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Welcome to our December newsletter!
In this issue we are reflecting on recent research demonstrating health benefits for engaging with culture such as visiting museums and galleries. University College London (UCL) research from 2018 showed people aged 50 and over who visited museums at least every few months had a lower incidence rate of dementia over a 10-year follow-up period compared with less-frequent visiting. Further UCL research from 2019 showed people aged 50 and over had a lower risk of developing depression if they engaged in cultural activities such as going to museums, galleries, theatres and the cinema at least every few months. With this in mind, we wanted to share The Art Doctors' new Toolkits encouraging people to give galleries a go as well as an example of an exhibition that includes a number of access features and a workplace making its own gallery.
We also have our only members survey of 2021 and would like every single member to take part!
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"Back in the spring, the Art Doctors started to make a series of short films that showcase the activities from their Toolkit for Gallery Visits, a silly and irreverent take on making art galleries more fun for grown ups.
Together with the Leeds Art Gallery community and the Arts and Minds Network, they’ve been wearing art specs and slippers, finding places to sleep, writing stories, making mini-sculptures and listening to music. It’s been joyful!
The films are aimed at people who may not feel comfortable in cultural institutions, or who may not feel ownership of them, and there are now 11 short films to to watch on YouTube. The Art Doctors hope the films will encourage everyone to visit galleries again now that they are open, and to experience the buildings and the artworks in your own ways.
You can also download the toolkit activities if you want to take some printed versions on your next art gallery visit!"
For information about what's happening in art galleries across Leeds visit Leeds Inspired here.
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What's been happening in arts and health in Leeds and beyond?
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LAHWN Members Survey: Your Network Needs You!
Can you help us become a better network in the future by sharing your thoughts on our work now and in the future? By completing our short survey you could win a £50 Fred Aldous voucher!
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Detail from Unpredictable Bodies Exhibition. Image Credit: Sam Metz
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Sam Metz: Unpredictable Bodies Exhibition 4th and 5th December
LAHWN Members have been in touch to recommend "Unpredictable Bodies" - an exhibition that explores movement and the experience of having an unpredictable body through the conditions Tourette's and E.D.S. It also explores non-verbal communication and validates stimming as a way of communicating and experiencing the world. The exhibition includes sculptures, drawings and video.
This exhibition is supported by a number of access features: BSL interpretation (taking place at 12PM to 2PM on Saturday 4th December), ear defenders, magnifying readers, and easy read interpretation. Sensory learning kits are also available to aid interpretation.
The exhibition will be taking place at East Street Arts, 3rd Floor City Exchange, Albion Street, Leeds, 12 PM to 4PM Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th December 2021. Entry is free. A Social Story giving information about access features about what to expect is available to download and view here.
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Leeds City Council: Lockdown Art Show
This April 2021 Leeds City Council put out a call to all of their employees for art created through the pandemic and various lockdowns.
The responses included a few words about what the pieces meant to the people who made them, giving a fascinating insight into how creativity has helped people through this time.
You can experience these for yourself through not one but two online galleries:
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For any enquiries regarding the galleries or the works that feature in the show, please contact Darren Crowe at Darren.Crowe@leeds.gov.uk.
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Creative Insights: Young People's Creative Responses to Health Inequalities
Led by the University of Glasgow, young people from across Leeds and Glasgow collaborated with artists and creative practitioners, over three workshops, to explore perspectives on health inequalities and potential solutions through creative writing, performance, and photography. You can see the results here.
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What's happening in LAHWN's focus areas?
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Culture of Mental Health Forum Update
In November LAHWN and Forum Central hosted the first Culture of Mental Health Forum bringing together a range of perspectives on urgent themes and priorities in arts and mental health. Although all emerging themes were felt to be important there was particularly strong interest in Art, Mental Health and Social Inclusion. If you have an interest in speaking about urgent challenges in this area or how arts approaches have been used or could be used to reduce social isolation and improve mental wellbeing, please contact g.montgomerie@leeds.ac.uk and/or sarah.wilson@forumcentral.org.uk.
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Leeds Creative Ageing Forum with Yorkshire Dance
Our next Creative Ageing Forum will be hosted by Yorkshire Dance where their Older Peoples Programme Manager, Adie Nivison, and University of Leeds researcher, Prof Sarah Astill, will share research findings from regional dance and health projects including Dance On. We also plan to explore gender disparity in creative ageing, lack of diversity in art forms and audiences and ways we have addressed this in Leeds. We will invite attendees to breakout rooms to reflect on what they have heard and share thoughts.
Join us 11AM to 12PM on Wednesday 12th January.
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Creative Call-out to Work with People Living With Dementia in NHS Settings
"This is a potential opportunity for arts organisations and artists who have:
- The ability to work with people with dementia to offer therapeutic and meaningful activity;
- The capacity to work in health settings during the winter months;
- Good ideas to promote wellbeing and reduce agitation and distress.
This winter it is especially difficult for the health and care sectors to recruit staff, so we are looking for alternative ways to help people have a good experience of NHS care, and avoid the adverse consequences of illness and a hospital stay, when people can become disorientated and upset. This can lead to care home admissions and high long-term care costs. I am interested in hearing about what LAHWN members feel they can offer with a view to developing proposals for funding new projects. If you want to know more about the call out or would like to share a good idea, please get in touch with your contact details and a brief summary:
Tim Sanders, Commissioning Lead for Dementia, Leeds City Council and NHS Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group.
timothy.sanders@leeds.gov.uk / 0113 378 3853
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Arts 4 Dementia: Dance and Exercise to Preserve Brain Health Webinar
Arts 4 Dementia have an upcoming webinar on dance physical activity and digital access. It features Sir Muir Gray, Director of the Optimal Ageing Programme at The University of Oxford, and Fergus Early, Artistic Director of Green Candle Dance, chaired by Dr Charles Alessi, Senior Advisor to Public Health England.
Join on Tuesday 7th December 10AM to 11AM
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PANIC! Network: How Visual Artists and Institutions can work to Instigate Change
In this conversation event Aidan Moesby and Gill Crawshaw will explore artistic and curatorial strategies for working with institutions, sharing different approaches to making change from the outside and in, whilst embedding care in the middle. Through conversation and Q & A they hope to gain insight into practical mechanisms for improving equity and access within visual arts in Leeds.
Join online or in person 6.30PM to 8PM on Tuesday 7th December
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REMINDER - Wellbeing at work: the value of creativity, arts and culture
We hope you can join us at this free, interactive, virtual event in partnership with the Mindful Employer Network to celebrate the value of creativity for wellbeing in our workplaces. This session will be led by our network alongside Leeds Mind's Inkwell Arts and we welcome anyone to share their own knowledge and examples of what works and also to gain insight about current needs in the workplace.
Join us online 10.30AM to 12PM on Thursday 16th December
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APPG on Creative Diversity: Creative Majority Report
The five As introduced in this report - Ambition, Allyship, Accessibility, Adaptability and Accountability - are intended to become the pillars for any organisation to use as a blueprint for designing how to be more inclusive and fair, to understand what is working and how they could do more. There is a progression through the As that is intended to guide the process of supporting, encouraging and ultimately improving Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in every workplace, however big or small. Read more here.
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You can find resources to support work in arts and health on our LAHWN website including local and national networks, communities, organisations, training and development.
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Funding available for arts and health projects:
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Leeds Community Foundation: Jimbos Fund for working with disadvantaged people
This round of Jimbo’s Fund will make grants of £1,000 to £20,000 to support organisations working for the benefit of disadvantaged people in Leeds. Applicants need to be able to demonstrate that their beneficiaries are facing some sort of hardship; that their work is meeting an identified need in the local community; and that they can deliver tangible, positive results.
Priority will be given to projects benefitting:
- Children and young people
- People with profound and multiple learning disabilities and/or physical disabilities
- Older people
- People in need who are actively trying to help themselves in areas of significant disadvantage
You can find full details here. If you are unsure whether or not your project is eligible, please send the grants team a short email with a brief outline to grants@leedscf.org.uk and they will provide further advice.
The deadline to apply is Friday 7th January.
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For further information on upcoming contracts and social finance, as well as funding focused around the COVID-19 pandemic, visit Voluntary Action Leeds Funding Update here and Funding Leeds here.
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LAHWN and 100% Digital Leeds - Call out for remote arts activities
Following the success of webinars that LAHWN and 100% Digital Leeds developed with arts organisations earlier this year, we are looking to start 2022 with an update looking at how people in Leeds can engage in creativity and culture online. We would love to hear from anyone offering ways to remotely engage in
- visual arts and crafts,
- dance, music and performing arts,
- literature and culture such as poetry, films, exhibitions.
Prior to the pandemic there was limited evidence of the benefits of engaging in arts and culture online - if you have anything to share about the impact your work has made we would love to feature your work in our webinar and accompanying resources! Please get in touch at g.montgomerie@leeds.ac.uk and/or amy.hearn@leeds.gov.uk or tag LAHWN into social media posts.
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Pyramid of Arts: recruiting new freelance artists
All Pyramid of Arts workers receive pay to cover additional work outside of the session times (e.g. meetings, planning, session reports). They’re interested in hearing from people with backgrounds in all artforms but particularly digital media, photography and film-making. Prior experience of working in community arts or alongside people with a learning disability and autistic people is desirable but by no means essential. You will be invited to undertake training in inclusive arts practice. Learn more here.
Deadline: 31st January.
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UCL: What are the active ingredients of ‘arts in health’ activities?
LAHWN members were previously invited to take part in UCL research exploring the active ingredients of arts activities. The research team have shared their draft report (a preprint, under review for full publication) highlighting 139 potential active ingredients under three overarching categories: project, people, and contexts. To learn more, read the pre-print here
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The Arts Catalyst: The Networked Condition Carbon Calculator
Following LAHWN's recent Carbon Literacy session with SAIL Leeds, we wanted to share a collaborative research-led project The Networked Condition, developed with Arts Catalyst, which explores the often-hidden environmental impact of the creation and delivery of artworks using digital technology.
The project includes a tool designed to help anyone who is interested in their carbon footprint and is planning or evaluating a live-streamed event, digital artwork or digital event.
You can find more information and the tool here.
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To explore over 600 resources on arts and health visit the Arts and Health Repository here.
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What's coming up in arts and health in the next few weeks:
Tuesday 7th December, 10AM to 11AM Arts 4 Dementia - Increase Your Brainability: Dance and Exercise to Preserve Brain Health. Discussing physical activity and digital access, the webinar features Sir Muir Gray, Director of the Optimal Ageing Programme at The University of Oxford, and Fergus Early, Artistic Director of Green Candle Dance, chaired by Dr Charles Alessi, Senior Advisor to Public Health England. Book your ticket here
Tuesday 7th December, 6.30PM to 8PM The Tetley/PANIC! Network: In Conversation - Aidan Moesby and Gill Crawshaw This conversation explores how artists and institutions can work together with compassion to instigate change to enable equity and access followed by a Q & A. Book your ticket here
Tuesday 7th December, 8PM to 9PM University of Leeds: Be Curious LATES An opportunity to understand pandemic trends through emerging research. Book your ticket here
Wednesday 15th to Friday 17th December 10AM to 6PM Stage@Leeds: Inside Yellow Sound A chance to book 20 minutes in-real-life at Stage@Leeds within a multi sensory installation Inside Yellow Sound, developed in collaboration with Extant, the UK’s leading performing arts company of visually impaired people. Book your ticket here
Thursday 16th December 10.30AM to 12PM LAHWN and Mindful Employers Network: Wellbeing at work - the value of creativity, arts and culture A get together on the role of creativity and the arts in a healthy workplace. Learn more and book here
Wednesday 12th January 11AM to 12PM LAHWN Creative Ageing Forum with Yorkshire Dance Full details and tickets here
Friday 21st January 1.30PM to 2.30PM LAHWN and 100% Digital Leeds *SAVE THE DATE*
For further information on arts, culture and creative activities happening across Leeds visit Leeds Inspired here.
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Centre For Cultural Value: Research digest - Young people's mental health
How do arts and cultural activities impact the mental health of young people? Hear from the Centre's Dr Robyn Dowlen and Kevin Turner from Company Chameleon about the findings of our latest research digest, and how the evidence can be used by practitioners. Watch their short film here.
If you would like a more in-depth look at Implementing Arts and Culture for Children's Mental Health, GM Thrive in Manchester have released a recording of their workshop, exploring commissioning a creative intervention for children. You can watch the video here.
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Fall into Place and Solace: Creative Wellbeing for refugees and people seeking asylum in Leeds
Fall Into Place Theatre have shared videos of some of the Creative Wellbeing exercises they have developed involving appoaches including mindfulness, drama, miming games, dance and movement. You can watch short films on the approaches they used here.
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For further videos on arts, health and wellbeing visit the LAHWN Youtube Channel with recordings of this year's webinars and forum meetings as well as a range of other local organisations.
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If you would like to share Arts and Health work or connect with and support network members by recommending resources and opportunities, please get in touch:
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