead Readers and friendly volunteers these informal groups are free and there is no need to book. You are welcome to bring a friend or relative with you.

Please note that the group at Falmouth Watersports Centre (Thursdays 3.30pm – 4.30pm) has been put on hold, watch this space for more information.

If you would like any more information please call Sarah on 01326 377772 or email sarah@artsforhealthcornwall.org.uk

Throughout the year groups members have been constantly encouraged and challenged by the artists and volunteers running the sessions and have each produced a body of outstanding work.  An Art Response Exhibition shows a small number of these works with one piece from each person. The exhibition was curated by MA Curatorial Practice graduate Emma Harnett who volunteered her time and expertise to make the event such a success.

Arts Response is a project by Arts for Health Cornwall in which experienced creative practitioners and trained volunteers give people across Cornwall the opportunity to express themselves creatively through experimentation with different medias.  The sessions take place on a weekly basis and help build confidence and self esteem through creativity, as well as helping people develop new friendships during the sessions.

“I felt I belonged, I had a purpose again.  It opened up a whole new world, I didn’t know that I could be creative, could draw and it was all hidden inside me.”

For more information please visit the Arts Response page in Projects in Action and the blog created by Emma http://artsresponse.wordpress.com/

Arts for Health Cornwall are delighted at the strength and quality of the art created over the past 18 months and would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment.

27th March – 7th April 10am-5pm
The Daniell Room at The Poly, Falmouth

The conference was an opportunity for everyone involved in neurological services in Cornwall, whether using them or providing them, to consider working priorities for the future, based on the results of an audit and people’s personal experiences.

Artist Lollie Brewer worked with participants to create two large maps. The first was named ‘The Un-United States of Care’ and helped people to express how they currently experienced the neurological services available to them. The second was called ‘Can-Do Island’ and encouraged people to think about how they would like their services to be.

The maps were then used to help the whole conference focus on their main priorities.

They were then photographed and included in the ‘Taking Stock Moving Forward’ report, which is available to read on the Neurological Commissioning Support website here.

Image: Close up of ‘Can-Do Island’

Janet McEwan was engaged as Lead Artist for an Arts in Primary Care Project, based at the Stennack Surgery, St Ives, where over a period of around 18 months, she developed a number of projects, using a range of approaches to reach across the surgery community.

ARTLAB was a weekly art session for referred patients managing a range of conditions, which evolved over the project into a bi-weekly patient led textile group.

With contributions from all members of this group, Janet McEwan constructed Reasons To Be Cheerful; a 2mtr x 3mtr textile work inspired by the music of late singer songwriter Ian Dury and the work of contemporary artist Tracy Emin,

This time last year we were not entirely certain about our future – many decisions about funding were being put on hold by organisations that were not sure about their budgets and this had an impact on our plans.  We responded to this situation positively and took  a number of measures to ensure that we would still be able to deliver, and enable others to deliver, arts and health practice across Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.

This proactive approach has been extremely fruitful; not only have we continued to deliver a wide range of arts and health activity across this year, we are now facing a period of greater stability, with our core funding confirmed to the end of March 2014. This means that we are able to progress our work with some confidence, developing our projects and activities and drawing in funding from other sources to benefit the health and well-being of individuals and communities.

I would like to thank everyone who has been involved with us , particularly our growing band of volunteers, and an especial thank you must go to my staff – Nicky and Jenny, who left us earlier in the year to explore new pastures and who contributed so much to the development of AFHC, and of course, Gill and Sarah.

Sadly (for us) Gill is leaving us at the end of this month to pursue her dancing career, although she will not be escaping entirely as she is continuing to manage the Siblings project for us on a freelance basis. We wish her all the very best in her new ventures. Sarah will be taking up Gill’s hours and will be working Tuesdays through to Thursdays from January.

Finally we look forward to working with you in 2012 and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Best wishes,

Jayne Howard, Director

Please note: the office will be closed between 21st December and 4th January.