ApArt club – creativity for positive mental health
Throughout the last few months, the need to support our community has become more important than ever. This is both practical, through our Doorstep Help delivery and support programme, but also emotional, through our telephone befriending and ApArt Programme.
Our Art projects are always designed to support people to live happier, healthier lives, but never more so than at the moment. Over the last two months, we’ve painted with carers, made marble runs with autistic children, knitted and sewed with local adults, made digital galleries with young people, written poems and stories with over 60s and done lots of children’s arts and crafts. The 215 people that we’ve been in touch with over the last two months have told us each week how important these little moments of connection are for their mental health. Whether it’s chatting on the phone whilst crocheting, or painting on a zoom call, just knowing that someone else is there has been really important.
We wanted to share some of the comments from across our creative community, and invite you to join us.
After our autism art group had done a self-portrait zoom session Jenny and Katie’s mum told us:
“The girls so look forward to attending this session as it is bringing some sanity to these poor kids stuck in small flats without proper space to play.”
Our Carers Group meets weekly on Zoom on Wednesday mornings. Lisa attends each week, she told us that the group is the highlight of her lockdown and having mainly been a mum for the past 7 years and painting with the group has inspired her to go back to writing, yoga and in general being more confident, grounded and creative.
You can see slideshows of the work the group have been creating on our Instagram page @hca_1aarts.
Our creative writing group for over 60s have also been busy keeping in touch with tutor Rachel via email. You can read their lockdown writing on their blog.
They’ve also been taking part in online art workshops instead of our Sunday Socials. This Robin was drawn by Catherine, who said ‘it’s the first thing I’ve drawn since I was a child, I loved it!’.
Ann, a regular member of the writing group, as well as our Make and Mend crochet and knitting workshop, wrote to us to say: “Thank you all of you for all the work you are doing in this lockdown. It is very much appreciated.”
If you’d like to get involved with any of our art projects, or just find out more about what we do, give Hazel a call on 02074052370 (option 3) or email 1aarts@holborncommunity.co.uk
