Today we have hosted ‘Bring a Pal to Work Day’ and it has been lovely to have the studio so busy.
At the last Members day in October 2014 everyone discussed ideas of how as a group we could help tackle the stigma attached to mental health. A discussion started about how it was friends and family that sometimes knew the least about what we all did here and some people would welcome the opportunity to bring them along.
“I spend so much time here and I try to explain what it’s like, but you just don’t know till you come”
“My other half just thinks I draw, and that we’re all a bit mad. If he came here he’d think differently”
So today we involved friends and family in our partnership project with Walford and North Shropshire College to raise awareness of mental health as well as the role that art plays in recovery. Ideas for the project have been inspired by a ceramicist, Mitsy Sleurs, and a project called ‘99 feelings’. The project is themed around using eggs to express emotion; each participant from Designs in Mind and WNSC will make and fire an egg and may use colours or materials to illustrate a feeling such as happiness, sadness, healing etc. The result of the project will be a ceramic installation which would be made up of individual parts and then assembled.
“A great turn out with everyone really engaged. It’s a lovely place to be”
“Relaxing and therapeutic and a great atmosphere. I can see how being here helps people”
“Lovely to come and join in- my friend, who is a Member has told me so much about the group. It’s lovely to come and experience the atmosphere”
“It’s so good to be doing something completely different-
it’s therapeutic and the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly”
“We all started with the same ball of clay and every finished piece is so different”
“Interactive, thought provoking and fun”
“Great way to switch off from poblems and worries and it’s been great fun”