Health and wellbeing

Equity's Northern Ireland National Committee has announced a new Safe Home initiative.

The announcement took place at EquityFest yesterday (June 26), the union's first Northern Ireland performing artist convention, which hosted several talks including Equity4Women Toolkit, Tax and Benefits as well as launching its Safe Home campaign. 
 
The campaign calls for venues to safeguard performing artists and technicians who work at night or in vulnerable locations in Northern Ireland.
 
The campaign asks venue owners and managers to agree to the following principles:
•    Artists will be accompanied to their ongoing transport by two staff members unless they request otherwise.
•    Artists will be provided with reputable taxi firm numbers to arrange their transport.
•    Payment for artists' travel is made clear within their contract.
•    If the venue has car parking, artists will be provided with a free car parking space on request.
 
Venues signing up for these principles will receive an Equity poster showing their commitment.
 
The campaign is aimed at performers and technicians whose work can include leaving venues late at night, parking and loading out in insecure locations with expensive and/or cumbersome equipment and a lack of personal security.

Revolution Performing Arts (RPA) has announced a partnership with specialist tuition service Hunt Scholars to create alternative provision for children with varied needs.

The two organisations will work together to support young people with non-traditional educational needs or those who may have found that school is not for them.

Revolution@HuntScholars will run initially from North Swindon, accepting referrals from local schools and support organisations and working with home-educating families, who are invited to make contact directly.

“We plan to offer a bespoke package to children who for many reasons have been unable to flourish in the school system,” said RPA’s founder Fi Da Silva-Adams.

“Academic education works best when a person feels part of a community of shared values, feels their skills and contributions are important and that their experiences are validated. We wanted to create a safe space with the right environment for resilience to develop and self-esteem to grow.”

Sessions will be tailored to help young people integrate into the wider community, as well as to reinforce skills across the curriculum, “linking them back to education in a way which feels relevant and attainable for them”, she added.

Ellie Hunt, a qualified teacher who runs Hunt Scholars, described RPA’s work as “naturally exuberant and joyful”.

“It is a place where children feel accepted, not ‘othered’, so that they can have the confidence to be themselves,” she said.

Other local providers primarily use sport to support young people with differing needs, she said, “so the time is right for an art-based package”. 

“We will use drama to develop emotional literacy such as understanding what body language may look like. Dance can help children who need movement breaks because they can’t sit still for long. By trying circus skills a child might master balancing a peacock feather on their finger and take that confidence forward into a maths lesson.”  

A new fund has been launched in Scotland to nurture specialist practice in participatory arts and mental health.

Creative Scotland’s Participatory Arts and Mental Health Fund is backed with £145,000 from The National Lottery.

Created in partnership with the Baring Foundation and the Mental Health Foundation, the initiative is in response to increased interest in the connections between art, health and well-being.

Kim Simpson, Creative Scotland’s Head of Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion, hopes the fund will help promote a deeper understanding of the role the arts can play in this area.

She said: “The funding will allow for time and space for new ideas and approaches to be explored and developed, and for innovative ways of working to emerge that will benefit mental health prevention and recovery within participatory settings.”

She added that work in this area “couldn’t be more crucial or timely as we in Scotland, like other nations in the UK and around the world, grapple with the worsening mental health crisis”.

Businesses in the arts and entertainment industry have seen one of the biggest rises in sick leave across the UK, research has found.

The Sick Leave Report 2023, conducted by HR firm Access People HR, analysed sickness rates from more than 2,000 businesses, finding that the average company in the arts reported 39 days lost to sick leave in 2022. This compares with an average of 24 in 2021, 28 in 2020 and 20 in 2019.

In total, the sector experienced 66.7% more days lost in the last year due to short and long-term illness. The industries that charted the highest rise in the past year were water supply, sewerage and waste management (135% rise) and accommodation and food service activities (146%).

The firm said the rise in sickness rates in the arts and entertainment industry could be a sign that attitudes have changed following the pandemic, including concerns around spreading contagious diseases to the public.

It also pointed out that there is labour shortage in the sector, with arts officers, producers, dancers, musicians and artists all on the government's list of shortage occupations.

Re-Live Cardiff, a theatre company working exclusively with veterans and the elderly, has been selected as the main winner of the annual Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Award for Civic Arts Organisations.

The organisation was awarded £100,000 by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which has been running its award for outstanding community engagement work for three years.

Two further prizes of £25,000 each were awarded to Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast, for its work with asylum seekers and women, and to People United, a Canterbury-based charity working with young refugees.

“The organisations we chose to receive this year’s award stood out for us because of the ways in which they are pioneering and embedding new ways of co-creating with their communities, putting people at the heart of their thinking,” said chair of the panel Baroness Deborah Bull.

Re-Live Cardiff helps veterans, the elderly and people with dementia to write and perform their stories as plays, as well as offering training for health and social care workers.

“We're so thrilled to have this recognition. This work has transformed lives amongst underrepresented communities across Wales,” said Karin Diamond, Re-Live’s Artistic Director.

“Now we have the potential to expand our work, which has already begun to grow internationally, shape policy and improve lives in Wales and beyond,” she added.

Golden Thread Gallery worked with local organisations to produce “Welcome to Belfast” information packs in Arabic and Farsi to help migrant women integrate in Northern Ireland, as well as creating art packs for child refugees.

“We have big plans for the future and will be creating a Process room for communities to engage with our work, as well as developing new connections with schools and groups,” said Sarah McAvera, the gallery’s Deputy Director.

People United’s “Future of Care” programme has collaborated with Kent Refugee Action Network to help young refugees and asylum seekers express themselves through painting.

“Having the resources to continue our collaboration, enabling young refugees and asylum seekers to use art to reflect on and articulate their experiences, is so exciting”, said Janice McGuinness, CEO of People United.