Dear All,
We hope you are well and wish you a restful and happy festive season.
Before the end of the year, we would like to take this opportunity to share some highlights and updates on what we have been up to at Art in Healthcare.
Best wishes,
Art in Healthcare
New Trustees
In Autumn 2024 we put a call out for new Trustees to join our Board. We were delighted by the number and quality of applications received and have successfully appointed Maïna Coroller-Larifla and Katherine Shaw. Maïna is a specialist in policy, compliance, research and analysis, a range of skills and expertise that will enhance our ability to share the impacts of our programmes. Katherine is a fundraising professional and brings valuable skills to Art in Healthcare at a time when the funding context is increasingly challenging. We are very much looking forward to working with Maïna and Katherine.
Rachel Maclean bequest
In the summer of 2024, we were notified that a bequest of artwork had been left to Art in Healthcare by Judith Statt who had been a supporter of Art in Healthcare, through our Friend’s Scheme, for many years. We are most grateful for the bequest of a limited-edition digital print by Glasgow-based multi-media artist Rachel Maclean.
Image: The Queen (2013), Archival pigmented digital print, by Rachel Maclean.
© Rachel Maclean.
AIM-funded Training with Graham Taylor
An Association of Independent Museums [AIM] training grant has allowed the team to have a second training session with Museum and Gallery Technician, Graham Taylor. We focused upon packaging art works to ensure safe transit between our art store and health and social care settings.
Image: Our Curator Margaret taking part in the Art handling training led by Graham Taylor.
Self-Management Award
We won the Self Management through the Arts Award at the Alliance Scotland Self Management Awards held at the Scottish Parliament.
We were awarded for our projects including ‘Caring Spaces’ for unpaid adult carers, ‘Taking Art Home’; online workshops for those with long-term health conditions, and ‘Room for Art’, a social prescription project across Edinburgh for people experiencing mental health challenges.
Image: Iona, Associate Director (Communities), holding the award at the Scottish Parliament.
Caring Spaces
We have run our project Caring Spaces for a few years now – giving unpaid carers a creative break. Thanks to Shared Care Scotland Short Breaks Fund we’re thrilled to continue this vital work for another year alongside our incredible artist Juliana Capes and amazing partners VOCAL Edinburgh, VOCAL Midlothian and Carers of East Lothian Carers Centre.
Image: Participants taking part in one of our Caring Spaces workshops.
Taking Art Home
Taking Art Home is a project run by Art in Healthcare for people living in Scotland who find it difficult to get out and about due to long covid and other long term health conditions.
Quiet Sessions
In response to participant feedback we have introduced an extra session into this block of Taking Art Home online classes. The extra session will be a quiet session, modelled on the idea of the quiet coach on a train, offering participants who find it difficult to leave home dedicated time to do something creative without any interruptions. Our other sessions (2x art classes and 2x sketching classes) will continue as normal.
Sketching Out and About
As part of our Taking Art Home project we’ve been travelling around the world via our living rooms and sketchbooks. Here is a small selection of where we’ve been: https://www.artinhealthcare.org.uk/…/sketching-out-and…/
Grab some drawing materials and paper / sketchbook and come along!
Image: Houses at Pittenweem, one of the destinations of our Taking Art Home online classes.
Co-op Local Community Funding
Art in Healthcare is part of the Co-op Local Community Fund, to find out more about our project and to choose us as your cause, click here https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/89268
Festive Event
We had a wonderful time at this year’s festive event, thank you to everyone that came! A special thank you to Rob Airey, Director of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust and Kate Temple, one of our artists who has recently written a children’s book based on Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s life, for speaking at this year’s event.
Image: Our festive event held in the Boardroom of 18 York Place.
Embracing Sustainability
In September our Green Champions Elaine and Rod held an Away Day for staff and trustees. We also welcomed Sarah O’Hare from Creative Carbon Scotland, whose ‘Adapting Our Culture’ Toolkit formed the basis of the workshop. We also made collaborative collage artworks to explore our feelings on the subject. It was valuable to take this time to think in depth about what we can do in response to Climate Change, and we aim to implement many of the varied ideas that were generated on the day.
We have made a conscious effort to embrace sustainability in our workshops, using recycled materials in many of our sessions. A big shout out to the Circular Arts Network, where we picked up loads of incredible supplies, and to lots of lovely people on Facebook Marketplace!
Image: Elaine presenting at our Environmental Away Day.
Image: Rug making kits created for one of our our Taking Art Home workshops.
Sponsor an Artwork
Looking for a gift that gives back this Christmas? Sponsoring an artwork, whether for yourself or as a gift, is a way of getting to know the Art in Healthcare collection and contributing to its care and future development.
We have recently refreshed our Sponsor an Artwork scheme to include four tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum with benefits including an A4 print of your selected artwork and a bespoke tour of works from our collection.
Artworks available to sponsor include Ade Adesina’s “Mirage”, Frances Walker’s “Kincardine Coast”, Emily Learmont’s “A Swimming Pool” and Rowan Rosie’s “Fluro Pink”.
To find out more about our refreshed Sponsor an Artwork Scheme and the works available to sponsor, please visit: https://www.artinhealthcare.org.uk/sup…/sponsor-an-artwork
Festive Cards
Thank you to Tom Watt for allowing us to use his beautiful work ‘February Snow and Sun’ (1992), which is part of the Art in Healthcare collection, for this year’s festive card design.
The cards can be purchased through our online shop (https://www.artinhealthcare.org.uk/shop/) and at the Cards for Good Causes pop up shop at St John’s Church, Edinburgh.
The last day for postage before Christmas will be Tuesday the 17th of December.
Image: Tom Watt’s February Snow and Sun, 1992.
Thank you!
It has been another busy year at Art in Healthcare and we want to acknowledge and thank the many people who have contributed to our activities, programmes, and development. A particular thank you must go to the staff team who have displayed creativity and resilience during a period that has, at times, been challenging. As we move into 2025, we await some funding decisions that will have a significant impact upon us over the next number of years. People continue to be at the heart of our charity, and we are working hard to maintain current activities and programmes. We will continue to be guided by our three organisational values – care, community and creativity. We know that creativity is not ‘a nice to have’, but rather central to supporting people to live well, and in the creation of healthier, happier and economically flourishing communities. Art in Healthcare will continue to play its role in supporting these aspirations.
Vanessa Paynton, Executive Director.
Image: Artworks created at our Caring Spaces project with Carers of East Lothian Carers Centre.
12 December 2024 by
Amy Miles