The Parting Glass by Red Ladder Theatre Company
Red Ladder’s Artistic Director, Rod Dixon, says “We’ve seen from touring The Life And Soul that theatre has an important and powerful role in addressing social issues, and promoting discussion – the lack of which is a major issue surrounding men’s mental health. As well as being an entertaining night out, The Parting Glass allows us to engage with a wide variety of people in their own local environments, encouraging dialogue in an informal, entertaining and safe way and helping to break down the barriers that can prevent men from opening up about their mental health.”
The Parting Glass is a development of The Life and Soul, a short one-man play which Red Ladder has been touring since 2016, and was written by Chris O’Connor following a period of ill mental health. It has been developed with funding from Leeds City Council, through Leeds Community Foundation and performances will be accompanied by a pre-show evening meal and a post-show Q&A, facilitated by a Leeds Mind mental health specialist. Leeds actor Tom Swift makes his professional debut as Jim and Huddersfield’s Alyce Liburd plays Sara.
Ticket Price includes a vegetarian meal, to be served at 6pm. Show starts at 7pm.
Tickets are £5.98 and are available at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/parting-glass-red-ladder-theatre-company-tickets-74474694817
You can pick up tickets HALF PRICE if you go to Inkwell Arts in person (in advance) and pay cash!
STAND Music & Words Workshop
We’re excitied to be working with a major national arts project coming to the Tetley in September.
STAND Workshop
Friday 27th September, 11am – 3pm
Free!
The Tetley, Hunslet Road, Leeds, LS10
To book your place email Tom at [email protected]
Join us for an exciting creative writing and music workshop experience, and become a part of a major new artwork by artist Mel Brimfield and composer Gwyneth Herbert – to be shown in arts centres around the country in 2020.
At a time of disastrous austerity cuts within the mental health sector, we are building an epic, multi-speaker installation that gives voice to all those affected – from service users and survivors, through to carers, families and researchers – and we need your voices to be a part of it!
We are inviting you to to take part in a free, dynamic and playful singing / songwriting workshop which explores emotions and subjects around the topic of mental health, such as isolation and connection; loneliness and community; anxiety and healing; the loss, finding and sharing of voice. Through an interactive explosion of the song-writing process, participants will be given an insight into finding inspiration and overcoming blocks, developing lyrics, harmonic sequences and melodies, building sound collages and using the voice as an instrument – giving them a kind of song-writing “toolkit” to take with them on their own creative and therapeutic practices.
Individual stories, experiences and creative output will be also collected from each workshop and directly inspire our final epic choral composition. This will be written, recorded for and “sung” by a multi-speaker installation that forms a circle of witnesses around the central voice, and the heart of the piece – an extraordinary recording collected at the National Psychosis Unit of a patient reciting the middle 8 from Elvis Presley’s ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’. Housed within a collaboratively designed sculptural object built in partnership with UK Men’s Sheds and Men’s Sheds Cymru, each speaker will represent a different voice within a non-hierarchical, invisible choir which – at least speculatively – erodes the often problematic divisions between clinicians and patients.
At the core of both process and artwork is the belief in creativity and community to support wellness, invite transformation and promote understanding, along with a desire to unite and celebrate organisations who provide these ever-more crucial opportunities. We invite you to bring your voice, explore your words, and help us make a STAND.
September with Arts & Minds
This autumn we’ve got a couple of events we’d love to see you at…
Connect & Create – Monday September 2nd
Arts & Minds at the Henry Moore Institute – Tuesday September 17th
Connect & Create
A chance to regroup after the summer. Meet other Arts & Minds members and be creative. Drink free tea and coffee. Share your artwork. Make a Mindful Mandala with Amelia. Help plan an Arts & Minds event.
Connect & Create runs monthly at The Tetley and is for Arts & Minds members. Arts & Minds exists to support creative people with mental health issues. If you’re not a member, don’t worry, we’ll give you information about the network when you get here. The meeting is free.
We meet in the learning studio on Floor 2.
Connect & Create
Monday 2nd September, 2pm – 4pm
The Tetley, Hunslet Rd, Leeds.
Arts & Minds at the Henry Moore Institute
The Arts & Minds autumn event! We are delighted that Henry Moore Institute is welcoming Arts & Minds members into their lovely space. It’s great timing too – we will be connecting in with the Yorkshire Sculpture International
There will be:
– exhibition tours
– creative workshops
– free tea and coffee
We’ll publish loads more information soon – but get the date in your diary now.
Arts & Minds at the Henry Moore Institute
74 The Headrow, LS1 3AH Leeds
Tuesday 17th September, 1 – 4pm
Annual Exhibition – Thank You
Our Annual Exhibition is now over – thanks so much to all our artists, helpers, volunteers, supporters, invigilators, curators – and anyone who came in. Particular thanks to Naheed, Mussarat, Sandy, Emma and the Culture Club team who led some brilliant workshops. This year more than ever it’s been a team effort. So many people helped to put the show up – and take it down. So well done everyone!
We’ll post a folder of great images from the exhibition ASAP. And some of the great comments left by visitors to the show.
Cheers!
Linda, Tom and Jane
Arts & Minds
Arts & Minds Grants 2019
Every year Arts & Minds awards grants to LYPFT NHS services to do high quality arts projects. The idea is to help make mental health servives more creative. All the projects will encourage people with serious mental health issues to express themselves through different art forms. Most of the projects were based on ideas from the people using the services. Last week we met to award the grants to the brilliant staff who had encoraged people to get ideas and applied for the grants. Thank you to Peter Johnstone from LYPFT who presented the awards.
The arts projects will start very soon but here’s a summary of what’s going to happen:
Printmaking at the National Inpatient Centre for Psychological Medicine.
The NICPM will work with Swarthmore to run print workshop. The group will make all sorts of things, including tote bags, t-shirts and more.
Music at the Mother & Baby Unit.
Mothers and their babies will work with the brilliant “Made with Music” to do just that – make music!
Digital Interactive Art at dementia wards at the Mount.
People with dementia and their carers will work with Invisible Flock to use the latest digital technology to make artwork.
Tree of Hope at Parkside Lodge.
People with learning disabilties who also have mental health issues will make a Tree of Hope to display in the unit. Artist Kerri Butterworth will help staff use iPads to make them easy to use for people with LD.
Film making at York CAMHS
Young people attending CAMHS will work with artists from Accessible Arts & Media to produce a short film or stop-motion animation based around well-being.
Look out for more updates as the projects start and people begin to make art!
Annual Exhibition 2019
Arts & Minds’ annual art show is now up at the St John’s Centre!
Our amazing team has work incredibly hard to get this – our best show ever – up and running. Thanks all. Get down to the St John’s Centre form 10th – 23rd June to check out the brilliant artwork. The unit is on the lower shopping mall in the main concourse, by the escalators. You can’t miss it!
St Johns Centre, Merrion St, Leeds, LS2 8LQ
10th – 23rd June, open every day, 11am – 5pm
The Arts and Minds annual open exhibition is a showcase of the artwork produced by its members over the year. These members include artists who have different experiences of living with mental health conditions, as well as people who use art as a way of managing their wellbeing, and those exploring the topic of mental health.Some members work or volunteer in mental health services or are carers. The exhibition aims to explore our relationship with art and to celebrate how vital it is to our well-being. It is an opportunity to expose what may not otherwise be seen.
The party to celebrate the show is Friday 14th June, 5pm – 6.30pm at the St John’s Centre. All welcome!
If you would like to visit the exhibition but find public spaces a challenge you could arrange to have a Private View before we open to the public ( ie before 11am). Please email us at [email protected] to arrange this.
Art Workshops – take part!
As part of this year’s Annual Exhibition, we’re offering a series of creative art workshops in our Workshop Space. They are all FREE and WELCOME TO ALL. Please drop in. If you’re part of a group it would be useful to let us know you’re coming. Email us at [email protected]
All workshops take place at St Johns Centre, Merrion St, Leeds, LS2.
Wednesday 12th June 1-3pm
Weaving with Sandy
Traditionally made by South American Indians, God’s Eyes are made using a simple weaving method in a cross formation. They are traditionally used as decoration for festivals including the birth of a child or the Summer Solstice. Come along to the workshop and make your own God’s Eye using different yarns.
Thursday 13th June, 11am – 2pm
Book Binding with Emma
Saturday 15th June, 1 – 3pm
Weaving with Sandy
Traditionally made by South American Indians, God’s Eyes are made using a simple weaving method in a cross formation. They are traditionally used as decoration for festivals including the birth of a child or the Summer Solstice. Come along to the workshop and make your own God’s Eye using different yarns.
Sunday 16th June, 12 – 3pm
Craft with Naheed
Come along to take part in some Sunday mindful crafting! There will be a choice of learning origami techniques and making flowers or why not get involved in making a colourful, rainbow themed postcard for those rainy days to cheer you up. Doodle, draw and colour away! Lovely pieces of craft work that are suitable for all abilities, children and adults. All materials provided
Wednesday 19th June, 1 – 3pm
Printing, basic techniques with Sandy
Make a small printing block using basic materials you might have a round the home. The printing block (or stamp) can then be used to decorate a piece of fabric or paper with repeat patterns.
Thursday 20th June, 11am – 2pm
Book Binding with Emma
Friday 21st June, 12 – 4pm
Journeys with Mussarat
Playing with materials such as papers, cards, glue, sellotape, sticky stickers, embellishments, and generic materials for making hand patterns, cutting out leaves, and making multicultural faces. An open workshop, for all ages and it’s a mixed media workshop working across multiple materials. Part of Leeds Refugee Week.
Saturday 22nd June, 12 – 4pm
Make a Bird with Culture Club
Your chance to make your very own bird out of a plastic bottle! Join the Culture Club team, who created the wonderful bird installation.
Love Arts: The Future
We want to thank everyone who has contributed their ideas to our think-ins and survey about the future of Love Arts Festival. There were loads of fantastic ideas that we want to make happen with your help. However this will be a long-term plan that will take time to realise. See below for details.
In the meantime we’re going to run a smaller festival in October 2020 that is more achievable for our tiny team’s capacity. Arts & Minds will continue to run its regular activities, including the annual exhibition in the spring.
So what’s happening in 2020?
ARTS & MINDS ANNUAL EXHIBITION
May 18 – 24 is National Creativity and Wellbeing week, which is joining forces with the BBC Get Creative Festival and the Mental Health Foundation Awareness week to make the country wake up to the benefits of creativity to mental health. We want Arts & Minds exhibition to be part of this exciting development, and will be hosting our annual open exhibition over this period at a venue tbc. Information about submissions will go out in February, but in the meantime get May 2020 in your diary.
LOVE ARTS 2020
In the new year we will invite partners to contribute their performances, films, artworks, conversations, or workshops to an exciting jam-packed festival day that will take place in late October. We want to help you showcase the amazing work that we know is going on all around the city. Love Arts 2020 will be a one-day event at one venue in Leeds. Look out soon for details on how you can help us make this happen.
LOVE ARTS – LONG TERM…
There is a huge potential for Love Arts. Traditionally we’ve been a 2-week festival in October. But there could be a year round series of events that bring the city together under the banner of creativity and mental health. However, it’s certain that the Arts & Minds team can’t manage this. So we’re currently exploring ways to fundraise for a dedicated Love Arts project. This may be a separate entity in itself! The plan is to hold quarterly Love Arts get-togethers to share progress on these big ideas. The first thing is to unite on a vision – decide exactly where we want to go and what we could achieve together. So, if you want to see a future for Love Arts, please join us on Friday December 6th at 2pm – 4pm. Location TBC. Look out for an Eventbrite to register your attendance soon.
THANK YOU
Thanks once again for bearing with us as we enter this new chapter for Love Arts. With your help we think we can have a rosy future!
Linda, Tom and Jane
Arts & Minds
Swarthmore Taster Day
Our next event is coming soon!
A chance to try out some creative workshops and find out more about the Swarthmore Centre.
Swarthmore is a brilliant, accessible and welcoming place. And they do loads of creative courses. Come along to find out more and to try out something you might not have done before.
There’ll be knitting and stitching in the cafe – happening all afternoon. And printing and creative writing. Numbers for these workshops are limited so when you arrive, get your name on the list.
Lunch provided! The event is for Arts & Minds members. But all welcome – you can join us on the day.
See you there!
Swarthmore Taster Day
Tuesday 19th February 12 – 4pm
Swarthmore Education Centre
2-7 Woodhouse Square, Leeds LS3 1AD
Let us know you are coming! Tell us on Facebook or email us at [email protected]
Creative Grants 2019
We are delighted to announce that we are able to give 5 grants of £1000 to mental health services in Leeds to do a creative project in 2019.
If you work or volunteer for an LYPFT service and want to do an arts project, this is the opportunity for you. All we need if for you to fill out the application form. 5 services in Leeds will be awarded a grant to do a creative project in 2019.
Your project needs to involve people who use LYPFT services participating in some form of creative activity (anything from photography to drama, creative writing, dance, singing, music etc) and include them in the planning.
Need some inspiration? Look at our creative pathways guide on our website https://artsandmindsnetwork.org.uk/creative-pathways/
To apply, download the APPLICATION FORM fill it out and email it back to us. Do read all the guidance below.
We recommend that you discuss your idea with us. Contact us on 0113 262 3128
(Mon – Thurs) or email [email protected]
The image above is from a previous Creative Grant funded project – involving service users at the Mother & Baby Unit using photography.
Framework and Guidance
1: Introduction
The document sets out a framework for grants for creative projects taking place within the services of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT).
2: Rationale
Our aim is to support the arts as part of recovery, inclusion and well being. The fund is one way in which we hope to support and encourage artistic and creative initiatives led by people who receive and work in health and social care settings.
3: Purpose
- The purpose of the fund is to support creative projects within LYPFT services.
- Applications can be made by organisations, or individuals planning to work with LYPFT services.
- The fund will support small-scale initiatives that would otherwise not be funded.
4: Criteria for applications
Applications can be made by organisations, or individuals, and planning to work with LYPFT services and should meet these criteria:
- Demonstrate that they will benefit users of LYPFT services and/or their carers
- Enable service users to participate in a creative project in any media
- Have the grant request endorsed by the applicant’s manager
- Demonstrate partnership working with service users and/or carers
- Demonstrate partnership working with other agencies where appropriate
- Agree to evaluate the project using Arts & Minds evaluation tool
- Be outside the service’s usual funding remit
- Be able to contribute an additional £100 to the project’s budget
- Be prepared to share learning and/or showcase work as part of Love Arts Festival in October if appropriate
5: Role of the endorser
The endorser for an application to the Arts and Minds fund has the responsibility for:
- Supporting the applicant to complete the application and authenticating it
- Being responsible for overseeing and enabling the use of the grant
- Approving an additional £100 contribution to the project budget
- With the applicant, jointly reporting on the use of the grant after within a month
If the endorser fails to ensure that the applicant adheres to the criteria set out in the guidance they will not be able to act as an endorser for any future applications.
6: What the fund can be used for
The fund can be used to enable service users, carers and staff to participate in a creative project in any media (eg. writing, photography, drama, dance, music)
Examples of what can be applied for are as follows:
- Artist’s fees – we can advise on appropriate artists or organisations to partner with
- Arts materials – arts & minds members get discounts at art shops, please ask!
- Room hire
- Publicity
- Equipment
This is not an exhaustive list, and all applications will be considered.
7: How much can be applied for
Grants of up to £1000. You must contribute an additional £100.
8: How are decisions made?
- A panel will meet in May to make a decision about the award.
- The panel is comprised of 3 members of the network development group.
- The panel will receive anonymised application forms and will score them against the criteria set out in this framework.
- The panel is co-ordinated by the Arts and Minds Development Manager.
9: Outcomes of Applications
We will notify applicants by email of the outcome of their application as soon as possible after we have made a decision.
10: Responsibilities of successful applicants
- Contribute an additional £100 to the project budget
- Only use the grant for the purpose described in the application
- Refund any unspent balance to Arts and Minds
- Use the grant within six months
- Acknowledge Arts and Minds in any publicity relating to the project
- Share information and knowledge about the initiative where appropriate
- Submit an evaluation of the project within one month of its completion.