The Great East Swim

Talking Care

Suffolk Artlink is working with Suffolk County Council to capture the stories and experiences of family carers living in Suffolk. We will be using their thoughts and stories to create a shared resource for new family carers.

Suffolk Artlink is running creative sessions to help carers tell their stories in Ipswich, Lowestoft and Stowmarket between February and the end of March. If any family carers are interested in joining the sessions please contact us – [email protected] / 01986 873955. Alternatively you can complete the postcard below and return it to us by post.

artlink JumpstART.jpg

Rock Up

Last week we welcomed back Sophie, our regular DJ.

As well as being a DJ, Sophie is also a vocalist and she will be using her skills and experience to support the young people, as they prepare for a gig later this spring.

The young people were keen to write their own material for the performance, and Sophie has been coaching them on how to write a pop song. She got the group thinking about what they’d really like to write about – and after some chat they decided that ‘friendship’ was something that really mattered to them, not least identifying the difference between real friends and people who pretended to like you.

As one young person said, ‘Take us, as an example. When we first started at Rock Up, we’d never play together, we just came in and did our own stuff, on our own. But over the months, we’ve really got to know each other, we share what we’re learning, and the songs we like – we have a common interest – and now we’re even writing songs together. It’s awesome, we’ve come such a long way together.’

Talking-teddies

Suffolk at Play Talking teddies

Whilst half the group of students worked with Emma and Caitlin on their animations, the other half joined residents at Cedrus House – to discuss teddy bears. Several bears were included in the conversations and Eve shared the following story of her favourite teddy bear, Cuddles.

When Eve was a young girl, she contracted rheumatic fever and was admitted to the ‘Children’s Hospital’, where she stayed for a long time. She was given a teddy bear, which she called Cuddles; Cuddles used to lay beside her in bed at night and was very cuddly.

Eve had to spend a long time lying still – in those days the fear was that the fever would spread to the joints and cause greater injury – and when she finally got out of hospital she had to stay in bed, up in her bedroom. Cuddles was a constant companion.

Her father put Eve’s bed up on blocks, so that by turning her head to one side she could see out of the window and watch the other children, playing in the garden. Eve says that it really helped, as it made her feel more part of what was going on. ‘I didn’t feel so left out of things,’ she said.

Eve kept Cuddles with her all the time. ‘If Cuddles could have talked’, said Eve, ‘he would have asked to get off my lap and go out to play’.

Clown Round

Children’s wards across the region have been full of laughter and silliness over the past few weeks with visits to Colchester, Ipswich and James Paget Hospitals.

Earlier in the month Dr Mischief and Dr Fidget welcomed Councillor Sarah Stamp from Suffolk County Council to the Bergholt Ward at Ipswich Hospital, so that she could see what Clown round is all about. Sarah was witness to all sorts of naughtiness on the ward and in the playroom, as Dr Mischief and Dr Fidget got patients plate spinning, signing, juggling scarves, doing magic tricks and generally laughing uncontrollably!

In other news, Filomena Cristallino (aka Dr Fidget) proudly delivered a whopping great cheque for £462.35 this month from over 90 ‘Fidget and Hamish’ book sales. All proceeds from sale of these books are generously donated by the author Filomena Cristallino and illustrator Bee Willey to Suffolk Artlink.

We are also over the moon to announce The Stock Exchange Veterans Charity Association  very kindly donated the generous sum of £500 towards Clown Round activity. This money will help Suffolk Artlink maintain the programme of visits across the region in 2016, but most importantly will help the Clown Doctors to continue to bring laughter and distraction to children and young people who need it most.

JumpstART!

Our Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich and Lowestoft carnival arts taster sessions were great fun. Workshops included model making, masks and carnival head dresses.

artlink-JumpstART-2
In Lowestoft the lead artist, Kasia Posen, expanded on the ideas of mask making using plastic milk cartons. The students gained inspiration by looking at pictures of ‘horned animals’ and used their ideas to create their own masks to great effect.

artlink-JumpstART
We are especially excited about the modules starting in two weeks as it is the first time we will run a JumpstART! a module in Ipswich.

Creative Employment Programme

The Suffolk Creative Employment Programme supports paid internships and apprenticeships for young unemployed adults.

Currently there are exciting internship opportunities on offer at The John Peel Centre of Creative Arts and the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket and Gecko theatre, Out Loud Music and Pop Hit Factory in Ipswich are open to applications for their internships.

For more information go to www.suffolkartlink.org.uk/cep

Grants towards the costs of providing internships and apprenticeships are available to arts and creative employers in Suffolk. If you are interested in recruiting an apprentice or intern please contact Alistair Winch either by email at [email protected] or by telephone on 01986 873 955.

advert

imajaz artwork for web and print
imajaz artwork for web and print & publishers of Iceni Post