At Inside Out’s entertaining & uproarious AGM this week – adjectives seldom used in association with what are usually rather dull affairs – we said goodbye to one of our founders. Jan Addison, who along with Pete Watkins founded the arts and mental health charity in 2003, is retiring as a trustee. Jan worked professionally […]
We encourage everyone to support this exhibition at the Waterfront Gallery, University of Suffolk. It highlights the contribution of creativity to recovery from mental health issues.
Continue Reading...Transcript of Peter Watkin’s Talk “A Vision for the Arts and Healing” Please sit quietly while you wait for the session to start. I’d like you to take an A4 sheet notice its proportions, its boundaries, its whiteness, its emptiness; all that it offers to the imagination. Now allow your mind/ your imagination to conjure […]
Continue Reading...Promotes relaxation, enjoyment, inner calm. Enables personal and emotional expression in safe and creative ways Increases social contact and inclusion Increases motivation and energy for living Strengthens self esteem and confidence Develops self awareness and understanding Offers a meaningful, purposeful, socially valued activity Enhances coping skills and resilience Develops artistic/creative skills and interests Encourages self […]
Continue Reading...THE ART OF LIVING WELL A Conversation about arts and mental health between Pete Jan and John (23/2/14) Pete The more I think about creativity the more elusive it seems. It seems a mysterious process. I think it is a universal human quality, something innate in everyone, that enables us to express the fullness of ourselves in a […]
Continue Reading...On Finding You Have Wings Perhaps it is wise to leave the question ‘what is creativity’ alone, and simply celebrate it as a vital part of human nature; as Julia Cameron author of The Artists Way says ‘at the heart of creativity is mystery’. There is always the fear that if we analyse it too […]
Continue Reading...Creativity & Well-being in Later Life 2017 The Secret Garden :A Symposium on Creativity & Wellbeing in Later Life Our second annual symposium on arts and health 2017 explores the theme of whether active participation in the arts – be that singing, dance, drama, writing or one of the visual arts – can make a […]
Continue Reading...The Art of Wellbeing – An Invitation to a Conversation. Is the urge to create, deeply and innately embedded in the human psyche? I have long felt it to be so! And if so for what reason has it evolved? Human beings are blessed with the power of higher consciousness; we have the capacity to grasp […]
Continue Reading...The Case for Arts and Mental Health Can participation in the arts make a real contribution to recovery from mental ill health? Can the arts contribute to a more sustained state of well-being? The testimony Inside Out has received from participant students in evaluations and surveys during10 years of running therapeutic arts programmes suggests the […]
Continue Reading...Art as a Lifeline The key theme at the 2012 Aldeburgh poetry festival was LIFELINES. Can poetry and other creative arts offer a lifeline during those times when we are troubled, in crisis or extremis? Can they be a source of consolation and inspiration? When I think of the word ‘lifelines’ I imagine something to […]
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