ARCHIVE NEWS & EVENTS

"LEAD US TO A CANVAS AND WE WILL PAINT YOU A PICTURE"
A new art exhibition at the Macular Treatment Centre/ Retinal Unit, Manchester Eye Hospital

This exhibition titled Lead us to a canvas and we will paint you a picture showcases the work of three artists, two brothers and a sister from the same family. While it is not uncommon for creative talent to blossom within one family, Geoff and Charles Macdonald and Jean Howarth, all suffer from the eye condition PXE (pseudoxanthoma elasticum).

PXE is a heritable connective tissue disorder. Affecting one in 100,000 people it causes calcification of connective tissue to occur in various places in the body, especially the skin, eyes and arteries. While PXE has seriously affected the eyesight of the three artists this exhibition reveals how their creativity and passion for painting remains undaunted.

Both the Macular Treatment Centre and the Retinal Unit have been transformed by the vibrant images. Jean and Geoff are both registered as blind as their central vision is missing, they paint by looking out of the corners of their eyes. Jean uses a magnifying glass to paint her delicate watercolours, and both Jean and Geoff's images of the landscape come from memory. Charles, a patient at the Retinal Unit, has some central vision in one eye that makes it difficult to judge distance. He is a gifted landscape painter and together with Carl Buttner has instigated this exhibition.

The three artists, who regularly show their work in galleries in England, thought that patients, their family, friends and staff might have their visits to the hospital brightened up by viewing the pictures which are placed in various areas throughout the Retinal Unit. Charles, Geoff and Jean are keen for people who are visiting the unit to enjoy their artwork. They also hope to encourage others who have just developed eyesight problems to never give up trying.

Their artwork is on display in both areas from Monday 11 December.

If you would like more information about this exhibition please contact Bronwyn Platten, Art Projects Manager for Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals NHS Trust at Lime Tel: 0161256 4389 or by Email: bronwyn@limeart.org

Lime and University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust have been shortlisted (one of four projects nationally) for the Building Better Healthcare Awards 2007 'Best Use of Art in Healthcare Facilities'

This nomination is for the partnership Environmental Arts Programme involving patients, staff and visitors at the new Nightingale Centre and Genesis Prevention Centre

Winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony in London on the 8th of November 2007

Judge's Selection Criteria for the Award Catagory: Best in Class for Project - Patient Environment 'Use of Art in Healthcare Facilities'

'An outstanding project that demonstrates the development of a highly innovative and effective arts programme that engages with staff, patients and visitors to create a positive place for work and recouperation.

Artists: Martin Donlin, Rob Vale, Lesley Fallais, Gill Brett. arts programme coordinated by Helen Kitchen, Lime.

LIME'S JUICE TO PUT THE SQUEEZE ON TEENAGE DRINKING IN MANCHESTER

Lime has been awarded a major grant by Comic Relief to run a project addressing alcohol misuse in young people in Greater Manchester.

Lime, the Cultural Development Team of the Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals NHS Trust, will receive £87,500 over three years to finance the young people-led project.

Called Juice, the project will involve 150 young people from Greater Manchester who are experiencing alcohol misuse. It will encourage peer-learning and film-production skills and will explore the issues through drama, writing, music and film production.

Throughout the three year project, young people aged under 21 will work alongside arts and education professionals to create a film and workshop pack, which will then reach a wider audience through schools and youth centres. The aim of the pack, which will include lesson/activity plans, is to initiate discussion and inform health/lifestyle choices around the issue of alcohol misuse beyond the life of the project.

The project builds upon Lime's Manchester City Council-funded public health creative programme and takes its lead from the Council's Alcohol Strategy. The strategy states that alcohol consumption amongst young people in the north west is higher than the national average.

Brian Chapman, director of Lime said: "Creative arts such as film-making, drama, visual arts and music build self-confidence and skill-base in formal and informal educational settings. By exploring alternatives to drinking through peer education, self-expression and informed choices, we hope the project will impact on the numbers of young people misusing alcohol.

"By working closely with hard-to-reach young people, we will also produce a relevant and authentic product that communicates with credibility to a wider young audience".

The Juice project forms part of Lime's Culture and Health Strategy for Manchester, which is currently supported by the City Council Joint Health Unit and Cultural Strategy Team.

Alcohol misuse is a major issue for not only the NHS (costs £12 billion/year) but for society as a whole. Alcohol misuse costs the UK an estimated £20 billion per year (Gov. Strategy Unit 2003).

*Lime needs all the support it can get from health and health promotion professionals, the Manchester PCT and GPs to advocate and fund this innovative direction in creative public health. If you can offer support or wish to know more please contact Brian Chapman (Director) brian@limeart.org or Kim Wiltshire (Project Manager) kim@limeart.org at Lime.

Double measure of reality for alcohol education in Manchester secondaries
Radical KS4 resource pack launches 20 September 2007

A groundbreaking new KS4 alcohol resource launches in Manchester on Thursday 20 September 2007.

Losing It is a film made entirely by young people from across Manchester that explores their attitudes to alcohol misuse. The film is intended to be used as part of a six-week PHSE course and is accompanied by creative lesson plans and worksheets. Following a red carpet premiere at a city centre cinema, to be attended by the region's education and health professionals, the film and resource pack will be distributed to every Manchester secondary school.

Kim Wiltshire, project manager for arts and health charity Lime, who are behind the project, said: "Manchester and the north west have some of the highest teenage alcohol misuse problems in Europe. This resource is intended to dig a little bit deeper with young people to help them think about why they might use alcohol, why those around them might use alcohol and where they can go for help.

"Because everything in the stories has come from the young people we worked with, the intention is that through peer education pupils will have the opportunity to discuss their own emotional and social issues around alcohol misuse, rather than being faced with a range of facts and figures they may have no real interest in."

Holly's Story is one of two distinct tales that make up Losing It. It is about a 15-year-old girl who drinks with her friends to forget her difficult home life. Victoria Jordan, 14, goes to North Manchester High School for Girls and plays Holly.

"I can relate to many of the things Holly says and feels," she says. "I think she drinks to escape from her worries, and it's lucky she realises that she's got a problem. Making this film has definitely made us think about alcohol misuse, so I think it will be very powerful when it's shown in schools."

Lime working with Manchester Education Partnership identified that existing alcohol education resources consisted mainly of facts and figures games, often leaving little room for classroom discussion. The Losing It resource pack will serve as a pilot for a larger project, funded by Comic Relief. The next phase will see 150 young people across the whole of Greater Manchester work towards producing a film for KS3 pupils that will be offered to [every secondary school in Greater Manchester.

Arts and health charity Lime partnered on the project with Manchester Education Partnership, Eclypse, NHS Public Health Development, Zest, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Manchester Cultural Strategy Team.

Groups taking part in the project include the Young Travellers, Young Carers, Plant Hill Youth Group, LGYM, Manchester Foyer and Water Activity Centre

Art brings together High School and Hospital

20 students from Newall Green High School have been working with a professional artist to create a work of art that will be permanently exhibited within Wythenshawe Hospital.

Artist Charlotte Brown has been working with the Year 7 students to create images based on the theme of 'Journeys'. A permanent framed display of the student\'s photographic artwork has today been installed on a prominent wall near Trust Headquarters and the students are absolutely delighted to have their work shown in such a public space.

The 'Journeys' project is part of a programme to improve the school experience for vulnerable young people and boost their self-confidence. The project was established by the school's Senior Manager who line manages the mentors, Sandra McGuire. Sandra explains: "We identified students who we felt would benefit from a project that would provide something outside ordinary lessons in a classroom setting, where the students could work together on an exciting project and feel proud to be representing the school by creating artwork for public display."

The students experimented with a variety of media, including painting, digital photography and collage and the project was designed to help the students take a closer look at things that had important meaning to them, their own identity and personal aspirations. By using the theme of 'Journeys' the students were able to make links with larger concepts such as a 'Journey through Life', 'Family history' and 'Journey through friendship'.

Artist Charlotte explains: "The theme of 'Journeys' was the starting point for the group to photograph their familiar surroundings, school environment, travel to and from school or other places. The students were encouraged to look up, down and closely at things that they may usually pass by and the images became a record of things that people would normally overlook - clouds in the sky, shadows in puddles, tree trunk, leaves or even litter. The resulting artwork is made up of the students individual photographs printed onto ordinary white household tiles." Helen Kitchen Arts Coordinator for Lime, "When the Artist showed me examples of students photographs I knew I had to find a space to exhibit them in the Hospital. There are a total of 80 tiles, each unique with an individual source of inspiration, which together create a large colourful collage, with fascinating and quirky details as the viewer looks more closely."

As part of the project, students visited Wythenshawe Hospital to see how the award-winning public art programme coordinated by LIME at the hospital enhances the healing environment and contributes to patients\' wellbeing. The new artwork, today unveiled by the Trust\'s Chairman Jeff Wilner, will be seen by the many thousands of patients and visitors that pass through the hospital each year. Jeff adds: "We're delighted with the final piece of artwork which is really inspiring. I know that the students have gained a great deal from this project, and I'd like to think that our patients and visitors will also benefit from this vibrant art installation."

Lime POPPs Scheme

The Lime Arts and Health POPPs scheme was built on the success of the Pathways project ö a three year programme working with communities using creativity to explore issues around mental health and well being. Pathways was aimed at under 25s as well as over 50s, however with the POPPs scheme we could concentrate on rolling out creative sessions for older people across Manchester.

Creativity is accepted as being beneficial for mental health and well-being. For our older people's programme we decided to use dance & movement, drama, visual art & photography, creative writing & storytelling. There are multiple benefits to each art form, and by using professional artists in each area there is an assurance of not only high quality work, but real joy in producing the pieces.

We wanted to reach as many older people as possible, and be able to take time researching new ways of contacting harder to reach older people. One of the ways of doing this was to run a series of workshops on a Mobile Library van at two stops in North Manchester, something Lime and the Mobile Libraries have never done before, which resulted in a small photography exhibition on the van. We also worked with Community Resource Centres in Baguley and Openshaw, sheltered housing in Gorton, Collyhurst and Ancoats, as well as the Afro-Caribbean Care Group in Hulme. The scheme also helped us set up a new Performing Arts Community Group called Linkfour in Wythenshawe, in partnership with Studio One at St Andrew's Church ö this new community group are always on the look out for new members as well, so if you are interested please contact me on the email address below.

Due to the success of the scheme and the high demand we have had from groups asking for sessions, Lime is researching new funding streams to carry on the work in the community resource centres. We are helping the groups in the sheltered housing workshops to continue the sessions themselves, leaving workshop plans and ideas for future sessions with them once the project has finished.

If you would like any more information about Lime's Community Arts Programme, please contact Kim Wiltshire on kim@limeart.org

Another Creative First For Manchester
New Art for New Hospitals

Research shows that inspirational and beautiful hospital environments take the edge off pain and anxiety. An exciting new arts initiative taking place in Manchester is aiming to transform Central Manchester's new hospitals so that they do just that.

Led by the Director of Lime, Brian Chapman, Lime has developed an artistic vision for the new hospitals in conjunction with internationally known artist Ray Smith. Art commissions are now underway, funded through the Charities wing of the Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals NHS Trust. Sponsors are being sought to create more projects, especially for the new Children's hospital.

This is a £500m New Hospital Development in the cultural heart of the city. It is the largest PFI scheme outside London and the integrated arts programme will create a new landscape for the arts in healthcare on a scale never seen before.

The four new hospitals include a hospital for Children, hospitals for Adults and Women, and the new Eye hospital will be set in a landscaped gardens. Artistic commissions will include a major iconic work in the extensive Boulevard green space facing the four new hospitals. There will be interactive works, wall mounted and moving image works, three dimensional and tactile, works on glass, large and small scale installations.

This project is a unique opportunity to make positive and uplifting hospital environments and to forge enduring links between the Trust, the city's artistic communities and the local and broader communities of Manchester through working together creatively.

The Booze Buzz

The Booze Buzz project was developed through a partnership with the Director for Health Improvement for Greater Manchester. It will contribute to the Greater Manchester Alcohol Steering Group project plan by stimulating debate in the public arena about alcohol by using creative participatory activities. The project is managed by LIME and brokered through the Greater Manchester Arts and Health Network (GMAHN) with Manchester City Council, Bolton MBC, Stockport MBC and Oldham MBC.

The Booze Buzz project is looking at drinking habits in a different way through the words, eyes and actions of artists responding to and involving the general public. The project sets out not to preach, but to listen and encourage debate in new creative ways. The artists will explore an exciting array of theatre and writing, drawing and drama to portray your views and ideas. They will also be working with health professionals and public health experts in the region to explore how best to portray issues around our drinking culture.

The Artists Phil Burgess and Nicky Duirs are leading this experimental project to creatively engage people in the community in Manchester, Stockport, Bolton and Oldham in a discussion concerning social attitudes, personal responses and lifestyle choices about alcohol. Professional women who regularly drink at home have been identified as an 'at risk' and a 'hidden' group in Greater Manchester.

Interactive activity has taken place across Manchester, Bolton, Oldham and Stockport including open public events such as Manchester's Feast in the Park and The Body Worlds Exhibition at the Museum Of Science and Industry.

The Consortium for Participatory Arts Learning

Lime is a member of C-pal, the Consortium for Participatory Arts Learning. C-pal was set up and funded by Arts Council England, North West and is a group of regularly funded participatory led organisations across the North West. The main remit is skills development for people who are currently working or want to work in the participatory arts sector. It also provides a network to share ideas and issues and explore the development of the sector. Current members of the consortium are Action Factory, Community Arts North West (CAN), Cartwheel Arts, Full Circle Arts, Hope Street, Mid-Pennine Arts, LIME, Osun Arts, Prescap, TiPP, More Music and Lanternhouse International. For more information go to www.cpal.info