Launch

A group of international organisations have joined forces to mark November as Arts and Health Month. Led by Arts Health Network Canada and The Australia Centre for Arts and Health the initiative is designed to bring attention internationally to the field of arts in health.

http://artshealthnetwork.ca/content/arts-health-month

http://www.artsandhealth.org/latest-news/artsandhealthmonth.html?

Arts in health organisation Creativity Works has created a touring public art project giving the public the opportunity to write down and then shred their anxieties before the shredded paper is created into a large-scale public sculpture.

The Worry Disposal Unit is led by artist Megan Clark-Bagnall, and part of a range of new artistic commissions called PENTAGON: a commission of five new pieces of socially engaged art across Bath and North East Somerset – taking place in Twerton, Keynsham, Radstock, Midsomer Norton and Peasedown St John.

A new resource from Public Health England is designed to help local organisations measure the mental wellbeing of children and young peoples. It also recommends drawing on local resources to enhance wellbeing, including through creative, community and physical activities.

Leading figures in the field of music for dementia will speak at the launch of Arts 4 Dementia’s report Music Reawakening: Musicianship and Access for Early to Mid Stage Dementia - The Way Forward  which presents wide-ranging musical projects as rehabilitation for people affected by dementia and proposes the integration of artistic stimulation, especially music, into the Dementia Care Pathway from diagnosis.

Aberdeenshire Council Arts Development in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland has published a hands on guide to activities for carers and people with early to middle stage dementia written in a recipe format, with an activity for every week of the year.

Activities include gardening, arts and crafts, writing, trips and games, and music and song. The overall aim is to improve wellbeing and self-esteem, help with cognition and rural isolation, and simply have fun together.

HRH Princess Anne will attend the preview night for the 28^th annual Art for Youth London exhibition on Monday 5 October 2015 at the Mall Galleries, London. The Art for Youth London exhibition raises funds to supporting the work of UK Youth.

The exhibition is free to attend and runs from 6 to 9 October.

Read more about attending the preview

'Re:Form' is the official opening of the 2015 Koestler Awards, the national showcase of arts by prisoners, offenders on community sentences, secure psychiatric patients and immigration detainees. Working alongside Southbank Centre exhibition hosts, to welcome visitors and invigilate the exhibition, are ex-offenders, specially recruited, trained and employed by the Koestler Trust.

Paintings in Hospitals invite you to enjoy and experience new products at their first ever pop up shop at the Menier Gallery from 18:00 on Thursday 03 September. The products – ranging from notebooks and colouring books to cards and pillow cases – will be available online from 3 September.

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NHS England has launched a new programme to encourage local hospitals to work together, sharing back office administration and management between different sites.

Outside In has launched an online shop offering artworks from across the country by artists who have traditionally been excluded from the arts world – often as a result of ill health or disability.