Hearts

Monday 26 April - Saturday 29 May

LBT Exhibitions - Throughout the venue, open Mon - Sat: 9.30am - 5pm

Exhibitions are also open to view on evenings when the venue opens for performances. Sunday opening times are from 1 hour before the performance starts.

An exciting and ambitious endeavour to draw together and illustrate the relationship between Health and the Arts.

Hearts as a title for the exhibition captures both the crossing of the words Health and Arts, but also the emotional, intellectual and physiological impact of health or arts for a huge number of people.

To make this an even more personal and meaningful experience/exhibition we are creating a discreet cosy little space within the theatre where anyone can sit and choose to watch the DVDs (from a number of different projects and initiatives that are coming in as part of the exhibition). There is a huge amount to explore, and to give you a further insight look out for Hearing Voices (Friday 28 May) and Small Worlds (Tuesday 8 - Saturday 12 June).

In The Hot Seat

An exhibition of original artworks, portraiture and text. This exhibition depicts the work of participants and staff at the Huddersfield-based arts & mental health charity Artists in Mind (AiM).

The photographs are self-portraits taken at Turnbridge Mill in Huddersfield, where AIM was based at the time. The artists were asked to bring a piece of their artwork with which to be photographed. In addition to the portraits, the artists were interviewed about the artworks they selected and also how being part of AIM has affected them and their work. The result is an opportunity to both see the artist responsible for the work and to gain an insight into the creative process.

Lizard Picture

This was created by a group of child patients with the Department of Therapeutic and Specialised Play at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

RMCH provides one of the largest and most comprehensive hospital play services in the UK and Europe. Offering diagnostic, therapeutic, developmental and specialised play for all children/young people and families from all cultures and backgrounds. The play specialists work with children and young people on all wards and areas of the hospitals.

Heartbeat | Garry Popple

Wire sculpture covered with mirror shards, featuring inner light source. Garry Popple 2009-2010.

The human Heart beats about 100,000 times each day and in a lifetime spanning 70 years will beat more than 2.5 billion times. This is something that we all share, every one of us has a heart that beats no matter what age, sex or race we are and we each share in this one common process.

Heartbeat is an exploration of this repetitive process, originally inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Zabriskie Point, Heartbeat is a contemporary expression of the repetitive nature of life and an example of the uniformity that binds us all together in a world that seems fixated on separation and division.

www.garrypopple.blogspot.com (shows how Garry developed the piece)

To The Heart | Barbara Hellowell

My discovery of the intricate inner workings inside us, normally hidden from view.

In the circulatory system, venous blood is blood returning to the heart. I have created in wire, life size, the rhythmic flow, a textured grouping of wires tracing the blood. The spacing and movement of the wire defining the position of the veins. The veins pulsating towards the heart like roots. Finer wire creates the roots that map the human outline. A new approach for me, using wire in this way.

Bini Atkinson

During the last 15 month I have produced work based on a recent surgery to my feet. I have documented the physical changes through the medium of print , bookmaking and stitched papers.

I work using altered and recycled materials and papers. Through a combination of cutting, tearing, waxing, oiling, glazing, scratching, sanding and stitching, I produce work that records my healing process. I learnt a number of suture techniques from the surgical team that worked on my feet and am incorporating these into more current work.

Portrait of a Life

Portrait of a Life is a multi-media toolkit for life story work. The Portrait of a Life team aims to encourage the development of life stories for people in health and social care settings as well as those who are being supported in their own homes.

The team encourage the use of different media and creative approaches to sharing life stories including; memory boxes, electronic journals, life story boards, DVDs, poetry and music. The team work mainly but not exclusively with older people in the Kirklees, Calderdale and Wakefield areas and are employed within South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Work displayed here today has been put together by Lynda Holroyd and Mark Crowther. Some of the work here today has been developed in partner organisations including Kirklees Council and the work of Carol Milenowicz.

The Portrait of a Life toolkit is an eighteen month project which has been supported by a grant awarded by the Mental Health Foundation in February 2009.

Breathing Space | HOOT

HOOT is a mental health organisation which provides creative activities to promote health and well being. Breathing Space was a pilot project run by HOOT and funded by Community Liaison (part of Kirklees Council) which provided a range of creative activities specifically for older people with mental health issues.

Participants were involved in movement, visual arts and music sessions, wrote and recorded their own songs and performed at the end of project showcase. In the project the participants were encouraged and supported to challenge and express themselves, and have loads of fun.

www.hootmusic.co.uk

www.kirklees.gov.uk

Work is 2D and includes a DVD which can be watched in the snug.

Stronger Together | Nerve Centre Art Group

We are showcasing the work of the Nerve Centre’s Art Group, it’s a place to meet new friends and learn new skills. The caring environment gives members the opportunity to explore their own thoughts and emotions in a creative manner, but also enables them to speak freely about their conditions with people who understand.

'I have to make the effort to come to the art group, but when I’m here I don’t to want to leave' Paul

'A place to come & switch off and put pen/paint to paper and see what happens' Tracey

'Everyone has potential and the opportunity of self expression, the group allows us to relax and be as we are' Amanda

'It’s so relaxing, everyone knows everyone, there’s no pressure' Margaret

'When I go to The Nerve Centre I meet others like myself who have had their future plans and ambitions disrupted by difficult often unpredictable medical conditions. I mix with people at the Centre who have different stories to tell each other while drinking tea or coffee, while waiting for therapies or during the art group or other group sessions. There is such a lot of laughter between friends found at The Nerve Centre. It gives me so much gladness to go there so whenever I leave I know I will be going back again and again.' Heather

There are an estimated 350,000 people living with a neurological condition in the West Yorkshire area. In 2005 a group of dedicated people got together and created The Nerve Centre. The Charity now supports people living with neurological conditions, their families and carers throughout the Kirklees area. It runs a variety of activities and therapies such as Yoga, Tai Chi, Reiki, Aromatherapy, Reflexology and Indian head massage, plus a creative writing group and arts & craft workshops - all designed to increase self confidence and improve the quality of life of members.

www.thenervecentrekirklees.org.uk

Colour Moves | Serendipity Art

Young people come through the doors of Serendipity Art for many reasons and many different projects, but all the work of Serendipity Art is about the journey people make and the stories they have to tell, and about helping them plan the story they want to create, their life story with a new positive light.

Colour plays an important part in helping young people explore their feelings,and helping them express and communicate through a completely different way. This project explored the relationship between music, colour and mark making, it helped them to listen and respond to the beat, harmony and the emotion that the music created.

The Day The Earth Stood Still | Mikey Peterson and John Lyons

This film was created entirely by paediatric patients through the Snow City Arts programme in Chicago. The children acted, operated the cameras, directed and wrote scenes, helped digitally edit, and even created sound effects and wrote the musical score. In the end, more than 80 young patients at Rush and Stroger Hospitals created this film over the course of 8 months.

"Guy Ben-Ner’s film adaptation of Moby Dick - exhibited in the spring of 2008 at Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art - was our project’s inspiration. We similarly thought we could adapt a feature-length film, but also knew the key to success was making sure the viewers forgot that they were watching kids in a hospital. The idea to adapt Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still was sparked in part by the knowledge that many children in the paediatric wards were fond of aliens, robots and flying saucers. To the everyday visitor a hospital can seem predictably sterile, but for our patients and staff, it reminds us of the space station in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Death Star’s interior in Star Wars, and ultimately the flying saucer in The Day The Earth Stood Still."

The project started in November 2007 by gathering parts and assembling Gort the robot. Patients captured the sci-fi feel when building props - brushing silver paint to create a UFO from a food tray, or building a six foot robot built from a garbage can.

"What started as a only a couple of scenes quickly evolved into an out of this world film thanks to the artistic vision and performances by our enthusiastic kids - all of whom who’d seemed to momentarily forget why they were in the hospital in the first place."

To learn more visit www.snowcityarts.org