This week marks a milestone for me: 3 years since I set up Medley, my online arts for wellbeing initiative. That time feels like it has flown. I am so happy to have stumbled upon working in arts for wellbeing, and so enjoy all that I do with it. As someone new to the sectorContinue reading “Learning From Experience”
Tag Archives: creativity
Craft A Way
Creativity comes in so many different forms, and some stand out for us in how they lift mood and wellbeing. Art, drawing and painting, have to come first for me, but I have come to enjoy craft as well. I’m newer to craft, so I enjoy the variety and the stimulus, experimenting to see whatContinue reading “Craft A Way”
Together Or Alone?
When people share how art helps them, they talk about feeling absorbed and focused, shutting out issues, entering a world of their own. All this conjures up quiet, private creativity. But many art for wellbeing initiatives run as groups, in public. So do people benefit more from art for wellbeing as part of a group,Continue reading “Together Or Alone?”
Light And Shade
The more I share and learn and experiment with art for wellbeing, the more different impacts I see and experience. Art can be therapy for all different issues, some long-running or severe, others more everyday. Many of us struggle with the long hours of darkness in early and mid winter, the days when it barelyContinue reading “Light And Shade”
Common Ground
Hearing the theme of Creativity And Wellbeing Week 2021 reminded me of the striking Banksy artwork which was first seen in Southampton last year. It shows a boy casting aside his superhero dolls for a doll dressed as a nurse: the true superheroes of the pandemic. Creativity recognizing the importance of care. So what thenContinue reading “Common Ground”
Crafting Away
Fuelled by the times we live in, craft is booming. With Covid-19 lockdowns, many have turned to craft to occupy themselves or to make scrubs and masks. And as awareness grows of the climate emergency, people are reducing, reusing and recycling more, and upcycling as well. TV programmes like Sewing Bee and The Repair ShopContinue reading “Crafting Away”
Creativity And Autism
To mark World Autism Awareness Day on 2nd April, I’m focusing this blog post on how and why art – and music and nature too – can help people who have autism. World Autism Day was founded by the UN and is held every year on 2nd April, as an opportunity to rais eawareness ofContinue reading “Creativity And Autism”
Care To Create
You might think that during long months of lockdown, arts activities would have ground to a halt in care homes of all places. You would be wrong. In a year when so much media coverage of care homes has focused on delays in coronavirus testing and scarcity of PPE, it is more important than everContinue reading “Care To Create”
Medley 