Arts projects bring young people wellbeing boost

PROJECT

Arts Lab

PURPOSE

To improve young people’s wellbeing through creative projects

FUNDING

HeadStart Kernow provided £145,000 for the Arts Lab pilot through a National Lottery Community Fund grant. Cornwall Council’s Wellbeing and Public Health service provided funding of £229,800 to run the programme for a further 30 months

BACKGROUND

Cornwall-based community interest company Arts Well delivers arts activities designed to improve community health and wellbeing. Staff were keen to do more to support children and young people following the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Covid exacerbated a lot of challenges young people were facing,” says manager Izzy Bianchini. “Staff felt they could put something in place, using creativity, to support young people through those challenges.”

The organisation joined forces with Headstart Kernow, which is run by Cornwall Council and provides wellbeing support for schools, and local arts programme Feast to create Arts Lab.

The project was piloted in 2021/22 and gained further funding to run for two and a half more years.

ACTION

Arts Lab recruits artists interested in delivering creative workshops to young people and asks local youth organisations and schools to apply to take part. “We asked them to tell us what artforms their young people were interested in and if they had any particular goals,” says Bianchini. “We also asked settings if they had any concerns around supporting young people’s mental health.”

Arts Lab then matches settings with artists, taking into account factors including location and children’s needs. “We matched artists and groups based on what the young people wanted, what the artists were offering and where they were based,” says Bianchini. The project was keen for artists to be local to the group they were working with to enhance the sense of community connection.

The project uses the Five Ways to Wellbeing framework developed by the New Economics Foundation. Arts Lab provided artists with training on the Five Ways to Wellbeing approach as well as trauma-informed practice, safeguarding, children’s rights and trans awareness.

In year two, the artists delivered four to six workshops with their allocated setting between February and August. The projects were all different with artists offering a wide range of creative activities, including printmaking, sculpture, sewing, filmmaking and creative writing.

Calstock Community Primary School worked with artist Gary Marshall-Stephens to design and paint a mural on an outbuilding in the school’s playground. “The kids felt there needed to be more colour in their outdoor play area,” says Bianchini. “Gary took them on a walk to think about what shapes and colours there are in their local environment that are inspiring.”

They also studied artists such as American graffiti artist and painter Jean-Michel Basquiat and David Hockney. As a result of the project, Marshall-Stephens went on to work with the local community to paint another mural in the town centre.

Another project was held at Sowenna, a child and adolescent mental health unit in Bodmin. Bianchini says artist Caroline Cleave began by observing eight children and what they were doodling.

The children preferred to work alone but over time she encouraged them to be expressive through their drawing and create “logos” made of symbols representing their thoughts and feelings. “One is an image of a dandelion – a really resilient flower,” says Bianchini.

Staff reported the project helped the children work together as a group. One boy who was reluctant to take part at first said he had “done something he was proud of”.

Bianchini says the key to the programme’s success is its ability to respond to young people’s interests and the flexibility for artists to work with groups in their own way. “It’s not about forcing anything on to young people,” she says. “It’s about helping them understand where they’re at, then helping them produce something creative to reflect on that or help them feel better.”

To date the project has commissioned 63 projects involving about 1,900 young people. These were delivered in primary and secondary schools, youth or community services, alternative education provision and special schools.

OUTCOME

All teachers, youth workers and other staff at settings that have taken part in Arts Lab say it has had a positive impact on children’s wellbeing.

Some said they had seen children’s confidence increase while others reported a reduction in behavioural challenges.

All settings surveyed at the end of year two said they would like to take part in the project again.

All the artists who took part in the project felt children and young people had learned new skills including creative skills and key life skills.

Of the 699 children and young people who took part in year two, artists said 37 per cent had improved social skills such as teamwork, negotiation and listening, and 28 per cent had improved fine and gross motor skills while a similar proportion had improved their communication skills.

Children who took part said the sessions made them feel happy and more confident.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Arts Lab is currently choosing which settings will be matched with artists in the project’s third year.

“We want to select groups who find creative activities harder to access,” says Bianchini.

If you think your project is worthy of inclusion, email supporting data toderren.hayes@markallengroup.com

EXPERIENCE
Creative workshops help Isha explore poetry in nature

Isha, 15, from Trevarren, Cornwall heard about the Arts Lab programme from her mum Amanda. Community-run Newquay Orchard offered creative sessions with sound artist Justin Wiggan. Isha was the youngest of about eight children to take part between March and May 2023. “I thought it would be a good break from school,” says Isha, who was then in year 9.

Isha has developmental delays. Her mum says Covid lockdowns were particularly hard for her as “safe places” she previously attended closed, including the Girl Guides and a riding club. “She struggles with friendships,” says Amanda.

At the workshops, Wiggan’s first project involved asking the children to “listen to clouds” and reflect on their emotions using a cloud-scanning device that turned the clouds’ appearance into sounds. “We listened to the clouds then we made haiku poems, painted them onto wood, and hung them around the orchards,” says Isha. “The clouds sounded angry that day.”

The group also “listened to” moss using another scanner. “It said our names, then we drew a pattern,” says Isha. The group made a paint mixture using moss to create moss graffiti on pieces of wood.

Isha says the group helped her make new friends and she has been involved with other projects at the orchard since. “It was good to be outdoors,” she says. She is proud of her work, which is still hanging in the trees.

The project caught the attention of BBC Radio Cornwall. Isha showed journalists around the orchard when they visited and was interviewed about the project.

“Involving Isha in things like Arts Lab enable her to have positive connections with other young people,” says Amanda. “The whole group were given the opportunity for their views to be heard. It was a massive boost for her confidence.”