Arts and Health South West Conference 13th-14th December 2018; Trinity Centre, Bristol.

AHSW was a two year programme of Art Commissions funded by the European Union Social
Change Fund in Britain, Lithuania, Italy and Germany, this event was to celebrate to cumulative
of this opportunity for growth and development in the health sector in the UK.On day one of the
AHSW conference there was a series of presentations by Arts and Health South West funded
Initiatives.
The work of Dr Kate McCoy and Company leading bespoke Theatre Projects across the country
with a focus on people in Prisons opens the conference was also very innovative and
exciting.The AHSW conference featured presentations by St Mungo’s Many Minds Project. St
Mungo’s have only been in Bristol for the last 8 years, I worked within a Carnival Arts funded
initiative between St Mungo's and Cardboard Citizens and the Crisis skylight homeless people’s
arts centre in Shoreditch London in 2007. St Mungo’s are an excellent charity in that they
houses the homeless people including refugee groups, whilst running exceptional Arts and
Wellbeing programmes to bring their communities together.

This form of arts and health provision is the guiding force of companies like my own
(www.LoveActivistDance.com) which use Theatre and Art to bring people together. Many Minds
came about because artists sense the isolation or loneliness in their creative process and so
work to expand their practice by filling this void in their bellies and the communities they
encounter. Poverty is the main contributor to Mental Health issues in the community, Creative
Therapies therefore becomes a vehicle if change for both the artist and client and empowers the
client to lead the evolution of the Expressive art process and drop in and out of the group
knowing it is held by the therapist.
Other key groups who presented work in this format include the BDP choir. Bristol based
Community art therapy pioneer Barbara Disney also talked about her Art diary project with
mental health service users in Bristol (Knowle) and Southmead. Commissioned by
theDepartment of Health Information (DHI) service for Bristol Recovery Festival 2018 .

Art therapy groups in BS5

Bristol BASE runs a fortnightly arts therapy group on Wednesdays between 7-8.30pm and
follows the catalyst module, after interviewing its founder an Arts Therapist called Amy she was
concerned about how to encourage a more diverse range of participants. I think that people
from ethnic minorities may think that their background make it hard for others to relate to them
socially and open up in the therapeutic setting for fear that their voices will not be heard, or
better still understoo

AHSW conference day two.

Day two focused on fundraising the AHSW fundraising initiative Challenge fund for match
funded community projects. In the afternoon Art Council England Inclusion Diversity and
Equality forum led a conference about the UK Arts landscape.
Followed by a debate which focused on the lack of Arts Leaders/ funding support for Artists from
ethnic minority groups in Britain which reflects in the workplace and strategies to overcome this
issue. Both myself and the other Theatre Bristol delegate Rachel De Garang raised the point
that we had also found inclusion of our culture identity and heritage a challenge for recognition
in Higher Education institutions in the UK which was effectively weakening the quality of
education that Artists from all ethnic background receive. This is an added challenge that Artists
from ethnic minority’s face besides finances,which makes to and made it hard for Artist from
diverse backgrounds to have a voice in the arts whilst studying and after the completion of their
studies.

Arts as a trigger of social change

The support from TB to Attend the AHSW conference has given me the motivation (after several
rejected community arts funding applications) to find and seek support to finish my Somatic
Movement Educator programme in the recommended two years perio
. I have since been awarded a half scholarship towards my fees on the S.M.E programme by
Sondor Movement Project in Rhode Island this February and June 2019. I have a crowdfunder
campaign to raise the 2k needed to fund the travel and accommodation and course fees to
complete the programme called Tri-Sioux Dialogues so please share widely ( I need to raise
£100 a day to reach my goal).

Theatre Bristol Agents of Change

I also offer donation based fortnightly community workshops which incorporate S.M.E
principles the at the School of Exceptional Arts 1 Greenbank Road Easton Bristol, to support
our community to be the change we need to see.