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In Stitches
Back in February 2021 during the darkest, coldest month of the year and yet another ‘stay at home’ lockdown in place, a group called ‘In Stitches’ was established.
Artist Laura Lees and a growing band of sewers met up in the virtual realm. Using smart phones and online video platforms the group were supported by Anne Elliot and Patrick O’Growney from Artlink.
Most of the participants have been involved with Artlink for many years through different projects. Although this was a new way of working together, everyone took to it with enthusiasm as they not only learnt new techniques but could talk and share within the group. Believe me when I say WhatsApp chat and images were pinging left, right and centre!
Here’s a couple of quotes from the group:
“Great; it’s the human interaction that counts. I‘ve enjoyed each project and working with others to see their interpretation and creations, as well as sharing ideas.” Dorothy
“Well, I thought it wouldn’t work at first, but as a tutor I think it is brilliant! The ability to demonstrate direction with the aid of mark-up tool and video demonstrations, it’s been most rewarding.
Seeing the progression has been wonderful; the growth of confidence and technical abilities has been so rewarding. Everyone has taken on board the advice given and let their imagination take them places that far exceed their initial expectations. This level of success has been achieved by the warmth and supportive nature that this group demonstrates towards each other. Everyone feels secure in their embroidery and artistic abilities to share their thoughts, ideas and enthusiasm for each other’s work. The result; a joyous experience.
Looking forward to more embroidery.” Laura Lees, Workshop lead
The project isn’t finished yet which means that not all the works are complete, but we love what they are creating so much, we want to share them with you.
In the slideshow you can see a variety of works developed during the project. We will also be posting progression photos from some of the works illustrated so you can see how works have been built up; keep an eye out for those.
Finally, you can see more of the brilliant Laura Lees’ work on her website at: Laura-Lees.com.
Click on the images below to view both finished pieces and works-in-progress.
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EDINBURGH LANDMARKS
29 MARCH 2021
The Edinburgh Landmarks exhibition has just finished at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and we decided to create a small publication to celebrate the creativity of the participants. Each of the people who took part in the exhibition received a copy as a thank you for taking part, as most were not able to see their work on display in the exhibition, they all loved it and so do we. View a selection of works, as well as the publication itself.
Next in the Link Gallery is an exhibition of drawings by Albert Nicolson. A series of beautiful line drawings of hats created in Artlink workshops at the R.E.H. Some of you may remember them from the Mark Dion exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery in 2014 as part of Ever Present Past.
We are also talking to Hans K Clausen, Hospital Exhibitions Manager, Tonic Arts Programme about developing another exhibition to go into the REH. Watch this space.
View a selection of images from Edinburgh Landmarks.
Artlink partner in delivering the Tonic Arts Participatory Programme on behalf of the Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation.
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CREATIVE HUB
16 DECEMBER 2020
The Creative Hub at the Glasshouses has seen a recent flourish of activity and now has activity happening Monday through to Friday.
Anne continues one to one working with people on a Wednesday and Thursday as well as working in the Andrew Duncan Clinic art room with the OT team. The Creative Hub at the Glasshouses is also put to great use by the Orchard Clinic, the Volunteer Hub team and the Cyrenians, it feels really positive to have ongoing activity in the space.
One of our volunteers, Neil, has busy thinking about how we organise the space better in the workshop area. This has resulted in some serious wall building as you can see from the pics. Well done Neil, this will help us organise all the materials we use in the workshops while reducing the visual clutter. We love!
Anne has also been making great use of the fence at the front of the Creative Hub, initiating what will be a changing display of ‘Art on the Railings’, we hope the artworks help to brighten your day as you walk past the space. It’s also lovely to be able to publicly share some of the artworks produced in the workshops with you all.
And finally, as most houses seem to be putting up their festive decorations earlier than ever this year, we have followed suit and installed our festive lights in the Glasshouses, who doesn’t like bright, sparkly things during the dark winter period. Do I hear a baa humbug!
Artlink partner in delivering the Tonic Arts Participatory Programme on behalf of the Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation.
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ART GAMES
14 OCTOBER 2020
We started a drawing exchange with St Johns and Liberton Hospitals. The process is easy to take part in. There are 4 simple steps where patients start a drawing which is copied and added to by an artist. It is based on a surrealist drawing game, that allows a drawing to change as more people add to it. We have simplified the game to make it work on busy wards.
Our partners in delivering the first part of the project are the Mental Health OT team and IPCU at St Johns and Kirsty MacFarlane, CN and Fiona Walker, DCN ward 4, Liberton Hospital.
In the longer term, the ideas that are emerging will inform a larger scale sculptural project in partnership with Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. But for now, it is all about drawing. A doodle, a sketch, a painting. You start it. We photograph it and send it to an artist.
If you are interested in finding out more or want to discuss becoming involved in the future development please contact Anne Elliot at anne@artlinkedinburgh.co.uk
Artlink partner in delivering the Tonic Arts Participatory Programme on behalf of the Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation.
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LOST FOR WORDS
29 SEPTEMBER 2020
Lost for Words is our creative writing project.
The first phase has just finished, and we were delighted to have author Laura Marney as our first writer. Laura is a Scottish writer with a great sense of humour, as anyone who has read her second novel, ‘Nobody Loves a Ginger Baby’, will know! Laura mentored 6 people over a 10-week period, two of whom are NHS members of staff.
We were delighted to also have Merrick Pope working on the project with us, to support patients and make sure that we are following all the guidelines. Merrick is a Clinical Nurse Specialist, Self Harm Service at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and has worked on writing projects in the past. There was lots of good dry witted banter between us all in the development and implementation of the project.
We have been really impressed by the commitment of the participants and the scope, range and skill of writing that has come out of phase one. We will be sharing those results in both text and audio podcasts in later posts, so please look out for them.
We are currently talking to Carol Paterson of the MAC (Meaningful Activities Centre) at the Western General, and we are excited about developing the next part of the project with them, delivering both the writing project and some training for staff.
We still have more capacity, so we would really like to hear from departments or members of staff at the Western General, Royal Infirmary or St Johns who would be interested in developing another writing project with us. Please contact Trevor on trevor@artlinedinburgh.co.uk to start those conversations.
Artlink partner in delivering the Tonic Arts Participatory Programme on behalf of the Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation.
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MAGGIE’S MAGICAL MOMENTS
28 SEPTEMBER 2020
Maggie is another long-term friend of the Artlink Hospital Arts Programme and has been a regular attendee at the workshops over many years. In the workshops Anne can hardly keep up with the paper supply for Maggie’s artworks and it proved no different during lockdown. Maggie has been super productive producing a vast array of exciting and vibrant artworks. There is lots to enjoy and feast your eyes on.
Artlink partner in delivering the Tonic Arts Participatory Programme on behalf of the Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation.
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CRAFTING WITH JOAN
24 SEPTEMBER 2020
Joan is a long time friend of the Hospital Arts Programme and has been attending the workshops at the Glasshouses for many years. For anyone who knows Joan, they will know that lockdown is not going to put a stop to her creativity. Here you can see Joan displaying some of the works she had done over the last couple of months, being careful to socially distance of course.
Joan created this series of fun ‘Crafting with Joan’ cards which you can find here: Swan | Ladybird | Frog | Dragonfly | Bee ; they contain all the instructions you need to craft your own creatures. I’m off to be a busy bee!
Artlink partner in delivering the Tonic Arts Participatory Programme on behalf of the Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation.
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EDINBURGH LANDMARKS EXHIBITION
23 SEPTEMBER 2020
Staff and patients at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital will have noticed a new exhibition called Edinburgh Landmarks in two sites there. Some works are displayed in MacKinnon House in the Link Gallery and some are displayed in the corridor in the new Royal Edinburgh Building. The works were all done in the workshops at the Creative Hub, Glasshouses before we had to temporarily close our doors. We are currently looking at how we might reopen the Creative Hub for one-to-one workshops and will let you know when we can restart some activity there.
Try and catch both parts of the exhibition as the work is different across both sites. Many thanks to our partners at Tonic Arts for making the exhibition happen.
View the artworks below.
Artlink partner in delivering the Tonic Arts Participatory Programme on behalf of the Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation.
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WELCOME TO OUR NEW LOOK BLOG
16 September 2020
HELLO. We are really excited as this is the first post on our new Hospital Arts Blog! This blog and the Hospital Arts newsletter will be our main way of keeping in touch with you and updating you on what we are doing.
We want to start by acknowledging the amazing work that all NHS staff have been doing over the last 6 months in what are incredibly challenging times. THANK YOU!
Although Anne and Trevor have not been able to work on the wards during lockdown, they have been busy devising a programme which can be delivered under the current restrictions. It has been really lovely to keep in touch with you all over the last 6 months, your creativity over this period has been really inspiring, we will be sharing some of your fantastic work in future posts.
We are going to kick off with the wonderful group of volunteer gardeners who help us maintain and keep the garden around the Creative Hub at the Glasshouses, REH, looking really lovely. During lockdown they have not been able to be on site, but have been catching up round a virtual kitchen table using Zoom. They have been sharing gardening stories, tips and cake, all in the virtual stratosphere of course! We found that during lockdown people still wanted that personal contact even if it was on the end of a video call. It’s been really important to keep our brilliant group of volunteers talking to each other until they can all meet up again in the future. You can see what they have been up to in the Gardening newsletter above.
Please keep coming back to the blog as we will be uploading new content on a regular basis. We are really looking forward to working with you all again.
Anne and Trevor
Artlink Hospital Arts
anne@artlinkedinburgh.co.uk
trevor@artlinkedinburgh.co.uk
Artlink partner in delivering the Tonic Arts Participatory Programme on behalf of the Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation.
