We were invited by Rod Kippen to join the creative agents on the 13th May, the first day of mental health awareness week. The had a workshop planned, run by MMU graduate Raviolirai, to create a window display for the public to see based on mental health.
This was a great opportunity to watch and participate in a workshop based on arts for health with young people.
Freya and I have delivered workshops in school and youth group facilities, and the best way to learn and improve is to attend other workshops and learn off other artists a professionals.
It was great to see the way the session was run- allowing the creative agents to steer the session in the way that they envisioned. The artist drew a template of hands and a brain, to ‘frame’ the sessions topic. This was a clever way to avoid the creative agents being intimidated by a blank canvas which can be overwhelming and hard to start.
The artist demonstrated the activity and then passed the materials onto the creative agents to take charge of the outcome.
To ensure the words didn’t come out backwards, the agents stuck paper outside on the window and wrote down a mental health slogan that they wanted to communicate to the public.
Then once the message was stuck inside, the agents used window pens to trace the words on the inside of the window (which were backwards).
This was a quick method to fill up the window in the one session.
I have always found it challenging to engage young people in projects- and watching the project at 42nd street I learnt to be more relaxed about the work produced. The young people involved use the space for a social, so the art is sometimes seen as secondary (this was certainly the case from my experience at Mahdlo youth zone). The workshop at 42nd street showed me that it’s okay if the young people take creative lead and to take a back seat, not to put pressure on them to complete what I envision – but to allow them to create what they want to – a creative outlet.
It is also just as important for us as facilitators to get involved with the activity, and not to just sit and watch. It then forms a safe space of mutually shared experience where discussions can take place and an open environment to help support the young people who may be faced with different mental health challenges.
It would be valuable experience to find training and further workshop experiences to increase my experience and learn more about running workshops on mental health using the arts.
Exploring Arts For Health 
Leave a comment