MHAW 2023: Art & Mental Health – Clive & Rory from Wavelly House on taking part in art therapy & having work displayed

Our theme for Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 is Art & Mental Health and something that a lot of people who use our services have benefitted from is art therapy. We were delighted to speak to two residents from our Wavelly House Accommodation Service in Clive Cooper and Rory Stanswood who were kind enough to share their lived experiences from taking part in the classes and creating their own art.

Clive and Rory took part in an art therapy class called This is My Space run by artWell in Basingstoke. The class invited participants to be inspired through the music of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and that was played to establish a calm environment while they created their colourful work. Within the class all participants were asked to paint a piece of work which would be displayed at the Willis Museum and Art Gallery in Basingstoke for an exhibition entitled Spring Explosion. They were allowed to use different paints and painting tools to create their work over 2 class sessions.

We spoke to Clive and Rory about the process and began by asking them about how they came to be living at Wavelly House and how they found the art therapy class:

In this second clip Clive and Rory speak about how they felt having their artwork displayed and whether they will continue to create art going forward:

As explained the work Clive and Rory created was displayed in the Willis Museum and Art Gallery in Basingstoke and we have a series of photos from when they went to see them:

Thank you to Clive and Rory for taking the time to take part in the interview and share their lived experiences.