Gentle Walking

A project that bought together walking, wellbeing and creativity. Aimed at supporting mental health, we came together on a weekly basis to walk, talk and be present together. There were creative moments within the walks where we paused for a while to make something and have a cuppa. We undertook activities such as close looking with seeds, zine making, wide-eye seeing walks, creating with trees and movement, exploring sound as guesture. Workshops were hosted by Amelia Hawk, Thamina Begum and Libby Scarlet.
 

The project was intentionally gentle, not hiking, but more so taking our time to slow down and embrace a calmer pace. The walks integrated moments of Forest Therapy where we used our senses to connect with nature as we passed through.
 

Hosted with Orb Community Arts

 

Pathways, Routes, Slowing Down

A series of gentle walking and making workshops aimed at supporting mental health and wellbeing. Workshops included a walking therapist. One workshop was exclusively for families. 

What can we learn from the pathways we choose, the routes we walk, and the way we travel. If we slow down and notice the world around us, what can it open up for us. Do we hear more, see more, feel more. 

Over the workshops we slowly made our own maps, handheld objects, zines, clay impressions from the environment around us. We acted like magpies seeking the treasures in the walks we chose. We listened for the birds and made poems from their chatter, watched for cyclists and captured their tyre tread, made leaf impressions with clay and journaled.

 

West Midlands Combined Authority / Transport for West Midlands

Walking with Birds

Using nature and bird watching as a source of inspiration and a way to pay closer attention to our surroundings, we hosted a series of workshops that bought together walking and making with hints of Forest Therapy. The workshops embraced a slow pace and way of working. Hosted in Nosterfiled Nature Reserve we spent time exploring bird hydes, and spending time close by the water, observing the local flora and fauna. We focused on creating using drawing techniques and clay. 

 

Nosterfield Nature Reserve is 150 acres of wet grassland and open water situated between the Rivers Ure and Swale.

 

Hosted with Mind

 

 

Nature and Healing 

A weekly social prescribing project supporting a group of women facing mental health difficulties at MAC, Midlands Arts Centre.

 

The project and workshop series responded directly to the groups interests, adapting on a weekly basis. Workshops have included foraging for teas, creating a soundwalk, making sculptures for public space, creating natural dyes, creating 'messages for others' with block/lino printing and much more. The workshops led towards an exhibition at MAC as part of Bedlam Festival. A mini project within the workshop series developed new work by responding to sounds we had recorded together, inspired by the sounds we made paper and clay models, the models turned to wood, were painted, became sculptures and then returned to the natural setting of Cannon Hill Park.

Midlands Arts Centre / Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Trust

Body Blocks

A project working with patients on the secure ward and within the wider facilities at St Andrews, a mental health hospital in Birmingham.

 

We used a series of print techniques to develop body blocks to print onto fabric. Initially we created monoprints and cyanotype prints looking at mark making through shape, pattern, movement and sound. The marks made within the patient's works were turned into blocks that could be worn on elbows, feet, hands, finger tips. We printed marks informed by gestures we wanted to make and experiences we wanted to feel, paint between toes, patterns from repetition, movement from sound. The printed fabric will be turned into cushions, aprons and soft furnishings for the wards.

 

The Barber Institute of Fine Art / St Andrews Healthcare

Spike Island, Engagement Fellowship

Amelia was the Engagement Fellow at Spike Island, mentoring a group of younger artists who had responded to the proposition ‘Searching for a space that cares’.

 

We hosted monthly workshops exploring our personal connections to care and spaces that have the potential to care. We mapped our bodies, explored access and how we need access support, created spaces that had care items within them, found the ‘things’ we needed to feel cared for, took walks, bathed in nature, hosted reading circles in the woods, created safe space and experienced the care we offered one another. Through the process we worked towards creating a digital commission for Spike Island.

 

Spike Island

Gentle Listening, Slow Making

A weekly series of workshops supporting people with poor mental health.

 

Gentle weekly workshops testing out different art materials, whilst gently listening to the sounds or music of the week. Through collectively listening to the sounds of the week, we slowly respond by making our own artworks. Participants could attend and simply listen, there was no expectancy that the participants had to create something by the end of the session. We were present for one another and held space. 

 

Grounded / Living Well Consortium

Forest Therapy

Holding Space offer regular group Forest Therapy sessions, supporting a closer connection to nature and promoting relaxation. Forest Therapy sessions can take place in any green space, remote or more public. Sessions are taylored to the group needs and the specificity of location. 

 

As well as specific Forest Therapy sessions, hybrid workshops intergrating a closer connection to nature, practices of slowing down, and creativity can bring together different modalities for a longer session.
 

 

National