Arts and Health Check Up Check In 2020: Taking Risks

Taking Risks: Arts + Health Check Up Check In 2020 online programme announced

Artsandhealth.ie has announced the programme for Arts + Health Check Up Check In 2020, which takes place online from Monday 23 to Thursday 26 November.  Themed Taking Risks, this leading national arts and health event will feature a keynote address by artistic director, contemporary dance choreographer and healthcare professional Dr Jenny Elliott, and presentations by some of the most innovative and creative practitioners working in arts and health in Ireland today.  Arts + Health Check Up Check In is open to healthcare professionals, arts practitioners and anyone interested in learning more about this exciting field.  Check Up Check In 2020 is organised by www.artsandhealth.ie/ Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) and Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts, with local partner Fingal County Council Arts Office, and is funded by the Arts Council and the HSE.  Further details and booking information from www.artsandhealth.ie  There will be a nominal fee of €5.00, payable on booking, to attend all four mornings.

Responding to the event theme Taking Risks, presentations will explore the notion of ‘risk’ for artists compared to healthcare professionals, and the challenge of creating innovative, exciting and inspiring art within the specific context of a health setting.  The impact of Covid-19 will be addressed within each presentation.  In her keynote address on Monday 23 November, Dr Jenny Elliott will consider the necessity for artists who practice in healthcare contexts to push boundaries and to engage in experimentation.  Through philosophical consideration and examples from professional practice, she will trace the benefits of risk taking and the deep impact of the arts on wellbeing, reducing practice fatigue among artists and nurses in clinical settings and inducing change in healthcare cultures.  Jenny will also present a dance/movement based workshop on Thursday 26 November.

Check Up Check In promotes solidarity among arts and health practitioners.  This national event will provide opportunities for participants to share their experiences, exchange ideas and support and inspire each other in their practice through a range of themed presentations across four sessions.

Check Up Check In 2020 schedule: Mon 23 – Thurs 26 November:
– Monday 23 November, 11am-12pm: Keynote Address by Dr Jenny Elliott: Why artistic risk-taking, creativity and wellbeing are vital components of transforming contemporary healthcare culture;
– Tuesday 24 November, 11am-12pm: Sticking Points: What to do when you get stuck – Artists and healthcare professionals share challenges they have faced in their work and look for solutions to overcome them;
– Wednesday 25 November, 11am-12pm: Other People’s Practices: Dealing with the reality – A conversation with artist John Conway, about an innovative artist residency and research project at Usher’s Island, a National Forensic Mental Health Service community centre;
– Thursday 26 November, 11am-12pm: What’s My Practice? – A series of workshops examining methodologies employed in collaborative/ participatory arts and health practice, across a range of artforms. See full info below.

Arts and health programmes comprise a range of arts experiences, presented in healthcare settings, for the benefit of health service users, healthcare staff and artists.  This expanding field of work fosters creativity, wellbeing and access to the arts and is based on partnership between the artists, arts organisations and those working in healthcare and/or the wider community.   Further information about all aspects of arts and health work, including case studies, is available on www.artsandhealth.ie

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE:

Workshop 1: 11am-12pm
Dance, a Critical Artform in Health during Covid-19: An exploratory Laban-based movement workshop focusing on ‘Connection & Disconnection.’
Facilitated by Dr Jenny Elliott
In this workshop, participants will enjoy an opportunity to be experimental, creating a digital reflective movement work as a response to their lived experience of connection and disconnection during a pandemic. The workshop will also integrate dance in health practice and the increasing delivery of online dance facilitation.

Workshop 2: 11am-12pm
Your practice. Their place: A CPD session for collaborative artists
Facilitated by John Conway
How is accessibility, ownership and collaboration in socially engaged art balanced with artistic integrity, quality and the pushing of boundaries? Visual artist John Conway will deliver this online workshop for artists interested in exploring the challenges of merging their interests and expertise with the interests and expertise of participants in community settings.
www.otherpeoplespractices.com  |  www.johnconway.ie

Workshop 3: 11am-12pm
Participant Led
Facilitated by Grainne Hallahan
Founder and Director of Irish Aphasia Theatre (IAT) Grainne Hallahan will lead this practical workshop demonstrating IAT processes.  Through theatre, IAT engages, trains, facilitates and produces work by participants who have cognitive, communicative and physical disabilities, in particular participants who have aphasia and/or acquired brain injuries related to ageing conditions and other brain traumas.

Workshop 4: 2pm-3pm
Catching the COVID Curve Ball
Has COVID thrown you a curve ball as an artist and arts and health practitioner? Are you trying to work out how to catch that COVID curve ball? Or are you tired of saying ‘I think you have frozen’?
Facilitated by Grainne Hope
As one looks to make sense of a re-modelled cultural landscape of the future, this as an opportune time to actively engage with the challenges and opportunities offered by online and socially distanced models of delivery.  This new way of facilitation may well take you outside your comfort zone on a journey of growth, developing new approaches to communication, engagement and facilitation.  This workshop will support artists, through peer exchange, to identify key values that underpin their work in order to create a personal framework for quality in their practice.  Participants will also discuss how risk-taking and reflection can lead to a practice which is responsive, relevant and innovative.

About Dr Jenny Elliott

Dr Jenny Elliott has worked in arts in health development locally and internationally for over 25 years as a contemporary dance choreographer, dancer in residence, healthcare professional, artistic director, lecturer and researcher.  As Artistic Director of Arts Care, she has developed models of health and wellbeing which engage service users and healthcare staff in bespoke dance programmes, in addition to many other arts in health initiatives.  The author of several articles and reports on arts and health, Jenny also contributes to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, health and Wellbeing, Westminster.

About Check Up Check In partners

Check Up Check In 2020 is organised by www.artsandhealth.ie/ Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) and Create, with local partners Fingal County Council Arts Office and Draíocht, and is funded by the Arts Council and the HSE.

Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) brings arts experiences to the bedsides of patients at University Hospital Waterford and other healthcare settings.  WHAT supports the development of arts and health in Ireland and manages the national website www.artsandhealth.ie

Draíocht is a vibrant and thriving venue for the arts and entertainment in the heart of Blanchardstown, Dublin.  Through its diverse year-round programme of performances and exhibitions, Draíocht is central to the fabric of the community, welcoming 50,000 visitors every year.

Fingal County Council is the administrative local government body for North Dublin and has long recognised the importance of the arts in helping to develop healthy and vibrant communities.  Fingal Arts Office, the arts service of Fingal County Council, delivers a coherent and integrated arts programme for the people of Fingal through a dedicated team of arts officers, a public art co-ordinator and a youth and education officer.