Welcome to the Arts and Creativity CoP - ideas board! by Julie Neville

Please add to this section: Your experiences using or supporting arts in mental health

julieneville — 2025-05-21 14:06:17 UTC

Please add to this section: Any particular successes, challenges and needs

julieneville — 2025-05-21 14:08:23 UTC

Please add to this section: Different approaches being used

julieneville — 2025-05-21 14:11:13 UTC

For example, delivery with adults, CYP, for therapy, social, art skill development, Peer led practice

Please add to this section: Mapping Creative Practice

julieneville — 2025-05-21 14:12:09 UTC

What art forms do we cover? Are there opportunities and gaps?

Please add to this section: Your ideas for future topics (here are some suggestions)

julieneville — 2025-05-21 14:13:54 UTC

Diversity of artforms

Barriers and challenges

Partnership opportunities

Impact measurement and evaluation

Artist development

Sources of funding

Creative Health Quality Standards

West Kent Mind

julieneville — 2025-05-22 09:22:30 UTC

Creative Minds - 24 week professional artist led programmes for adults, funded by National Lottery for 3 years. 4 arts programmes running at any one time, 8 per year. In community venues and artist studios in West Kent.

Current offer: cookery, dance, watercolour, DnD

West Kent Mind

julieneville — 2025-05-22 09:23:46 UTC

12 week long Wellbeing Worker-led creative programmes for adults, using mixed art forms. Funded by the Shaw Trust

Lancs Mind

2025-05-22 09:24:10 UTC

New Creative Minds project - stArting Conversations:

Inviting the community to explore how creativity can help us understand and share our mental health experiences

Encouraging people to share artwork on the theme of 'If my mind could speak..' as part of a group exhibition

West Kent Mind

julieneville — 2025-05-22 09:25:59 UTC

Mentoring programmes for 'Creative Agents' linked to the Creative Minds programme funded by NL. Opportunities for adults to work alongside professional artists and be mentored to develop their practice and also to facilitate for others, whilst advocating for arts and MH

Jersey

julieneville — 2025-05-22 09:28:38 UTC

CYP and Families Service- we use a range of creative resources and art based activities in our 1:1 work with CYP- this could be painting, sensory activities, clay, sand play. Also incorporate outdoors and nature within our offer of programmes for children and families. I'm currently studying a level 6 diploma in therapeutic arts practice and hoping to incorporate learning into practice. Our team also works with an external provider, using funding, to offer a writing group in secondary schools. Wider service offers an art group for adults.

Successes

julieneville — 2025-05-22 09:34:21 UTC

WKM: Series of celebratory exhibitions and showcase events at the end of each Creative Programme.

Creative Agents starting to host their own arts workshops

Creative Agent curating her own solo exhibition.

Adult clients making arts and crafts items to sell on festive fundraising stall,

Jersey: securing funding to offer the creative writing programme.

Having a budget to buy resources for one to one work.

Challenges

julieneville — 2025-05-22 09:39:54 UTC

Jersey: Offering courses out to schools, ensuring clarity that the CYP is doing is out of their own choice. Misunderstandings amongst school staff.

Building trust within groups.

Not having a permanent art room (that doesn't double up as a meeting room for other purposes)

WKM: Getting the word out to the right audience, getting the marketing correct.

Covering towns and villages where activity doesn't usually happen.

Wanting to reach the widest number of clients, but attracting repeat attendance from many clients.

julieneville — 2025-05-22 09:44:04 UTC

CYP

Therapeutic art practice

For art skills development

For weekly social meet ups

Adult clients now beginning to teach each other skills

Regular Saturday art club for adults

Drop in art club

Exhibition and showcase events

Drama offer led by a drama student, possibly resulting in a play

Suggestions:

julieneville — 2025-05-22 09:53:36 UTC

Being able to share different practice, hear from each other and be inspired by each others experience.

Hearing what has worked well from others.

Sharing creative/mindful icebreakers.

Hearing about studies and research being carried out by other members.

Eco Therapy - being in nature to support wellbeing, reconnecting with nature.

West Kent Mind

julieneville — 2025-05-22 12:06:24 UTC

Our current art forms include:

Silk painting

Creative writing

Dungeons and Dragons

Cookery

Gardening

Photography

Dance

Watercolour

We plan to incorporate outdoor in nature, we also have drama expertise in our staff team

South East London Mind

2025-06-13 15:10:51 UTC

Mindful Photography Walk: I held a carers walk (for family looking after loved ones with mental health struggles) around a local pond, where people were able to bring either cameras or phones (emphasised that no knowledge of photography was needed) and we walked around the ponds and woods taking things in mindfully and for photos, focusing on tiny details in nature and how photography can make us present and more mindful

South East London Mind

2025-06-13 15:37:02 UTC

I hope I'm using this section correctly: This is my experience of using arts for mental health. I have a photography degree and have always used my photography conceptually to express myself, in an art therapy kind of way. I love to incorporate this in my work with Mind by just sharing how this helps me.

South East London Mind

2025-06-13 15:37:59 UTC

Chat, Coffee and Create: I held a carers group (for family looking after loved ones with mental health struggles) where there wasn't any aim or art purposely: I just set up tables and chairs and filled the tables with art supplies; anything from colouring books, calligraphy letters, envelops, random art and stationary and the idea was just to see what happened when we chatted together and created if people wanted.

Oooh so many ideas!

2025-06-13 15:39:41 UTC

This is a reminder for me to come back and add to this :)

Norfolk & Waveney Mind

2025-06-16 14:15:12 UTC

Via RW in national mind info team: adult nature-oriented and drop-in services with creative opportunities embedded. 'Creativity is foundational to our approach across all services' - Paola, Community Development team. We're focused on supporting wellbeing to the '4 in 4' with a focus on building resilience, and primarily through fostering a connection with nature. We've partnered with the University of Derby and the Climate Psychology Alliance to develop service offers which give adults the opportunity to get closer to nature and develop a creative, playful, and mindful relationship with their own local environment (both very green and also coastal). Services like forest bathing and foraging encourage participants to use the natural resources to create something - whether that's art, food, or something else. Peer led groups and also specific services like climate cafes, delivered through the Active Hope model, offer participants a space to come together and create something meaningful. Norfolk and Waveney have 5 'REST hubs' across their patch, which offer spaces to Recover, Eat, get Support, and Talk. They're walk-in spaces, some with physical cafes, where service users can join in with informal crafting and colouring, as well as cooking and eating together. The side-by-side nature of cooking in particular, creates opportunities for social connection without the 'pressure to talk'. and creating food together gives a focus and meaning to the activity.

The Mind Federation Choir

2025-06-16 14:16:16 UTC

it doesn't exist yet but I have a contact willing to provide a lot of help to set this up! Any interest from your local mind? please reach out :)

Mind BLMK

2025-06-16 14:17:14 UTC

Via RW in national mind info team: I visited BLMK the other day and saw they had two art groups running out of their Luton site.

HFEH Mind

julieneville — 2025-07-03 13:10:30 UTC

Mind on Music - a drop in summer service for CYP run from The Circle venue in Ealing. Will be open to age ranges 8-12 and 13-16+, each week for 90 mins. No set referral process currently, but sitting alongside their Early Intervention services. They also have a young advisers co-production group. Previously funded by Youth Music and with support from the John Lyon's charity. Hilary Walker is one of 3 music development workers employed for 2 years to deliver services.