Establishing new, regular blocks of art workshops at Midpark Hospital (D&G’s acute mental health unit) has allowed inpatients and staff to interact with mindful creative processes to benefit their wellbeing.
Our Art in Healthcare Coordinator Frank Hayes has worked with a range of talented regional Associate Artists to develop accessible sessions that focus on increasing self-confidence and self-esteem – introducing participants to simple, effective printing techniques.
One of our Associate Artists, Julie Stephen, has provided an update on the most recent block of art workshops which she has been leading.
“I was recently invited by OutPost Arts to create and facilitate the new block of six Art in Healthcare Creative Wellbeing workshops at Midpark Hospital, Dumfries. Midpark Hospital is the local NHS mental health facility for acute in-patient mental health care in Dumfries and Galloway and the second time I had led art workshops for the staff and patients there.
Frank Hayes, the Arts in Healthcare coordinator and lead staff at Midpark were my point of contact and would oversee the workshops. The weekly workshops took place in the bright and roomy atrium café entrance at the hospital, providing everyone plenty of space to work on the different activities and allowed for visitors and other patients and staff to come and see what everyone was doing.
My previous workshops had all been printmaking-based, however, this block I decided to introduce different skills, focused around the visual elements. These were entitled:
- New Moon Edition, in collaboration with the Crichton New Moon Newsletter; printing monochrome relief prints.
- Linear Edition; charcoal and acrylic monotypes.
- Line and Shape Edition; observational and expressive plant drawings.
- Colour Edition; focusing on colour mixing with watercolours, gouache and the theory of the colour wheel.
- Texture Edition; botanical gelliprinting.
- Collage Edition; creating mixed media collages.
Providing a variety of tasks and different materials each week, I encouraged investigation, questioning and curiosity by both the patients and staff. Patients gained confidence by week 2 and were enthusiastic, bringing along other patients and staff with them.
Working in a group session and mixing with other staff and patients was a positive experience for everyone allowed a chance for people to socialise and relax, during the creative sessions. Some patients took photos of their artwork to send to their families and felt uplifted by sharing and talking about the work they were creating.
Individual patients expressed that the art workshops were a good distraction and that it was good to be involved in activities during their time in hospital.
One of the objectives of the Art in Healthcare project is to provide meaningful and therapeutic activities of interest and I believe the 6 week visual elements workshops achieved that. Through demonstrating new skills and consolidating staff and patients’ existing creative knowledge, I was able to encourage everyone to be expressive and try out new ways of improving their creative wellbeing.
Sincere thanks to everyone at OutPost Arts, Midpark Hospital and the patients I worked with over the past 6 weeks or so.”
To find out more about the Art in Healthcare project, click here.