From Tuesday November 23 and Friday November 26 UCLan’s PR1 Gallery will be hosting a free exhibition of creative work from both students and mental health service users.
The exhibition entitled “Being Human” will showcase work from around 40 BSc undergraduates, in courses including Coaching, Counselling and Psychological Interventions, as well as work from services users and staff from Guild Lodge Secure Unit and Skylark Rehabilitation Centre. These are two of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Foundation Trust NHS’s local mental health facilities.
Paintings, drawings, sculptures, poems and films will be combined in this collaborative exhibition exploring what it means to be human.
Speaking on the matter, Lowri Dowthwaite, Senior Lecturer in psychological interventions, said:
The exhibition is the culmination of an exciting creative collaboration between our students, staff, and service users. For our students, they had to produce one piece of any type of art form as part of their studies while it was part of the occupational therapy treatment for the service users. Our module is about exploring what it means to be human and how creativity is integral to being human. It makes the students think in a different and creative way and the results are fabulous.
Mark Love, an NHS occupational therapist, led the creative sessions at Guild Lodge as well as working with the Skylark Centre. Speaking about the exhibition, Mark said:
The art produced enables us to communicate in a safe, alternative and less stigmatising way, and hopefully changes people’s perspective on how they perceive service users as we are all human. Creative activities, and in particular art, offer a great opportunity to express yourself and provide a meaningful role outside that of a just being a service user. It is really important the purpose of creative activities is not to focus upon just the finished product but also to pay attention to the actual process of engagement and doing – and more importantly it’s great for self-esteem and an individual’s rehabilitation journey.
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