During the early stages of UNIT X, I was forwarded this open call for creatives who are interested in being a part of Late event evening organised by the Science and Industry museum.
This email instantly grabbed my attention as I am extremely interested in Arts for health and I would like to work within the field and further my studies after university in Art therapy.
Freya Gundry, a Fine Art student in 3rd year at MMU, who I met on educator unit X in 2nd year, is also passionate about Arts for health and we were keen to collaborate with this project. This was a great opportunity to collaborate, as I know from previous projects working together that we share common goals and aspirations. We are both driven by genuine desire and curiosity to learn more and get to know Arts for health. I have learnt over the past few years of my interactive art degree that I work the best in a collaborative project with like minded individuals.
Working collaboratively helps to develop and stretch project direction and possibilities as you can:
-Bounce ideas off each other
-share and learn skills
-Broaden understanding and perspective
-critically analyse and get constructive feedback
After receiving the email, and deciding to collaboratively work together, we both did some ideas planning of what we could bring to this event. What proposal ideas did we have? The deadline for the proposal was coming up fast and we needed to think of something on the spot. This was a great way to improvise and go with the phrase “got nothing to loose”. We came up with a workshop to engage participants on the question:
What is Arts for Health?
This was the proposal email I sent:
| Tamara Gold <tamaragold95@gmail.com> | Jan 29, 2019, 3:02 PM | ||
| to georgina.wells, Freya |
Hello Georgina,
We have seen the call out for artists for the ‘Arts for Health evening’ at the Late event taking place at the Science and Industry museum on the 6th March, and we have a workshop activity we would like to propose to you as we would love to be a part of this fantastic event!
We are Freya and Tamara, currently in our final years at Manchester school of art, studying fine art and interactive art.
We would love to find out more information about the event, but our ideas so far is to create an interactive problem-solving game that participants can take part in any time during the event. The activity will focus on collaboration and conversation on Arts for Health practice and how it can be implemented in personal and professional lives.
Some of our initial ideas are as follows:
- There will be scenario cards: Place, groups/individuals involved, situation, resources available etc.
- The participants will pick a card of each element that builds a scenario of a potential opportunity where Arts for Health can take place. Visitors could add their own scenario cards to gather ideas for their real-life situations.
- The aim of this is to then problem solve and come up with different ideas for Arts for Health projects, and initiating conversations on the subject.
Example:
The individual/group involved: School children
Place: In a school
Situation: A well-known teacher suddenly passed away overnight
Resources: School Hall, playground, piano and tambourines
- There will be prompt cards that are given to match scenarios with research that could help direct and shape possible projects, such as scientific discoveries and different research based on how different methods of art practice has health benefits, ranging from mindfulness to proven studies of reduction of hormones that creates stress.
- Each participant, whether they want to work individually or in groups, have the ability to problem solve and come up with different creative methods to implement Arts for Health into these scenarios.
- The projects created will be displayed on the show for others to view, which we hope will encourage more people to take part in the workshop or even to create conversation and thought on the topics covered over the evening’s event.
The aim of this workshop is to encourage bringing Arts for Health processes and ideas into the participants’ lives which they can take away with them and choose if they want to implement these ideas and creative projects into their personal or professional lives.
Extra Idea:
We would also like to have two large boards, (paper or wipe boards) for visitors to write or draw into some sort of category describing how they are feeling, or their opinions on Art for Health as they arrive and again when they leave. Therefore seeing how the visitors’ feelings or views have changed over the events of the evening.
Let us know what you think! We would be happy to meet you and discuss further if you are interested.
We would love to be a part of the evening!
Many thanks,
Freya and Tamara
We were fortunate to be a successful proposal and fully suitable for the event and what they were recruiting.
This very spontaneous proposal and project application for the event, after having no background work on Arts for health and workshops, gave me confidence and excitement that I had the creative ability to apply for projects like this in the future and not to hesitate! You never know until you try.
Exploring Arts For Health 
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