image: Anna Rathbone
Responding to Arnolfini’s current exhibitions, A Picture of Health and Jo Spence: From Fairy Tales to Phototherapy, four Young Creatives from Rising Arts Agency share their creative wellbeing practices to help you through the half term and beyond.
Anna Rathbone: A Map Made By Stitching
In this workshop Anna invited Arnolfini audiences to create a collective map using embroidery and stitching the routes that they take around their home.
We were delighted with the response we received, and are happy to share with you here:
Submissions are now closed, but should you wish to create your own A Map Made by Stitching, please see the instructions to take part here and below.
A Map Made by Stitching – Instructions for participants
Materials needed: a square of preferably plain fabric that is 21cm by 21cm (that’s the biggest square you can get from an A4 sheet of paper if you want to use that as a guide) and a needle and thread, preferably embroidery thread so that it will be thick enough to see. Leave a 1cm border around the edge as a seam allowance.
Lucy Turner: Art and Acceptance
A story telling journey of Lucy’s experience being diagnosed with cancer and exploring this through words, poetry and art. This is an interactive, simple drawing exercise for participants to take part in.
Materials needed: pen and paper
Yasmin Qureshi: Connecting Past and Present
Taking part in a creative activity that helps disengage from the current challenges by looking back to other places of connection. Whether that’s more rooted in friendships/family or a specific place, allowing your mind to be more anchored in reflection and not anxiety about what can’t be controlled.
Materials needed: pen or paint and paper or you can use a tablet/ipad/smartphone
Amber-Ruth Watson: A Love Letter To My Limbs
This workshop has been created for young people and adults who want to explore how we can carry our trauma in our bodies, how our relationships with it can change and how we can use words and sound to heal. You are guided through a series of prompts to produce a love letter written to the body part you feel you want to rebuild your relationship with; perhaps your legs, your mind or your heart. You will also be invited to explore how making sound and reading (or even singing!) your letter out loud can ground and support the healing process. This is an independent session guided by audio and visuals, and you can expect to spend around an hour on this depending on your chosen pace. You can access the workshop using just visuals or audio as your guide, with a choice of exercises to meet your needs.
Materials needed: pen/paint and paper
Amber’s Workshop is accompanied by two playlists she curated on Spotify:
Rising Arts Agency are a community of young creatives aged 16 – 30 at all stages of their careers based in and around Bristol. More details of their work at rising.org.uk
ANNA RATHBONE
A multidisciplinary artist/maker of things, currently working with installation, performance and textiles. “I am passionate about access and inclusion and this informs a lot of the work that I do.”
LUCY TURNER
“I’m a Bristol based artist, creator and digital illustrator. I began using art as a way to heal from trauma after I was diagnosed with cancer. I view art as a storytelling medium and I’ve used it when I didn’t have any other ways to communicate. Most of my inspiration for art, writing and general life is Black women.”
YASMIN QURESHI
A Bristol based artist and creator of project Red Telephone. Her work looks at finding processes to document personal experiences challenging or otherwise through visual art, conversation, art and therapy workshops. More details on Red Telephone can be found at redtelephone.org.
AMBER-RUTH WATSON
A Bristol based multi-disciplinary artist, producer and writer whose work explores unheard voices, taboo subjects and new perspectives. She is invested in equality and inclusivity and works in community engagement with a motive to empower others. She recently produced an audio piece for the BBC accounting how the media, following the boom of the Me Too movement, can trigger experiences of trauma.
