Tag: media

Plymouth Art Club’s Courageous Stories of Mental Health Recovery

  • What difficulties or challenges do our clients face?
  • What changes do we see in the participants’ journeys?
  • What kind of art projects do we make?
  • Do you need to be good at art to come to this club?

All these questions and more are answered in a new documentary. We Tell Your Story is a documentary series funded by the Plymouth Octopus Project, culminating in a major feature that premiered at Plymouth Arts Cinema on June 17, 2024. Directed by Drew Graves, this 36-minute film is a The Hundred Hands production, dedicated to highlighting Plymouth’s vibrant community stories.

The video production spanned two years and involved numerous local creators, from filmmakers to animators. Over 70 individuals were interviewed, capturing a diverse array of stories from across Plymouth. This initiative aims to elevate the profiles of various organisations through high-quality video formats, enabling them to reach new audiences.

The segment about Mindful Art Club CIC is about eight minutes long.

Watch now to find out:

  • Why is the peer support element of the group so important?
  • Why did Si Parnham (formerly of Colebrook SW) say it’s such an “inspiring” atmosphere?
  • How one woman found art club “accidentally” through The Sunflower Women’s Centre
  • And meet the gypsy artist made homeless when a rehab closed, and yet found  a way to express his “demons”.

Watch now and let us know what you think in the comments.

‘Art could help save the NHS millions…’

A woman who helped establish The Mindful Art Club in Plymouth has called for more research into what helps or at least can control the nation’s mental health struggles.

reports Nino Robertson for ‘Plymouth Live’ (The Herald).

We were delighted to welcome Nino to our group recently, who joined us for a mindful art session at Moments Café, with the Mayor and Consort.

Read: Lord Mayor Visits Mindful Art Club

Nino wrote this great article for Plymouth Live which describes what we do and why we do it.

Read: ‘Art could help save the NHS millions’ as club set up in Plymouth.

Join our club: Sign up for free colouring pages and doodle sheets.

[Video] Mindful Art at Ocean Studios

After winning a competition to receive a year’s business support from The Real Ideas Organisation we have now run hundreds of mindful art sessions, many of them at Ocean Studios in Royal William Yard. Watch now to find out:

  • Why we started this social enterprise
  • What happens at a typical mindful art session
  • See the stunning waterside venue at Ocean Studios
  • Hear from Lee Squires the benefits of volunteering
  • What is mindful drawing

Try mindful drawing at home: Sign up for free colouring pages and zen doodling activity sheets.

Unique Corporate Opportunity

As a small grass roots community group, over the past two years we have consistently offered mental health support and social connection to the Plymouth community during these unprecedented challenging times.

Our Impact

  • 69% of mindful art course participants said it had helped them with anxiety.
  • 44% said a mindful art course helped them with depression.
  • 40% said it helped them with another mental health issue.
  • 59% said it helped them with loneliness or isolation.
  • Participants also reported being helped with physical health, low self-esteem and other issues not listed in our survey.
  • 66% said they had increased their ability to use mindfulness.
  • 84% said they had increased their ability to use art as a self care practice.

(Source: Collected feedback form responses, accessed 04/02/22)

I enjoy the mindfulness and art. As I do art at home it helps my acute pain. The group makes me feel rested and at ease. Emma, Lee and Peggy are wonderful.

Anonymous participant feedback.

We are grateful to our existing grant funders who share our vision of a world where peer support, mindfulness, creative activities and social connection are easily available in local communities. With their support we have helped hundreds of people since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

  • We have received funding and support from Devon Mind, The Sunflower Women’s Centre, Comic Relief, Shekinah, The National Lottery Community Fund, High Street Sparks Fund, Devon Recovery Learning Community and Devon Community Foundation.
  • We won a year’s business support from Real Ideas Organisation.
  • We have secured media attention from The Plymouth Herald, The Plymouth Chronicle, BBC Radio Devon, many smaller local community radio stations, and BBC Spotlight News. In the Media.

How You Can Support Us

  • Sponsor a course, a group or a one day retreat
  • Book a staff wellbeing session
  • Donate directly with Paypal
  • Sign up to a regular corporate gift
  • Donate a gift in kind (for example room hire or art materials)
  • Encourage your employees to sign up to a challenge event in aid of Mindful Art Club
  • Organise your own fundraising event such as a bake sale, mufti day or casual Friday – tie it in with a national mental health awareness day

You Will Be Rewarded By

  • Enhancing your brand as socially responsible
  • Securing positive PR
  • Attracting socially conscious customers
  • Showing your employees you appreciate the importance of mental health
  • Making you look more attractive as an employer

If your business is passionate about improving mental health and reducing social isolation then contact us now to discuss a mutually beneficial partnership.

Ask for our brochure to find out more.

Providing a Lifeline to Those in Need

Mindful Art Club has provided a lifeline to people across Plymouth facing mental health challenges – and now our group is back operating in the community.

For Mental Health Awareness Week Plymouth Live has published a feature article explaining that we were gutted when a drug and alcohol rehab centre announced its shock closure two years ago.

“Having worked at Broadreach House for several years, (Emma and Peggy) had been able to support people from all walks of life and had seen first-hand how beneficial different creative activities could be for people struggling with their mental health and other issues.

Wanting to continue to serve the community and support people facing challenges in their lives, the colleagues teamed up to launch a “mindfulness art club” to support people manage their anxiety, stress and other mental health issues in a relaxed and safe creative environment.

The club became particularly popular at the start of 2020 and soon became a lifeline for members, with many people relishing the opportunity to connect with others in a non-judgemental environment while being able to talk freely about how they’re feeling and any stresses or anxieties in their lives.”

Read the full article on Plymouth Live, The Plymouth Herald website.

Good News if You Don’t Like Support Groups

Are you wary of support groups?

Do you hate people looking at you?

Dislike feeling pressured to speak?

We get it.

Listen now: Trace Jared-Davis and Emma Sprawson talk about why Mindful Art Club is different, and why social connections are now more important than ever.  You will also learn why you don’t need to be Van Gogh to join in with this art club.

This interview was first broadcast on Omnium Radio, Plymouths Community Radio on o5th March 2021. The full interview is below.

The new group launches Friday 19th March 2021.

Mindful Art Club on PTown Radio

In this relaxed and fun radio interview Chi asks Emma,

What is Mindful Art Club?

Where in Plymouth does it happen?

And who exactly is it for?

Emma Sprawson talks to Chi Bennett on Show and Tell With Queen Chi, PTown Radio, (15/01/21) about Mindful Art Club(R), a unique support group, that tackles social isolation and mental health in Plymouth, Devon.

Skip to 11 minutes in to hear Emma read a poem that explains how to stop, breathe and walk slowly into the mystery.

Skip to 12:35 where Chi asks, what if I’ve got kids at home? Can I still join in with the online group?

Emma Goes Live on the Radio

Emma Sprawson talks to Lester Jones on the morning show at Omnium Radio, (20/11/20) about Mindful Art Club(R), a unique support group, that tackles social isolation and mental health in Plymouth, Devon, UK.

Listen now to find out how Mindful Art Club continues to bring people together in a safe way, during a year when we were asked to socially distance ourselves from one another.

Skip to seven minutes in to try a quick mindful drawing exercise.

Try an online group or grab some free mindful colouring pages by signing up to our mailing list. (We never sell or share email addresses, we only send you a friendly monthly message to tell you about our latest low-cost, local events.)

Double Win For Community Art Group

We were pleased to see we’ve hit the headlines again, on page 11 of The Plymouth Chronicle. You can read the latest issue online.

Double Win for Community Art Group

Plymouth’s first and only Mindful Art Club are celebrating receiving £250 funding, and £3000 worth of business support. The £250 was awarded to them by Plymouth Octopus Project, to cover some of their volunteer expenses, and the year-long business support package has been offered to them by The Real Ideas Organisation.

Peggy Melmoth and Emma Sprawson had only been running community art groups for a few months when the coronavirus lockdown forced them to cancel all of their groups. They immediately began offering online versions of all their sessions using Zoom video conferencing software and broadcasting to Facebook Live. Before lockdown their groups had been part-funded by individual voluntary donations, but since the end of March 2020 Peggy and Emma have been running the groups purely as a volunteers.

When lockdown restrictions began to ease in July, they started running small outdoor mindful art groups in a park in Plympton, and then in August they launched a new weekly group at The Sunflower Women’s Centre in Plymouth. They now run four weekly groups around Plympton and Plymouth, and continue to run their free online group for those who can’t make it to a real-life session.

“We started Mindful Art Club to improve mental health and social connection in the Plymouth community by offering mutual aid support groups, and teaching mindfulness and art for self-care. We were literally trying to fight social isolation at a time when we were all advised to isolate ourselves!”

Peggy

“We used to be part of the support team at Broadreach House addiction treatment centre. When Broadreach closed last year we were both made redundant, but decided that we still wanted to use our skills to support people in the community.”

Emma

In October The Real Ideas Organisation offered a number of free membership packages worth over £3,000 each, to entrepreneurial people with ideas that they thought could become brilliant businesses. To apply for a fully funded Start Something membership Peggy and Emma submitted a written business proposal and a three minute video outlining their ideas.

Peggy said, “We are so excited to win this, and are really looking forward to networking with the other businesses that won a place.”

The fully funded membership package from Real Ideas gives Mindful Art Club access to workspace at Ocean Studios in Royal William Yard, business support mentors and access to events, workshops and one to one coaching. The Start Something project is part of the iMayflower project and has been supported by The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, who fund the Cultural Development Fund, which is administered by Arts Council England.

Emma said, “Just after winning the Start Something membership we also received £250 funding from Plymouth Octopus Project (POP), which covers some of our expenses volunteering at The Sunflower Women’s Centre.”

POP offers funding advice, business and planning support to Plymouth’s voluntary sector.

The Sunflower Women’s Centre is a women’s only outreach centre set up by Trevi House in 2016. Sunflower is a trauma-informed women’s wellbeing hub, providing opportunities for any woman who has support needs.

“We have been very happy to have had Peggy and Emma come into the Sunflower Women’s Centre  and give their time volunteering to run their wonderful Mindful Art group for our women.  This has been a valuable service and given many of our women support and some purpose and stability, with their patience and gentle listening ears during the lockdown period.”

Paula Carnell, Team Lead

To keep updated about Mindful Art Club’s latest weekly groups, online sessions and wellbeing courses sign up to the mailing list in the top right corner. We’ll send you some mindful colouring pages to soothe your mind while at home!