Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival 2011

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Our annual open film submission gives filmmakers the opportunity to share their work and ideas with audiences across Scotland and internationally. The festival is committed to finding and celebrating the work of filmmakers who explore mental health in film. In its broadest sense ‘mental health’ is a term which touches most aspects of our lives; from our relationships to how we respond to the world around us. We’re looking for films which show that mental health is something we all have, and something we all need to prioritise from time to time.

Previous winning submissions have looked at topics such as moving home, ageing, grief, loss, endurance, support, friendship, equality, sport, music, childhood as well as films about specific diagnoses or conditions.

Entry is free. The closing date for entries is Friday 6th May 2011. Please visit the website www.mhfestival.com for more information. Email smhaff@gmail.com for submission guidelines and entry form.

The fifth annual Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival will take place across Scotland throughout October 2011. 




Measuring the Value of Culture: a report to the Department for Culture Media and Sport 
Dr. Dave O’Brien

The cultural sector faces the conundrum of proving its value in a way that can be understood by decision-makers. Arts and cultural organisations face a ‘cooler climate’ than the one that prevailed during the early 2000s. As a result it will not be enough for arts and culture to resort to claiming to be a unique or special case compared with other government sectors. Since the 1980s the value of the cultural sector has been demonstrated through the lens of ‘impact’, whether economic or social. However in recent years there has been recognition, both within central government and in parts of the publically funded cultural sector, of the need to more clearly articulate the value of culture using methods which fit in with central government’s decision-making. Thus the cultural sector will need to use the tools and concepts of economics to fully state their benefits in the prevailing language of policy appraisal and evaluation.

Full report can be found at:
http://www.culture.gov.uk/publications/7660.aspx  
























S C E N A R I O S in Arts and Health
Following on from the ongoing M A N I F E S T O events and building on an emerging, shared vision, MMU will be hosting a free event on the 23rd September 2011 to explore where the arts/health agenda is in relation to the ongoing financial downturn; government changes and cuts; and societal shift, to explore our future practice over a generation. Places will be strictly limited to this event and you can register your interest at artsforhealth@mmu.ac.uk (this does not guarantee a place). 

Dear friends...the first manifesto event was a great success and more sessions are planned for the new year. As a taster and keep you interested, the first group that met in October worked wonders and some of their thoughts and aspirations are here for you to see...but there, is more, much more to follow between now and June.

I’m pleased to announce that the North West Arts and Health Network evenings are continuing through 2011 and the dates below are confirmed, but are of course, subject to change and all updates will be made on the BLOG and Arts for Health main website http://www.artsforhealth.org  

• January 27th


• March 24th


• May 26th


• July 28th


• September 29th


• November 24th

All sessions will be held at Manchester Met between 6:00pm and 8:00pm in a room that will be confirmed in the week prior to the event.
On the January 27th, Bits and Bats evening, I’m going to share some short archive films from the early days of the NHS in the late 1940’s. It’s all good fun and interesting given today’s climate of change. If you have any interesting archival footage that you’d like to share that relates to our Arts/Health agenda, please get in touch.

I’m still very keen for members of the network to influence these sessions and encourage you to send in ideas for themes for the evenings.

I wonder what are the works of art that inspired you towards this arts/health agenda? Or, do certain works impact on your thinking. I gave a paper recently that explores the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry; the happiness industry and the arts. I had to edit such a lot out of it, and this includes a poem by Philip Larkin called, This Be The Verse, which links very much into my thoughts around the pathologising of depression and dissatisfaction with our lot. I'll leave you to work out any subtleties.

This Be The Verse
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the thoughts they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

Examples and leads can be e-mailed to Mrs. Andersom, j.andersom@behringinstitute.com, or posted to: Behring Institute, attn: Mw. J. Andersom, Herenmarkt 93F, 1013 EC Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Once the selection process has been completed, the submitted documentation can unfortunately not be returned.

For more information, see: www.behringinstitute.com Mrs. Andersom of the Behring Institute can be contacted during office hours at j.andersom@behringinstitute.com

New website


















Health professionals can find out how creative activities can benefit people affected by long-term conditions, and locate local voluntary arts/creative groups, on a new website: www.healthysocialcreative.org.uk The site has been created by Voluntary Arts, to raise awareness of the wealth of creative activities that exist in local communities – from choirs to quilt-makers, dance groups to painting societies, drama groups to samba bands – and the health benefits of taking part.


K E E P  L E A R N I N G  
S E M I N A R S 
19 November–11 December 


Building on the positive momentum from 2008, the arts and cultural sector have played a significant role in Liverpool’s Year of Health & Wellbeing. We know that arts and culture impact on our sense of self individually and collectively, and it is increasingly important that we find ways to articulate why this is the case.  We are promoting these events as a series to NHS staff, researchers, clinicians and GP’s to raise awareness of the scope, quality and value of this work in the City, and with the hope of engaging more health professionals and researchers in the work going forward, both to raise awareness of Liverpool’s innovation in this area of work and to develop collaborations longer-term as we embark on a Decade of Health and Wellbeing.

What links the following?




















Clive Parkinson will be sharing ideas from his new paper, A Brightly Coloured Bell-Jar, on Tuesday 2nd November at 5:00pm...he'd appreciate your feedback. Please email artsforhealth@mmu.ac.uk if you'd like to attend.

To read Clive Parkinson's paper on Big Society, go to: http://www.nalgao.org/e107_images/custom/aahseptfinal1b.pdf

We’ve heard a lot about Big Society over the last few months, but what does it mean for the Arts/Health agenda in the North West?


We’re planning an event at Manchester Metropolitan University on the 29th October 2010.

This will follow on from last years North West Frontier, where health professionals, artists and other actors from the field fed into the start of a regional/sub-regional conversation around inequalities, the arts, health and well-being.

Aspirations from this event included; networking opportunities; access to wider networks and knowledge; training and advocacy.

We also discussed a strategic framework for the region, but with government changes, ongoing structural changes across all sectors and now vicious cuts, creating another strategy seems a futile exercise.

Following feedback from the networking sessions and dialogue across the region, what we’d be interested in doing is spending time together and creatively pulling together a Manifesto for Arts/Health across the region.

So this isn’t necessarily about frameworks, bullet-points and strategy; but it will be a statement about shared vision, passion, commitment and possibility that we and key allies can sign up to.

If you want to take part, places will be very limited and details will be forthcoming, but for now email artsforhealth@mmu.ac.uk to express your interest in taking part.

Peter Sutton: http://www.petermaum.co.uk

David Cameron's speech on Big Society presented as a 'word cloud'... (...does this look like a shark?)

Some comments that you may want to further expand on…

Between 23rd and 25th March 2010 I took part in the first Asia Europe Foundation Network for Public Health workshop exploring ways of enhancing the pandemic preparedness capabilities across partner countries. This, the first of three workshops, brought together 26 high-level participants from multiple sectors including amongst others, scientists, governments, NGO’s and the health sector. The event was facilitated by Prospex http://www.prospex.com/ and managed by the Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF) http://www.asef.org/

Although the detail of the work, is at this stage not public, I’d like to share some of the themes and process’ to keep those of you who are interested in this agenda, up to speed. I’d also like to encourage dialogue around these themes to continue our own explorations of this agenda.

Through an active participatory workshop the partners identified some of the driving factors and uncertainties around future pandemics and as such, were exploring the themes to feed into the second session which will develop and test some of the ideas which in turn, will feed the third session aiming to refine and analyze the scenarios developed to inform long-term strategic implementation and outreach.

The main elements of this first workshop involved participants identifying their own hopes and fears around the issues which included aspects of co-ordination, current preparedness and human capacity. The facilitators enabled the group to contextualise individual factors and further explore those from very specific perspectives ranging from the legal, economic and political, to demographic, ethical and cultural.


By introducing and interrogating existing foresight studies, the facilitators enabled, (for what was many of us our introduction to this field) an analysis of the successes and failings of contemporary thought. Much of the workshop unpicked the uncertainties associated with pandemic and enabled a clustering of factors with innovation (R&D) and notions of the Human Factor high on the agenda. Through the exploration of 15 clusters, the group further identified polarities in thinking and possibilities of response.

By way of example, I was personally very engaged in conversation around information and communication, particularly with reference to how messages are communicated. The polarities explored around these factors focused on whether pandemic messages would be critically received, or would be met with indifference. Worse than this perhaps, and a theme of many of my papers relating to arts/public health; would be that the media propagate hysteria. Participants from the media sector who took part in this work provided strong critical debate and crucial input into my thinking.

With hindsight, many of the subtle discussions I’d had here in Manchester prior to the workshop, weren’t given a full airing, but notions of the human element, universal metaphor and understanding the roles of both the media and new technologies were robustly discussed as part of the bigger picture. I was also able to make opportunities to discuss the notion of diversity and how different societies/communities around the world will interpret messages differently.

Whilst a good deal of the workshop gave opportunity for blue-sky thinking, it grounded very diverse perspectives in a community of joint interest. For my own part being jet-lagged, in a strange environment and in extreme heat made for quite an anxious start. However, the sessions were meticulously thought through and conducted in English. It is mortifying as a native English speaker, to be surrounded by people for whom this is a second or third language and who speak far more eloquently and with insight than someone who can barely master his own tongue. The company was truly diverse and I felt under a good deal of pressure as one of only two participants from the arts sector.

I most certainly feel that I added to the mix and injected the notion of thinking creatively around this public health agenda, but I could have more explicitly inputted on the role of the artist in society, both as reflecting and questioning societal norms. In particular, the role of the artist within research and development and community engagement is an area I hope to develop further in this work.

I was impressed by the creative insight of a number of participants from wildly different backgrounds, who positively exuded a deep understanding around the potency and relevance of the arts to this area of work.

Clive Parkinson

DEMENTIA and IMAGINATION
There is a growing awareness that whilst humans are living longer (depending on your global post-code!) and science strives to cure disease, we’re nowhere near having the ‘magic bullet’ for dementia.

Charismatic and articulate individuals like Sir Terry Pratchet who are going through life with dementia are beginning to reduce the stigma associated with the disease and to an extent, reduce fear and raise awareness.
 I’m most certainly not an expert in this field, but have had the pleasure of meeting individuals who are including people with the disease, those working in the field in a caring capacity, and those who believe that the arts have something to offer this issue.



I’ve read a little of Gene Cohen’s work on the subject www.creativeaging.org and the wealth of experience offered by Anne Davis Basting in her very readable ‘Forget Memory’ which sets out example of practice that creates better lives for people living with dementia. http://forgetmemory.org/ 



Last year I had the pleasure of hearing Carrie McGee from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, sharing work from the MoMA  Alzheimer's Project which set out a trailblazing programme of activity, introducing people affected by dementia to iconic 20th Century art from its collection. The impact this has had on individuals and carers is profound, as is the passion and conviction of those educators running the programme. www.moma.org/meetme/index  

More recently I have begun a very practical working relationship with an NHS dementia assessment unit where one of Ian Roberts' inspirational MMU, MA Three Dimensional Design students is working with hand crafted objects to stimulate discussion and engagement. It’s too early to elaborate on this work yet, but its been very enthusiastically embraced by those working in the unit. 



During a panel discussion held at Staffordshire University last week, I sat alongside colleagues from the wider arts/health field and heard stimulating and challenging accounts of arts activity with older people in general and more specifically, around the issue of dementia. It seems there’s a lot of activity out there that engages people meaningfully, challenges and stimulates and raises wider understanding around aging and illness. http://www.praxisartsandhealth.org.uk/  



And with the very unsettling, ‘Can Gerry Robinson Fix Dementia Care Homes?’ broadcast by the BBC earlier in the year, I am mindful of a huge area of need in the delivery of care for our most vulnerable elders. Can the arts offer something to this primary agenda? www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2009/dec/15/can-gerry-robinson-fix-care-homes  



I’d like to invite submissions of arts-based practice for sharing at the networking event on the 27 May between 6:00 and 8:00 here at MMU.



What do I mean by this? Well, people have talked about film they’ve been involved in; dance and gallery based work. I am happy to facilitate an event that gives opportunities to discuss this, sharing film/materials and raising our own awareness of each other’s practice and aspirations.



If I have sufficient interest to put on a stimulating event, I will provide detail the week before. So if you’re interested in this idea, but don’t have work to share, please make a note of the date.

Something that has stayed with me and that I hope will influence this event is a focus on the possibilities of flourishing whilst experiencing dementia. Gene Cohen and Anne Basting both talk about cognition most certainly being impaired by dementia, but the resulting impact on inhibition has a profound effect on an individuals creative potential through imagination…which it’s suggested, can thrive.






So, what’s your practice and would you like to share it?


…Clive


To make this event manageable and enable discussion to be had on the evening, I’d be grateful if you could email ISB@mmu.ac.uk  with any suggestions for your input, by Friday May 14.


These lovely images are from Arthur and Martha http://www.arthur-and-martha.co.uk/

A role for Arts and Culture?

The recent H5N1 and H1N1 viruses have raised our awareness that pandemics are not a myth of the distant past, but that they can quickly become concrete, actual threats to businesses, well-being and survival in multiple sectors across societies worldwide. What are the possible pandemic threats of the future and how can businesses, civil society and governments best prepare for these?

I’m shortly going to be exploring ideas around this agenda with the Asia/Europe Foundation and I’d be interested to hear your opinions on how the arts and cultural sectors may play a part in this agenda. It might be about social marketing, or communicating risk; or it could be about how health services engage with communities and how these communities in turn, inform new ways of working.

This round table discussion is an opportunity for us to discuss what role the arts and culture can potentially play in this agenda.

If you would like to take part in this discussion please email me to register for a place ASAP.

Date: Tuesday 16th March

Time: 17:00 – 19:00

Venue: The Righton Building at MMU (see link below)

www.mmu.ac.uk/travel/maps/mmu_maps_allsaints_aytoun.pdf

PLACES ARE STRICTLY LIMITED; RSVP as soon as possible to:

c.parkinson@mmu.ac.uk

Sam Taylor-Wood, Still Life, 2001, Edition of 6, 35 mm Film/DVD
(Thanks to Sam Taylor-Wood for permission to use this image)