My Voice Matters: The Young People’s Art Group
The role of art has become part of wider discussions in relation to the design of healthcare environments as it can create an increased sense of calm, ambience, and impact positively on staff and service users’ wellbeing. Participation and engagement from those with lived experience is vital to ensuring our service users benefit from therapeutic artwork.
Taken from Marcus Coates’ workshop
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A new arts programme was developed with the Bethlem Gallery and includes site-specific artwork which will be displayed across the building. The Young People’s Art Group, a group of young people with lived experience of mental health conditions, was formed for this project and took a leading role in appointing the artists for each commission for the centre and providing feedback directly to the artist at each stage of their artwork.
The commissioned artists, Bethany Williams, Marcus Coates, Sahra Hersi, Sarah Carpenter and Carlos Cortes have also held workshops with several young people using our services and are currently preparing their final artwork to be installed at the Centre.
One of the young people to take part in The Young People’s Art Group was Naz. Most recently Naz edited text for pears Maudsley artwork interpretation to make text more accessible for young people. Speaking on her numerous involvements in the project, she explained:
“”I felt as if I’ve been encouraged to share my voice and had my opinions heard and given value during the participation work, I’ve taken part in. Participation work has been an important part of my recovery since I was 16 years old as it’s helped me set goals and achieve them and keep my mind occupied with something productive and purposeful. It has led me to many new and exciting opportunities and pushed me out of my comfort zone.”
Taken from Sahra Hersi’s workshop
“The most recent participation project I’ve taken part in is the Young People’s Art Group for Pears Maudsley. Exploring wellbeing and art is something that really interests me as I’d love to be an art therapist and art has always been something that has brought me a lot of comfort and helped me express myself during difficult times. I felt as if my voice mattered when I helped choose the artists who created the display cabinets for the Pears Maudsley Centre and when I was invited to speak at a roundtable discussion at the Science Gallery on behalf of the Young People’s Art Group.”
“In the past, I’ve also done participation work with other charities and organisations including one that helped me learn debating skills. It was a really enjoyable experience that still means a lot to me as debate training helped me feel more confident and learn to advocate for myself and express my needs and have open discussions about mental health. I feel debate training has opened a lot of doors for me and has been a stepping stone in the journey of participation work I’m involved in now, collaborating with Pears Maudsley and even continuing my participation work in a professional setting.”
Taken from Bethany Williams’ workshop