SVETTA ART CLUB project is supported by Arts Council England, National Lottery Fund, and CPFT.
Free 12 Art Workshops are designed to provide absorbing and engaging time for all staff including clinical and corporate staff, staff working on the wards and in the community, and staff who are working from home.
The community of the online SVETTA Art Club is growing. Every week new participants joining and the Teams chat became a supportive space.
Each one finds new ways for artistic expression. The overall response is that art satisfies, art processes are relaxing and absorbing.
There is also an understanding of how beneficial are virtual art workshops, as we go, we found that it is both communal and individual. When we share artworks at the end of the session, the support from the group removes doubts and opens new opportunities for ideas and experiments. Now, the Art Club chat is populated with supportive messages, links to art films, and more importantly, with different artworks. The openness of each participant brings unity and positive discussions. It is subjective but shared. The new culture of ‘restorative bubble’ is spreading among teams, there is togetherness in overcoming the daily pressure of harsh NHS environment during COVID times. Positive commentaries across the trust bring new people to the club, who start creating with doubled energy once they understand that the art process is more valuable than the outcome.
The new formed focus group for discussion of each video is also a refuge space for professional artists who can participate in a project and develop their own approach to the new virtual reality for mixed group workshops. It is challenging to design the art program suitable for diverse group including beginners, advanced, doctors, nurses and careers. The additional challenges come from being separated and have limited access to the art materials and facilities. The latter largely influence the possible art techniques.
Thank you the focus group participants: Aya Hastwell, Sally Stenton, Sandy Layton, Sarah Strachan, Sarah Praill, Ewa Pandera, Anna Dermitzaki, Samuel Thompson-Plant, Michael Owens.
Below are artworks for posters created to celebrate the art theme, and to provide a hint for safe and friendly online environment.
The artworks for each poster are created to celebrate the art theme, and to provide a hint for safe and friendly online environment.
Links to workshops:
Clay and Objects
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGiE2NG8CaU
Motivation and Art
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4vL0jtcEl0
Art of Noticing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPJtGfoV8V0
Wardrobe and Colours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or2nHZI4Fm8
Type and Art
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqCMrBYIZhs
