Peggy Melmoth and Kerry Evans were up super-early to appear on the breakfast show at BBC Radio Devon, on Sunday 30th July 2023. Watch and listen now to see pictures of them in the studio.
We need your help to help to raise funds to carry on a weekly support group at Moments Café in Plymouth’s city centre. After three years of experience, we know there are tools to increase emotional resilience, make friends, cope with difficult feelings and live happier lives. We want to share this knowledge with as many people as possible and be a positive force for good in a world that can seem overwhelming. With your support, our service can help anyone who is struggling to recover and thrive. One in four of us experience a mental health problem in any given year, so creating stigma-free spaces which offer community connection, reflection and creativity has never felt so important. – Peggy, Emma and Kerry.
Plymouth mum, Kerry Evans, has had her long hair shaved off to raise £470 towards Mindful Art Club’s Crowdfunding project. We are aiming to raise £7,000 to continue the Friday support group at Moments Cafe in Plymouth. There’s a cool little video too, to explain where the money goes!
A Plymouth mum has ‘braved the shave’ to support her local community art group.
On Friday July 14th July Kerry Evans, had her hair shaved off in front of a live audience at a comedy and music event in Stonehouse. The Storytelling Collective gig was funded by Plymouth Octopus Project.
Mindful Art Club offers free mental health support groups using mindfulness, art and conversation in various venues around Plymouth. Kerry first discovered Mindful Art Club at The Sunflower Women’s Centre, where she found it helped her with her anxiety, depression and social isolation.
Kerry said, “An absolutely fantastic entertaining night. I love my new hair-cut and I am so proud to be able to raise money for Mindful Art Club. I was nervous, but with friends and family around me I had the courage, and felt at ease with the hairdresser, Linda Smith-Wightman. Thank you Linda, you’re amazing. I had an amazing night; thank you for all your support and donations. I’ve raised £470 which is absolutely amazing.”
A recent research study has revealed significant social benefits, and improvements to mental health, can be measured in those attending a community art group. The research was led by Dr Helen Lloyd, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, in collaboration with two researchers; Abbie Scott BSc, and Rachel Mullee BSc. The research project was co-designed by a committee which included art club participants, art club volunteers, and the Mindful Art Club directors Peggy Melmoth and Emma Sprawson.
The study found that our creative activities provide a distraction from negative thoughts and social anxiety. Our art encourages ‘flow’- a relaxing empowering experience- and attending Mindful Art Club can boost confidence and self-esteem while reducing social isolation.
Read the full story in the Central & Waterfront edition of The Plymouth Chronicle for August 2023.
We are pleased to have been awarded £500 towards a Mindful Art Club for older people. The funding for this Magic Little Grant has been provided by Localgiving in partnership with the Postcode Local Trust, a grant giving organisation funded by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
This will help us with the cost of running our Thursday group at The London Inn, Church Road, Plympton. This group meets weekly at midday for coffee, creativity and company. Our aim is to improve mental health and reduce social isolation.
We are so excited to announce that we are launching a Crowdfunding campaign for Mindful Art Club on Monday 3rd July 2023. Do you know what that means?
It means that in just four days time we are hosting an exciting online event that will be live-streamed to Facebook, and will include guided mindfulness with Emma, performance poetry by Peggy, and other surprise guests.
Could you ask for sponsorship for a running event, cycling challenge, daily swim or walking challenge? (Remember Captain Tom Moore, who made the headlines in 2020 when he raised money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday?)
Want to shave your head to raise funds? Art Club volunteer Kerry Evans is doing that on 14th July!
Top Tip – Tag Mindful Art Club in all your Facebook posts and make the posts public, so that people who do not know you have the opportunity to sponsor you too.
Quit Smoking – Even non-smokers are aware of how challenging it can be to kick a smoking habit, so this challenge will often inspire generous donations. Ask your friends and family to sponsor you in order to motivate you to quit for a month.
Dry July – The perfect way to get healthy and all for a good cause. As well as getting sponsorship for going dry, you can save up the money you would have spent down the pub and donate this at the end of the month too.
Top Tip – Get your friends and family involved in the challenge. This will help to raise even more money and reduce the likelihood of you cheating!
Are you in? Contact us now and we will set you up a fundraising page that links to our Crowdfunder. We can also send you a printable paper sponsorship form.
More Ideas
Charity Dinner Party – Host your own Come Dine with Me event, or themed tea party, charging your guests to taste your culinary delights.
Shave your beard or grow a moustache (Think Movember!)
We would also appreciate it if you would share our crowdfunding campaign page on Facebook and Twitter when it is live, to help us reach more people.
We couldn’t do our vital work in Plymouth without the help of generous charitable donations. So please join us to help us offer more mental health support groups at Moments Café in Plymouth city centre.
Hi, my name’s Kerry and I come to Mindful Art Club on a Friday at Moments Café.
Mindful Art Club help so many people through tough times, they help with isolation issues, mental health of all kinds and loneliness, They have personally helped me through all of these challenges and more.
I was extremely isolated lonely and depressed, I found Mindful Art Club, let’s say by chance, but I call it fate personally. Emma, who is one of the owners of Mindful Art Club, asked me if I wanted to join when I was at The Sunflower Women’s Centre, I declined at first saying I can’t draw. Emma said, “You don’t need to be good!” so I decided to be brave and joined in group. I was welcomed with a big smile and felt welcome right away. I left feeling I wanted more, I was extremely isolated, lonely and depressed, and I now I attend other groups on a Wednesday and Friday at different locations.
After about a year of attending I offered my help for volunteering, I feel passionate about making sure Mindful Art continues on a regular basis and I would feel lost, lonely and depressed again without it in my life. I do volunteer and I now see how much work Emma and Peggy have to put into it to keeping it going, I appreciate Emma and Peggy and all the volunteers who work so hard to help others.
A note from Peggy and Emma
We know that Mindful Art Club improves mental health and reduces social isolation in Plymouth, because of many personal stories like Kerry’s, and because of a recent research study done by the psychology department at Plymouth University.
Now we need your help to raise enough funds to carry on this weekly support group at Moments Café, in the centre of Plymouth. So please, donate what you can and share this with your friends. Thank you.
Want to help, but don’t have any money? No problem. Use EasyFundraising and brands will make donations to us when you shop online. You don’t have to pay a penny, and you get to support our work.
Peggy Melmoth from Mindful Art Club asks OJ Borg three questions on her specialist subject, on Midnight Mastermind.
Specialist Subject: The effects of art and creativity on our mental health
1) What three feelings does creativity help with? 2) What is the main aim of art therapy? 3) On our website we say, “Do you remember when you enjoyed art as a child?” Why do you think we say that?
Listen now to find out if OJ got the answers right!
Midnight Mastermind is the part of the show where listeners get to challenge OJ.
OJ Borg
Ask him three questions on your specialist subject, but how many will he get right? It can be questions on absolutely anything! You set the subject, so what would your specialist subject be on Midnight Mastermind? Comment below and let us know.
Are you already in recovery but want to connect with others?
Recovery Art Clubis a free, weekly group at Moments Cafe in Plymouth city centre. The group is upstairs in the Arthur Read room and will be running for two months.
Starts: Wednesday 31st May 1.00pm – 2.30pm
Moments Café, 69a New George Street, Plymouth, PL1 1RJ
Even if you can’t decide whether you have a problem or not, you are welcome to come along. There is no art experience required! Friendly and informal. Just grab a coffee and join in.
Connect with others and discover new ways of practising self-care through easy art and mindfulness exercises. Practice being here in the present moment, and accept where you are right now, without self-judgement. We will also be inviting some inspiring guest speakers to these groups, to talk about addiction and recovery.
The group is hosted by Emma Sprawson and Peggy Melmoth. They are the founders of Mindful Art Club, and have a background of working for many years in addiction treatment centres in Plymouth.
Places are free thanks to a grant from Devon Community Foundation, but booking is essential as we expect this group to be popular.
Mindful Art Session
We start with a brief chat about how everyone is feeling, then a short guided mindfulness session, followed by a simple art activity that anyone can do. Our mission is to make mindfulness more fun! We’re not teaching art techniques, we’re just here to play.
Places are limited, so if you cannot attend please let us know and we can offer your place to someone else. Book now.
Not ready for this group yet? Join our mailing list to hear about other free events.
A new research study has revealed significant social benefits, and improvements to mental health, can be measured in those attending a community art group. The research has been led by Dr Helen Lloyd, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, in collaboration with two researchers; Abbie Scott BSc, and Rachel Mullee BSc. The research project was co-designed by a committee which included art club participants, art club volunteers, and the Mindful Art Club directors Peggy Melmoth and Emma Sprawson.
The research was funded by the university’s Get Involved Awards, and the findings were presented at an event at the university on Friday 12th May 2023.
Watch now:
The University of Plymouth used a mix of methods to assess qualitative and quantitative data involving the service-user opinion. They concluded in May 2023:
Our creative activities provide a distraction from negative thoughts and social anxiety. Our art encourages ‘flow’- a relaxing empowering experience- and attending Mindful Art Club can boost confidence and self-esteem while reducing social isolation.
Participants made statistically significant improvements in their mood from attending our sessions. Attendance at Mindful Art club also improved participants’ level of social connect, facilitated emotional regulation strategies and supported positive mental wellbeing.
After presenting our findings we enjoyed drinks and nibbles, and meeting other community organisations who had partnered with academic researchers on different projects, funded by the Get Involved Awards.
Our Offer
We can bring Mindful Art Club into your organisation as a one-off wellbeing session, or a six week course. These can be delivered online or in person. To get proven results for your staff or service users contact us today.
Peggy Melmoth, Kerry Evans, Emma Sprawson, Dr Helen Lloyd, Abbie Scott.
The retreat takes place in the picturesque village of Plympton St Maurice, near Plymouth, in South Devon. Outdoor activities are held in public green spaces; lunch is served in the local Guildhall. Most of the event is outdoors but can be moved to our indoor venue in the case of rain.
Includes coffees, teas and lunch of crusty bread, homemade cakes and a selection of cheeses, houmous, olives and fruit.
