With a focus on mental wellbeing and recovery, individuals and groups communities will be invited to co-create artworks with the lead artist and invited collaborating artists.
The project will be piloted in 2021, with community participants recruited through schools or the HSE, seeking, where possible, people in mental health recovery through Occupational Therapist, Social Prescriber, Counsellor or wellbeing group referrals (e.g. Wellness Cafés) Pending funding, project could roll-out to more communities of interest/communities at risk through the Northwest region.
The project pipeline will see the referrers communicating with individuals to let them know about the project and supply them with initial 'Wellbeing Umbrella' feedback forms. The participants will subsequently be emailed a series of Creativity Activation Workshops where playful, creative improvisation will be explored, to 'limber up' creative 'muscles' and point towards possible individual artistic directions. These will primarily be videos accessed online, but open air or other live workshops will be explored if possible, (pending additional funding).
A set of rules for the collaborative engagement will be drafted by the lead artist together with the community participants. Possible constraints for this 'Work-in- Movement'will include: (1) Choose a suitable Colmcille story/stories for inspiration, (2) Create audio or visual content that could be built towards making a 'Visual Poem.' (3) Imagine how your contribution could build towards a documentary-style video reflecting on the mental health benefits of artistic engagement, and the story of Colmcille.
If more funding can be found, other collaborating artists can be invited to contribute to the Work-in-Movement.
