STUDIO : Arts & Health projects

PaintAble
PaintAble aimed at including people with physical disabilities in weekly painting workshops from beginners to experienced artists.

Project Group
The Project Group has many years of experience in designing and making striking public art pieces for a wide variety of situations – including hospitals, parks, community gardens and public buildings.

The Project Group, which started in 1993, grew out of Shropshire’s Adult Mental Health Day Services.

Working within the NHS the group established a reputation for high quality art installations and began to work towards independence as as emerging social enterprise. In April 2003 we received three years funding from The Department of Health Opportunities for Volunteers scheme (co-ordinated by MIND).

In March 2006 The Project Group (Oswestry.Ltd) moved into a fully equipped studio in Oswestry Town Centre.

Visit the Project Group Website

Past Projects

Enhancing The Healing Environment   2005

A partnership Project between Qube Arts and a nurse led team from The Orthopaedic Hostpital Gobowen.

Initial concept and design ideas were developed by Qube with the regular users of our studio space. An artist was then commissioned to develop these ideas to create a permanent installation in the central admissions area in the hospital.

Media Maker
Funded by Envision, the project at Qube is part of a 3 year action–research programme to build long-term links between disadvantaged and ‘at risk’ young people and the visual arts and galleries.  It aims to:

• Explore how best to benefit young people through long-term contact with visual art/galleries;
• Build capacity in gallery staff to facilitate work with young people
;
• Research and disseminate good practice.

The project at Qube is a partnership between Qube, Craftspace Touring: a Birmingham based Craft Development Agency Shropshire Youth Arts Network (SHYAN), a youth arts provider based in Shrewsbury.

The aim of the project is to explore and identify the role that involvement with Qube can have on the lives of a specific group of isolated young people and to develop a sustainable outcome in terms of their continuing association with the gallery.  An additional aim is to inform Qube’s policy/approach to working with young people.

The project is conceived as a collaboration between a digital artist (already selected) and a craft practitioner enabling the young people to take part in a number of creative sessions to explore issues that relate to themselves and their experience (if any) of galleries and to support the group to develop an exhibition at Qube in the spring.

The project group is approximately 8 young people who attend the Kingswell Centre a pupil referral unit in Oswestry. The group have already visited Qube, taken part in a pilot digital workshop and in a workshop with a maker as part of Made in the Middle Craftspace Touring’s show of Midlands-based makers which was exhibited at Qube. MAKER BRIEF

1.0 Media Maker @ Qube

Project Background
Envision is a 3 year action–research programme seeking to build long-term links between disadvantaged and ‘at risk’ young people and the visual arts and galleries.

It aims to:

• Explore how best to benefit young people through long term contact with visual art/galleries, with a particular focus on disadvantaged and ‘at risk’ young people.
• Build capacity in gallery staff to facilitate work with young people.
• Research and disseminate good practice.

This particular project involves working within the West Midlands and is a partnership between;

Craftspace Touring: a Birmingham based Craft Development Agency
Shropshire Youth Arts Network (SHYAN): Youth arts provider based in Shrewsbury

A key aim of the project is to explore and identify the role that involvement with Qube can have on the lives of a specific group of isolated young people and to develop a sustainable outcome in terms of their continuing association with the gallery. An additional aim is to inform Qube’s policy/approach to working with young people.

A digital artist and a craft practitioner ran a series of sessions with young people exploring their experience (if any) of galleries and facilitated the creation of their own exhibition at Qube, held in the spring of 2004.

The group comprises 8 young people who attend the Kingswell Centre, a pupil referral unit in Oswestry. They visited Qube and took part in a pilot digital workshop and in a workshop with an arts and crafts maker as part of Made in the Middle Craftspace Touring’s show of Midlands-based makers which was exhibited at Qube.

Artist-led workshops linked to exhibitions programme

Val Hunt Jewellery workshops text + image
During May 2003, alongside the Made In The Middle exhibition at Qube, we ran a week of workshops with artist/maker Val Hunt. Val worked with six groups in Oswestry producing work made from re-cycled drinks cans. The documentation from the work produced formed part of the main exhibition which toured to venues throughout the British Isles and Europe.

Craft at Home
This project, linked to the Made in The Middle exhibition at Qube, offered the opportunity to eight Qube Arts users to work with a number of makers from the exhibition and from this experience to commission a piece of work from the maker of their choice. Participants' choices covered a huge range of craft pieces from large ceramic sculptures to items of jewellery tableware and textiles. Documention from this project, picturing participants with their chosen objects placed in their homes, also formed part of the main exhibition.

Screenprinting linked to Albers Exhibition
A week of screenprinting workshops were run earlier in 2004, based on the screenprints of Josef Albers.  Children from Ellesmere Primary School worked with a local artist to produce work inspired by the exhibition.  The work produced formed an 'After Albers' exhibition at Qube in May/June 2004.