PPD Spring term

PPD Spring term

The Interim show February 21

I was displaying my work in the lecture theatre with Oscar Holmes and Chagla Memet, unfortunately I did not fully appreciate the requirements of the brief and only arrived to hang my work at 1pm, when we were due to have the work assessed at 1:30pm. This was a major failure on my part and if the interim had been part of Unit 9's assessment would have had serious consequences.

The Penultimatum show at the Copeland Gallery.

The name of the show was arrived at by an online debate and voting process, I voted for the name Penultimatum as a second choice, but was not unhappy with the outcome.

I along with the majority of the students on my Stage helped set up the show. Please see pictures below.

I also helped invigilate the show on saturday afternoon when one of my responsibilities was to keep a tally of visitor numbers. In total I recorded 145 visitors and several queries about who to contact about commissions, I referred these visitors to the show's catalogue, please see scans below.

After helping with taking down the work and wrapping and packing art works and helping load up the van I briefly helped with repairing any damage to the Copeland Gallery's walls. I then returned to Wimbledon to help unload the van.

Bad Painting Prize

On the afternoon of the 12th of March I helped set up the Bad Painting prize in the Lecture Theatre, this was a sort of knockabout version of the Copeland. That said the evenings auction raised a fair amount of money for the Degree show.

My contribution to the Prize!

Covid 19 Pandemic

Three days later on the 16th of March 2020, the UK government introduced the first formal social Distancing measures, this policy had immediate consequences for my PPD because I was scheduled to do two full days classroom observation at Waldegrave School, but in line with Government guidelines the school emailed me to cancel my visit.

In addition my Friday afternoon art club for RB MIND was suspended until further notice and an exhibition that I was helping the charity(RB MIND) prepare with the local authority and some local schools that was supposed to be opening in late March at the Orleans House Gallery was also cancelled. However, I continued to work with RBMIND to plan and deliver remote support to the service users who attended the art group. I developed self directed briefs for those clients who were having difficulty developing ideas, please see the document below.

Hello K.

Here are some easy Pandemic art activities:

1 Draw or paint from a photo, find a well lit area in your home set up a drawing board or something to serve as one and get a print of the picture and set it up so that you can see both the drawing board and the photo.

2 A still life, we did this in group and for an artist this is a very good exercise in observational drawing

3 The view from your window, look at this as making the best of an unpleasant situation.

All of these can be either drawings or if space and facilities allow paintings, remember that oil paints use solvents that create fumes. Therefore if you use oil paint open a window.

4) Portrait or self portrait

5) Continuing with existing pieces of work

I hope everyone stays safe and I look forward to seeing all of you when this thing passes.

Regards Tristram


Planned Exhibition at The Stables Gallery/ Riverside Gallery March-May 2020
I also advised them on a planned exhibition that I was initially invited to curate, however its planned opening in March would have clashed with both the Copeland show and the set up would have clashed with the interim so I had to decline. I did look over the initial proposal and give them feedback. The first document is the original proposal, the second is my response to it. The proposal cites May as being the month of the exhibition but the Gallery and local authority offered the charity the space from the end of February to the end of May

Proposal to curate an Art and Mental Health Awareness Exhibition at Riverside Gallery and/or The Stables Gallery

                                            

Background

Richmond Borough Mind is celebrating 60 years as the local mental health charity offering a broad range of help and support for people who experience mental health issues.  To coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week 2020, RB Mind would like to host a special celebratory exhibition in Riverside Gallery (and/or The Stables Gallery) from the 18^th – 24^th May.

Our History

RBMind was borne out of the original Twickenham Association for Mental Health founded in 1959.  This service was run purely on a voluntary basis but, as ‘Care in the Community’ became the approach for those no longer needing continuing care in a hospital environment, it established and ran group homes for people in mental distress. 

Twickenham Mind continued to grow and flourish and by 1971, Richmond and Barnes Mind was established running three group homes, a nearly new shop and funding the Vineyard Project Drop-in Centre offering therapies and activities for the vulnerable and homeless.  In 1988 a Counselling Service was established and remains an important part of the portfolio of services offered by RB Mind.

Today, RBMind offers a range of accessible services from supporting people with long term mental health issues and their carers, to running our Wellbeing Centre, Counselling Service and Peer Support Network.  In addition, RBMind also serves the wider community including workshops in schools, seminars and training for businesses and general mental wellbeing awareness in the community.  With over 100 volunteers supporting our work, RBMind plays a significant role in the Borough of Richmond.

Mental Health and Art

As part of our services caring for the vulnerable, our clients are encouraged to use artistic means of expression as part of their therapy.  We run active art and craft groups across a range of our services.  Our Wellbeing Centre at 32 Hampton Road runs a popular art group and holds the occasional exhibition and displays our client’s artwork at the centre.  Our Positive Living Group runs a weekly art and craft group and every Friday we also have an art group for all the carers RB Mind supports in the borough.

In addition, we have a poetry group and a new anthology is to be published next year.

Exhibition Proposal

RB Mind plan on curating an exhibition to include art, video, written and spoken word which will provide a forum for people to learn about mental health and share experiences. The exhibition will aim to demonstrate the connection and benefits of art in mental wellbeing, not just as a therapeutic tool but also as a way of understanding mental health issues.

Unlike previous exhibitions Orleans House has supported around mental health (Oi Neun Sprunt in 2017, Madge Gill and Art and Soul 2018) this exhibition will be framed around the Richmond Community and will attempt to embrace the wider public in increasing awareness of mental health.  Last year’s theme for Mental Health Awareness Week was Body Image.  The them for 2020 has not been announced yet however, when it is, the exhibition will link to this theme where possible.

The exhibition will include:

Static works:

·       Artwork and crafts produced by service users of RBMind and other support charities in Richmond

·       Poems and extracts will also be displayed

·       A brief history of RBMind and the concept of ‘care in the community’

Video:

·       From our youth projects we propose to run videos of young people talking about mental health issues

·       Videos of clients reading their poetry

Photography:

·       We are currently seeking funding to run a school’s photography competition, aimed at challenging the current photographic images of mental health.  With or without the funding, this is something we are considering and should we be successful in gaining space then we would hope to include a photographic section

Interactive space:

·       As we propose to include video produced by local youths we would look at ways that we can introduce an interactive element for children and young people

Artwork and the poetry books will be available for sale.

A small selection of artwork produced by clients current and past:

Responses and recommendations for RB Mind Mental Health Awareness Week Art Exhibition.

Tristram Ellam-Bell

First as we discussed I would open the exhibition up to local schools.

Mental health is a huge issue in secondary schools and I think from the point of view of community engagement, engaging with local secondary schools and sixth forms in addition to the work RB Mind are doing with local Primary Schools, would promote local awareness of RBMIND. I would as discussed divide applications into key stages. This could include all the mentioned categories, painting, drawing, film and poetry.

In terms of the communities involvement, interactive element of the exhibition I would run drawing/ art workshops, that would include led activities that dealt specifically with issues around mental health and wellbeing, again these would be divided along key stage lines. For example one of these could be a workshop that would introduce participants to the tree of life idea that I experienced in a MIND carers workshop I attended. I think repurposed as a tool for keeping exam anxiety under control it could be very useful. With the older children it will be possible to have much more in depth discussions about what support they need and what they would like to gain from attending the workshops.

Other ideas for community sessions could include’ Painting What’s in your head’. This brief is open ended enough so that it will allow those who don’t feel ready to expose themselves to draw any idea or fantasy they might have and for those who are more emotionally literate there is the room to delve more deeply into the unconscious 

The other aspect we discussed was involving parent governors and from local schools as judges, I would also reach out to both the Mayor of London and Richmond’s Mayor, while it is unlikely that Mr. Khan will accept, if you don’t ask you don’t get. Even if he refuses you are on his radar and that will be no bad thing in the future. I would also advocate contacting some of the larger more reputable private art galleries in central London, baring in mind that outsider art and mental health are of national media interest and as such could be thought of as having zeitgeist,  this is of course where personal connections come in to play, staff and volunteers at RBMIND could make use of any prior contact with the art world.

Orleans House has a good group of experienced teaching professionals who could run the workshops. I would also suggest that volunteers from RBMIND be asked to involve themselves.

Below is the text from the email from the school, I have redacted most of the schools details in line with data protection this email was sent on Friday 13th March.

Subject: FW: pre PGCE observation

Dear Tristram

Unfortunately due to the current health situation with COVID-19 the school has taken the decision to postpone any external observers coming into school for the time being.  It will therefore not be possible for you to come in and observe next week.

I am sorry to disappoint you but hope you understand the reasons why this is necessary.

Kind regards

K.