ARTLINK Annual Review 06/07

Artlink believes that participation in the arts plays a significant role in achieving personal goals and social change

Contents2 DIVERSITY, IT HAS TO BEIntroducing this year’s Annual ReviewArtlink Director – Jan-Bert van den BergArtlink Projects Director – Alison Stirling

3 WORKSHOPS UP CLOSE

4/5 MY LIFE IS NO LONGER UNTOUCHEDIan Brotherhood explores Artlink’s work in supportingservice provision for people with learning disabilities.

Artlink works closely with individuals with learningdisabilities in Edinburgh, Midlothian and West Lothian tocreate opportunities in the arts relevant to their uniqueinterests and circumstances.Learning Disability Programme Coordinator – Kara ChristinePartners Artist in Residence – Janice Parker

6/7 A REASON TO GET OUT OF BEDJennifer Veitch meets three service users who talk abouttheir involvement with Artlink Arts for Mental Health

Artlink creates opportunities for individuals with mentalhealth problems to pursue a particular interest in the arts.Individuals are matched with artists who havecomplementary skills, providing a focus around theirtalents or fascinations.Lead Artist for Arts for Mental Health Edinburgh and West Lothian – Patrick O’GrowneyWest Lothian Coordinator– Lorna Waite till December 2006

8/9 FUNCTIONSUITE & KIRKHILL PILLAR

10/11 A CORAL REEF Moira Jeffrey discovers the artistic connections betweenstaff, patients and artists in Lothian hospitals

The Artlink Functionsuite hospital arts programme createsopportunities for artists work to in collaboration withpatients and staff. We work with either particular interestsor the specific needs of hospital departments. Functionsuite Artist Team Leader – Anne ElliotGallery Manager – Charlotte CollingwoodGallery Intern – Lindsey Gibson

12/13 OPENING DOORSJennifer Veitch looks at the ways in which Arts Accesstailors events for new and diverse audience groups

Artlink Arts Access supports individuals with a physicaldisability, learning disability, sensory impairment, mentalhealth problem or who are older and infirm to go to thearts with a volunteer companion.Coordinator – Sally PrimroseOfficer (Audience Development) – Mairi Taylor Officer (Information & Access) – Sally Cowburn till June 2007

For this year’s Annual Review we have invited a writer and twojournalists to write about Artlink’s work in cultural access,healthcare, learning disability and mental health, from their differentperspectives.

Each writer was tasked with visiting people representative of each ofthese areas: observing, talking, listening to what people said of theirinvolvement with Artlink. We introduced them to a cross-section ofparticipating individuals, from nurses, artists, care workers andmanagers to service users, illustrating that, for some people,involvement with Artlink might be a night out at the theatre with avolunteer, for others it might mean the design of interactive clothing,a painting class, or a community concert on a ward. What Artlink provides is diverse. It has to be. We need to respondcreatively to issues such as isolation, increasing fragmentation ofservices, and limited physical and intellectual access. To achievethis we need to be innovative, adaptable, and able to respond togaps in provision – as well as to what people tell us they want.

What follows is each writer’s response to these environments, andexamples of the ways in which Artlink responds to issues and needs.

We hope that their writing and our responses will give you a greaterinsight into what we do.

ARTLINK Annual Review 06/07

Diversity, it has to beJan-Bert van den Berg& Alison Stirling

- 3 -

Activities are interactive and changeable,where movement, noise and visual stimuliare planned in relation to the individual’sframe of mind on a particular day. Activitycan shift quickly from adapting wheelchairsto making strange sounds to projected lightand patterns.

Artists work with individual service users, todesign sensory routines to ensure that thosepeople with very specific support needs, cananticipate and therefore feel secure withinall activity.

Workshops at the John Chant Centre in Penicuik and Castlebrae Studios in Edinburgh focuson collaborative practice between service users, carers and artists. In the past year, artistshave devoted time to realizing tangible outcomes in the form of products designed aroundthe interests of workshop participants.

This year’s eccentric end results have included: an exhibition of knitted goods (tool cosies,Cornish pasties, and a canary) at the Loanhead Mining Museum; a silver-tasselled, bespokebomber jacket; and a music video featuring those in the afternoon workshop.

WORKSHOPS UP CLOSE

- 4 -

Having just completed two days as a guest of Artlink, looking atday service provision for adults with learning disabilities, I’ve hadmy eyes well and truly opened.

I should explain that I’m a fiction writer. When Artlink asked meto do this I was flattered and bemused. I’ve some experience ofmental health issues – personally and professionally – but knowzilch about learning difficulties, and said so.

No probs, said Artlink – we’re not after an expert, we just needsomeone who can look objectively at what we do, who we workfor, and with, and then set down their thoughts in written form.

Okay, said moi, I’m yer man, and then Artlink sent me a helpfullist of links to websites where I could find basic informationabout the different bodies involved.

So I had a butcher’s at that stuff, and lo and verily were theretomes and reams and stacks of it, all beautifully laid out in thevery chicest of websites. There was BILD and PiP, and SCLD andSAY, not to mention PMLD, PAMIS and ADSW. Pesky acronymns!!

With my synapses in tatters and nerve-endings sputtering likeACME-bomb fuses, Artlink took me to see some real people, andwhat a blessed relief that was.

Seeing people’s faces, hearing them speak, looking at their eyes todiscern when they’re frustrated or happy or worried – that’s whenyou realize how blunt and unwieldy language really is. Mylivelihood, albeit frugal, is written communication – using words,forcing them together to find new ways of expressing whatever itis you need to get across.

I met a good few folk over the course of a couple of days –care/support workers, a day-centre manager, some of the Artlinkstaff, a senior strategist. The only reason I was meeting any ofthem was that Artlink had physically brought me to see them intheir various locales, and my presence was never queried. I recallnot one stern or suspicious glance from anyone. I wasn’t carryinga clip-board, I wasn’t inspecting anything, and it was clear thateveryone knew that.

My note-book was seldom used. That, in itself, struck me as avery positive sign – the folk in positions of responsibility for thoseusing or operating the facilities were uniformly welcoming,relaxed, and happy to give me, as an ignorant outsider, concisely

potted summaries of their duties, relationships with otheragencies, concerns, hopes and achievements. As well as beingcompletely open to the attention of a complete stranger, all thewomen I met (and they were all women – a point which I, as abloke, couldn’t help but note) had three other things in common.

The most striking was a genuine, unsolicited concern for the usersof the services they provide; the second was a pervasive andtangible anxiety over funding and the imminent changes that the‘In Control’ programme will bring. And the third?

This is perhaps where I find it most difficult to marshal theseblasted things, these ‘words’ into the correct arrangement, to mostprecisely evoke what I experienced. But let me try, and please,dear reader, be assured this is an acronym-free zone coming up…

The day-centre manager I met referred to Artlink as ‘our creativebrain’. It wasn’t a throwaway remark, but nor was it a deviousplant, some kind of spin. It was the best summary that thatprofessional had come up with via her experience, and it leapt outas a solid, honest, if somewhat self-deprecatory statement – Iassume she used the expression because it summed up how shesees Artlink, what it means to her and her colleagues in theirprofessional, everyday lives, and because she wanted me tounderstand that relationship.

It was, perhaps, a kind of shorthand, but it worked, and it madesense to me, as a ‘creative’ person who has done menial,unrewarding, physically difficult and, occasionally, dangerous jobs.

So, as a jobbing writer who has some costly experience of themyriad permutations of menial/physical/creative-work combos, andthe emotional/mental-health tolls they can demand – my take onwhat I saw is this: Artlink appears to function effectively as astimulant, e.g. the jolt of a sudden chocolate or caffeine rushwhen you’re mid-way through that 12-hour shift and you feel thatyou really need to stop.

There is so much good will and energy out there, and all itrequires is effective channeling. It’s not for me to say how thatcan best be done. No doubt there are many professionals inmany fields who genuinely strain, yearn to build upon theimprovements which have been achieved, not only in terms of‘best practice’, but in forcibly addressing the attitudes andawareness of those like me, who’ve lived their lives untouched bysuch concerns.

My life isno longeruntouchedIan Brotherhood

SOUND

- 5 -

Artist Steve Hollingsworth explains his approach towardscreating a sound environment for service user Sandy, who lovesmusic.

“I wanted to try and give Sandy a choice to what he listened to,devising a unique interface that will enable and empower him toopen up audio worlds for himself. We all take for grantedbuttons and switches in daily life. I don’t know for certain, but alight switch is probably one of the oldest domestic electricalswitches. Using a similar switch connected to a personal soundarchive enables Sandy to access a library of sounds and musicunique to his life and environment, his mother playing cello,personalised Radio Forth jingles, the sound of a familiar musicalbox. Enriching his aural world.”

Informatics scientist David Murray-Rust adds: “The final buildwill use a standard MP3 player, with modified firmware, basedon Rockbox ( www.rockbox.org ), which will be made availablefor other similar projects. The MP3 player will work as normal,so that anyone can load new music onto it using a computer,but it will plug into a special box attached to Sandy’s wheelchair with the custom buttons on”.

Artlink’s work with people with learning disabilities is inspired bythe Ideas Team, which is funded by the Esmee FairburnFoundation. The projects concentrate on key individuals asrepresentatives of wider user groups who currently challengeexisting service provision, the majority of whom havesevere/profound learning disabilities.

Ideas Teams made up of specialists (carers, parents,psychologists, technical specialists) are built around eachindividual, combining their experience and knowledge to interpretindividual responses which then inform the making of functionalobjects/artworks.

In this innovative project, an olfactory artist, in collaborationwith support workers and a clinical psychologist, haveinvestigated the potential of smell as an important andsignificant sensory stimulus.

As the challenges of the project have become more apparent, itis likely that smell may be useful as a stimulus to encouragefeelings of positive emotion in the service users involved.

Rosemary Kerr deputy house manager and Ideas Team memberexplains: “That a person can put forth a very definite opinionover something I had perceived to be as insignificant as anodour, when they’d displayed little to no emotion, other thananger and frustration, was truly an experience not to be missed.I am looking forward to understanding the months of data weobtained. I am eager to see what will be created for eachindividual“.

As people begin to look around for alternatives to existing daycare, there is much we can learn from projects such as these,perhaps creating sensory domains within the community wherepeople can access smell, sound and visual activity.

There are seven projects in total, which include one to onesupport for marginalised individuals in the community, olfactory‘environments’ for three individuals, a sound environment for oneservice user, light systems and the creation of a range ofinteractive clothing. We are also working on a book with thewriter Laura Marney, which is informed by carers, to be used bysocial workers supporting people moving from the parental hometo a home in the community.

The Ideas Team

SMELL

- 6 -

Journalists often get a bad press for the way they write aboutmental health, and sometimes the media do need to take theirshare of the blame for not only reflecting but also perpetuatingmyths and misconceptions. But the opportunities to reallyunderstand what life is like for people with mental healthproblems, and those who are trying to support them, are prettyrare.

Unless you have personal experience to draw on, then you arerelying on health professionals and campaigners and carers tospeak on behalf of service users. They know the statistics and allthe facts that make up the evidence base. But they are not theones who can tell you what it is really like to be on the ward ofa psychiatric hospital, or to live in the community on benefits withlittle or no social support, or worrying about when or if your nextbout of illness will come. They can only tell you what their ownperceptions are.

This is of course why it is so important that those developingmental health services find out what the people that use themactually want. Recently I had chance to meet three service userswho have been involved with Artlink’s mental health projects.Each had very different reasons for engaging with Artlink. Butthey shared some common themes about why they started, andwhy they wanted to keep going back.

Nicola, who got involved with Artlink’s Shared Interests project inWest Lothian after a referral from an art teacher, told me that herinitial motivation was as simple as finding “a reason to get out ofbed”. Her studies had been interrupted by her illness and otherproblems outwith her control. Going along to the project once aweek, becoming part of a group working with the artist, hasencouraged Nicola to interact with others.

Watching her ideas take shape as part of an ambitious projectinspired by the Kirkhill Pillar near Broxburn, creating 11 pieces ofpublic art across the landscape, has given her more satisfactionthan she could have imagined. Now back at college and preparingto complete her studies, Nicola says she feels positive about thefuture.

For Vic, who has been working one-to-one with an artist throughArtlink’s Individual Skills project in Edinburgh, getting involvedwas also a reason to get out, and to have a focus after herillness meant she had to give up work. “I was spending too muchtime in the house, and it wasn’t doing me any good,” she told me.

Vic, whose background is in design, found that working one-to-oneallowed her to explore ideas and find new ways of expressingherself, but with the added focus of having someone to guide her.The results have inspired her to go back to college – somethingshe would never have thought possible a year ago.

Albert, who until recently spent more than two decades in and outof the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, has found structure and routineis important to maintaining good mental health – keeping busy,getting out, talking to people. He is involved with the PatientsCouncil and a regular visitor to the Artlink Hut.Over the years, Albert has sampled many different services acrossEdinburgh yet he says that Artlink is one of the few that hecontinues to use. The difference he has found lies in Artlink’sopenness and engagement with what service users want.

Albert enjoys a more relaxed approach at Artlink’s Functionsuitehut at the Royal Edinburgh. Albert’s father was an artist and hehad trained to be a draughtsman before he became ill, but it has

A reason to get out of bedJennifer Veitch

- 7 -

taken a long time to be able to bring himself to draw. Havingovercome that block, he says that art has helped him and others“to come out of themselves.”

Albert said he felt strongly that more people running mentalhealth services should listen to what service users wanted. Toooften people see the symptoms of the illness, he said, when theseare the protective barrier put up by a real person who needsrespect as well as support.

He has not been surprised to see some other services close.People stop using them because they don’t feel welcome, anddon’t feel they are treated as equals.

At the Edinburgh Carers Council, which offers support to thoselooking after people with mental health problems, there is anacute awareness of the lack of quality resources on offer.However, Linda McLeod, one of the three workers at the centre,told me that the culture within the NHS is slowly changing for thebetter.

“There is a real feeling of people wanting to look in a positiveway at mental health,” she said. “There is lots of stigma andbarriers, but at lots of the meetings I attend, there is a realwillingness from professionals to take on board what carers haveto say and I would say, service users”.

Soundtrack to the cyclepathVic MacRae

First of all Patrick and I had a chat about the type of ideas andmedium I was interested in working in. We talked aboutanimation, film, computer-based art, photography. Patrick put mein touch with the artist Aileen Campbell, who had been working insound, film and photography, and I thought her work was good.We agreed to meet up one day a week for an initial period ofeight weeks – although we actually ended up working together forover a year.

Starting with my interest in the local cycle paths, we got on ourbikes and explored these places. We clamped a video camera tothe handlebars, and recorded footage of our journeys. We alsobegan recording sound with a microphone and a Mini-Disc player.

I thought up some scenarios of action on the cycle paths like:A dog barks. A dog sniffs another dog.A snail trails along . . . gets squashed?A fly flys into my mouth. Dies. I cough.A squirrel runs away.A lady drops her shopping.A cyclist cycles.A bee buzzes.A bird flies overhead.Aileen had a great idea. She suggested we play back some of thesound that we had recorded on our journey, and interpret it with

words and symbols on a big blank piece of paper. We each didthis separately for a piece that lasted about 20 minutes.

After reviewing our interpretations we decided to create a visualscore, using symbols instead of notes on a stave. I used AdobeIllustrator and designed the score using the words and images wehad come up with. The end result was a print 2m longrepresenting the 20 minute sound file.

After further thought we decided to put on a live soundperformance on the Water of Leith cycle path. We got in touchwith musicians and organised the event for Sunday 24th June. Wedecided to get the musicians to interpret the score we hadcreated. Aileen created a video using the symbols from the score.

On the day (the coldest and wettest day of summer) we rigged upour bikes on stands with contact mics, and the musicians set up.We had a double bass, a guitarist and a drummer. The videoplayed the score and we all interpreted what we saw with sound.The musicians used experimental techniques, for example playingthe bass with a cheese grater. We recorded the whole thingtwice. I am looking forward to getting hold of a copy.

I got such a lot out of the project. It boosted my confidence, and Ideveloped an interest in digital media, that has led me to begin acourse in sound design, film, and multimedia. A new start.

- 8 -

- 9 -

Kirkhill PillarThe Kirkhill Pillar Projectis creating a series ofpublic artworksrepresenting the solarsystem, with ‘planets’studded across the WestLothian landscape.

A group of local peoplehas been working withLorna Waite and PatrickO’Growney of Artlink andthe award-winning artistDonald Urquhart tocreate works representingeach of the planets.

Over,Images from variousFunctionsuite projects

This page,Images from the KirkhillPillar project.

- 10 -

Hospitals are built of solid stuff: bricks, glass,strange machines, miles of carpet, and acresof polished vinyl. But they are also built ofpeople: patients, clinicians, administrators,cleaners. They are places where people willexperience some of the most extreme momentsof joy and loss, but also more understatedemotions such as grinding boredom andprofessional satisfaction.

Despite the ever-present signage they are notcoherent, ordered or easily read. Perhaps ahospital is like a coral reef, made from stuffthat is both living and inert; monolithic fromafar, but close up, a cluster of hundreds ofindividuals, little communities and intimateconnections.

Patty Kelly works as a staff midwife inneonatal care at Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary.In the spare time that she carves out beyondwork and family, she makes music playingcello and violin. Through Artlink she hasrecorded a CD of traditional reels played withfriends and colleagues including a fellownurse, a consultant, and a musician whose ownchild was once in the unit.

For Kelly, an adult learner, music is all aboutsharing and that can have an impact in ahospital. “It’s important if it cheers somebodyup or makes them ask questions or spurs aconversation,” she says. It also makes hermore familiar to patients and colleagues.“People who work in hospitals all have busylives. When you take part in music it’s a greatopportunity to give a snapshot of what you do.”

Artlink has long experience of bringing the artsinto healthcare settings. Increasingly their workstems from an understanding that healthcare ismade up of small communities and thatcommunities anywhere are made up of people

who have passionate interests, people who, intheir own lives, “make and do”.

At St John’s Hospital in Livingston artist AnneElliot invited the local community into thehospital by reaching out to local makers anddoers for Folk Fair, a season of activitiesincluding a tea dance and a visit by a youththeatre. Through Folk Fair the artist AnthonySchrag began working with Stephen Smith, anurse and researcher and then co-ordinator ofthe West Lothian Dementia Palliative CareProject.

The result was Forget-Us-Not, a film thatfollowed Moira, who had early onsetAlzheimer’s disease. With Moira’s co-operationand the support of her family, the filmuncovered the difficult details of everyday lifewith Alzheimer’s that her humour andsociability had not always disclosed. The filmprovides a vital resource for care providers inNHS and social care, as well as for carers andfamilies.

For Smith, the project revealed that workingcreatively uncovered a deeper level ofexperience and drew vital information fromboth clients and staff. As an “actionresearcher”, working with an artist providedhim with invaluable data. Schrag’s skills asan artist were not that he prettified everything,but precisely the opposite. “Above all he keptit very real,” says Smith. “I would have wantedto do that. But when it came down to it Iwouldn’t have done, because I would also wantto be nice.”

For Sandy Young, who is chair of the ArtsCommittee at the Royal Infirmary, the arts canimprove patients’ lives through social andtherapeutic roles, but also through their abilityto create a community. He believes that

A coral reefMoira Jeffrey

involving staff is the gateway to arts activityand to making a hospital a better place towork or visit. “It allows people to build upnetworks of belonging.”

Artlink have invited professional musicians intothe hospital as well as encouraging staff whoplay traditional music and rock. From Young’sperspective as hospital chaplain, music alsoengages something deep within. “If I was beingpious and ministerial I would say it is thelanguage of the soul,” he laughs. “Actually Ithink I believe that. It allows people,especially British people who are overlystoical, a form of expression they don’t need toput into words.”

It is hard, from the outside, to capture whatArtlink does. But it is certainly doingsomething.

I spoke to a researcher who saw art as a vitalnew research tool, an artist who found that hewas trusted to be a professional, a chaplainwho had shrugged off the outfit of formalministry, but was emphatic about theimportance of spiritual care and the role thatthe arts might play, a nurse who wanted torecognise life beyond the clinical and foundmusic could do that.

Patty Kelly’s views on music have also beenshaped by her personal experiences of a periodof illness. “When I came out of surgery, Iremember my friend called me, and he didn’task about the operation. The first thing heasked was, ‘Do you have rechargeablebatteries?’ My CD player was my lifeline.”

- 11 -

Forget-Us-Not: Life After Alzheimer’s Disease

Forget-Us-Not is a film about Moira and herfamily, and how they live with early onsetAlzheimer’s disease.

Made by Anthony Schrag, the film sets out toraise awareness of the impact of dementia. Ithighlights a number of key issues, includingchanging relationships, the practicalities of beinga carer, the severity of hidden problems, andhaving a positive approach.

The film includes interviews with Moira, her twodaughters, who are her main carers, and NancyBurgoyne, who manages the Rosebery Centre, aspecialist day centre for people with dementia.

Artlink was commissioned to make ‘Forget-Us-Not’ as part of the West Lothian Palliative CareProject. Funded by the Big Lottery, the projectaimed to enhance the palliative care provided byservices for people with dementia and theirfamily carers.

The project, involved five West Lothian servicesand required the involvement and participation ofpeople with dementia, their carers, staff andvolunteers.

- 12 -

The very first time I heard about Artlink was when mygrandmother told me she had signed up for its Arts Accessservice. It sounded like a great idea to me; I knew she loved thetheatre, and I also knew through her experiences that the journeyfrom home to venue can be something of an obstacle course ifyou’ve got a disability.

Thanks to changes in legislation, most venues are now moreaccessible in a physical sense, but there are plenty of otherissues beyond ramps or wheelchair spaces that have an impact.

There’s the price of tickets, maybe paying for an additional ticketfor someone to go with you, and wondering whether you’ll reallybe made welcome at the venue, induction loops or audiodescribed or sign interpreted performances. And then there’s allthe other places you might want to go to, like museums or artgalleries – how accessible are they?

Just as Artlink has moved beyond its original ‘core’ service ofArts Access, I’ve discovered it has also been looking to answersome of these more complex questions about making the artstruly accessible. I’ve learned that recent projects have seenArtlink seeking to build partnerships with venues to developopportunities to tailor events for new and diverse audience groups.

In the past year this has included devising events at the NationalGalleries and the National Museum of Scotland for people withhearing or visual impairment. John Newing, who has beenregistered with Artlink’s arts access service for several years, hasattended some of these events, told me he felt these group eventswere actually more useful to him than the core service.

As he already runs his own club organising trips to the theatrefor people with visual impairment, I was initially at a loss tounderstand what this added value might be.

“Different visually impaired people get different things out of it,”John told me. “Some of them will have had normal sight, andhave maybe had a great deal of interest. Some of them will stillbe able to see, so if they are being shown round the gallery, thepeople in charge can make sure they get a chance to see thethings as well as they can.”

While descriptions might trigger some visual memories of artworks for those who lost their sight later in life, John said he iskeen to learn about how art relates to the broader culturalcontext. “I have never had normal sight,” he said. “My personalinterest is about learning about art as really part of a culturebecause I feel I don’t see why I should be completely cut off fromthe history and the meaning and how it relates to literature andtheatre.”

Opening doorsJennifer Veitch

- 13 -

John particularly enjoyed an Artlink event at the Royal Museum totie in with the recent Vikings and Scotland exhibition. “One of thearchaeologists in charge spoke to us and he was talking to usand passed round objects for people to feel. I found that onereally interesting.”

After speaking to John, I had a much better understanding of whywork to improve access for different audience groups was soimportant. This is underlined by work being done to arrangeevents and projects for two other key groups – people withlearning disabilities, and older people over the age of 85 – whoare registered with the arts access service.

The older people’s group has quickly taken off, as Artlink’s MairiTaylor told me, with social contact a major benefit for thosetaking part. “Many of them are isolated, but they are well-informed people who are lacking stimulus,” she said. “Projectshave also been successfully devised for our clients with learningdisabilities to introduce them to the National Museum, again withemphasis on the social aspect.”

So why aren’t more venues looking to arrange events for specificgroups? Artlink’s Arts Access co-ordinator Sally Primrose told methat this was due to the high costs and lack of resources todevise and market such events. “Venues are also sometimesreluctant to programme for specific groups.” she said. “People canstill be nervous around disability issues and wary of ‘singlingout’.”

Of course, failing to be inclusive is not a solution. The Edinburgh Carers Council recently told me they are concerned that thosewith mental health problems are not considered by many venuesto have a disability at all, and so still face barriers in trying toaccess the arts as a result.

There are limits to what Artlink can do. Currently 200 people usethe access service, attending around 1000 events a year, and thenumbers reflect the need to offer a personal service, not just abooking service.

In spite of Artlink’s role, my impression is that the need to tackleissues around accessibility will remain a work in progress.

Arts access and audience developmentMairi Taylor

When I first joined Artlink in 2003, I was quickly absorbed in thehectic business of helping to organise the 1000 outings ourclients go on over the course of a year. In 2004, a new adventurebegan when we started to work with the National Galleries ofScotland to provide opportunities for different groups within ourclient membership.

Programming events and projects for our clients has transformedthe way we work and what we can offer our clients, as well asthe relationship we have with Edinburgh venues. In the past year,we have devised and delivered 24 events with our partner venues.From our initial work with NGS we now regularly work with tenvenues in Edinburgh, including galleries, museums and theatres.

The skills that we have developed in devising, organising andmarketing our events led us to think about a potential audiencebeyond our registered clients and what we can do to increasewhat is available to audiences in Edinburgh. Thoughts turned toother individuals who would equally enjoy the opportunity toexperience tailored access.

The ‘catch 22’ of arts programming appears to be that venues arereluctant to programme when they are not guaranteed anaudience, and the lack of an audience appears to prove lack ofdemand. Venues also feel they cannot take on the responsibilityof running regular events for a certain disability group and this isunderstandable considering some have meagre resources.

We feel that there is a gap to be filled and that a supportivehand from us can encourage venues to programme within reasonand provide opportunities that at the moment simply do not exist.If Arts Access can assist a variety of venues devise events, thiswill spread the burden of provision across Edinburgh whileoffering a plethora of opportunities to audiences.

- 14 -

FUNDING NEWS

Funding for Artlink’s core funding has more than doubled inthe past year, thanks to support from the Scottish ArtsCouncil.

In 2006, Artlink achieved Foundation Funded status, whichmeans that core funding has been increased from around£60,000 to £140,000 a year.

These increased resources have allowed Artlink not only tostabilise its position but also to invest an additional£25,000 in Arts Access and £25,000 in additional artistinput, such as the Ideas Team.

WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE WORK OF ARTLINK

ArtlinkScottish Arts Council, Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund,City of Edinburgh Council, Midlothian Council, West LothianCouncil and NHS Endowments.Mitchell Trust, Kirby Laing Foundation, Sir Iain StewartFoundation, Cruden Foundation, Saints and Sinners Club, SirJules Thorn Charitable Trust, Riada Trust, Evelyn DrysdaleCharitable Trust, Miller Foundation, William Grant & Sons,Silvia Aitken Charitable Trust, Binks Trust, Martin ConnellCharitable Trust

Providing Community SupportMidlothian Council, Scottish Arts Council, Esmee FairbairnFoundation, City of Edinburgh Council, Scottish BusinessAchievement Awards Trust, JTH Charitable Trust andindividual donations and payments.

Mental Health and Emotional WellbeingBritish Waterways, Development Centre for Mental HealthScotland, Heritage Lottery Fund, NHS Health Scotland,Mental Health Specific Grant (West Lothian Council), MentalHealth Specific Grant (City of Edinburgh Council) PrudentialInsurance.

Working with healthcare communitiesNHS Lothian, Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund, LothianHospital Arts Consortium, Consort Healthcare (BalfourBeattie) WM Mann FoundationWest Lothian Council

Arts AccessCity of Edinburgh Council, Midlothian Council, Scottish ArtsCouncil Lottery Fund, Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland,Robertson Trust, Nancie Massey Charitable Trust, Simpsonand Marwick WS, Alma and Leslie Wolfson Charitable Trust,and individual donations.

Arts Access PartnersNational Galleries of Scotland, National Museum ofScotland, Fruitmarket, Stills, National Library of Scotland,Queen’s Gallery, Talbot Rice Gallery, Scottish Opera,Traverse, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Royal Lyceum Theatre.

QUICK STATISTICS FOR 2006 -2007ParticipantsSessionsOutingsVolunteersExhibitionsEventsPerformancesAudiences

ARTLINK BOARD OF DIRECTORSChair David HartVice Chair Betty BarberTreasurer Colin ScottSecretary Turcan Connell , Gavin McEwan

Members Dr Michael Affolter Caroline BarrJim Eunson David WrightChristine Lawrie Mary LeeNorma MacDonald Anna Becker

ARTLINK ADMINISTRATIVE TEAMAdministrative Coordinator – Vanessa CameronAdministrative Assistant – Jill Brown till January 2007

Kirsty MacDonald from January 2007Bookkeeper – Alison Thorburn

ARTISTSLin Anderson, Shelagh Atkinson, Lynne Baxter, Ingrid Bell, AnnaBergahansen, Nancy Black, Jeffrey Brown, Jill Brown, Aileen Campbell,Juliana Capes, Lille Carre, Andrew Christine, Alison Cole, Jim Colquhoun,Pat Crombie, Robert Crozier, Steve Dale, Jonathan Dalton, JenniferDaydreamer, Graham Docherty, Maurice Doherty, Malcy Duff, Anne Elliot,Hunt Emerson, Max Estes, Ian Ferguson, Fraser Fiefield, Will Foster, AndyFraser, Renee French, Valerie Gillies, Anthony Giorgianni, J + M Grant,Tomer Hanuka, Lauren Hayes, David Heatley, Steve Hollingsworth, DanielJohnston, Alanna Knight, Alan Oates, Joel Orff, Dieter Laue, Jack Lewis,Fiona Mackintosh, Rona MacLean, Matt Madden, Mark Martin, DeirdreMcDonald, James McLardy, Tonya McMullen, Louise Meny, Suzi Morris,Erika Moen, Rosie Morton, Nan Mulder, Yvonne Mullock, David Murray-Rust, Michelle Naismith, Leena Nammari, Andi Neate, Danielo Olivera,Sally Osbourne, Cat Outram, Jonathan Owen, Sophia Pankenier, JaniceParker, Laure Paterson, Ethan Persoff, Lindsay Perth, Ciara Phillips, OwenPiper, Jenny Pope, Jessica Quinones, Random Aspekts, Anna Redpath, EdReid, Ewan Robertson, Ronnie Ryan, Paulina Sandberg, Anthony Schrag,Catriona Shaw, Andrew Shetliffe, David Sherry, Keith Simpson, NeilSimpson, Jonathan Sperry, Laure Spring, Graham Stephens, Jenny Temple,Tam Treanor, Andrea Turner, Gill Tyson, Rick Ulman, Donald Urquhart,Clara Ursitti, Dan Willson, Roy Wood, Chloe Young.

VOLUNTEER ARTISTSAnnabel Bartlet, Phillip Ewe, Vicky Falconer, Darren Farquhar, RachelFleming, Arek Kozac, Marta Kozac, Jenny Mason, Jenny Richards, Neil Simpson

ARTLINK IN FACTS

7238,1351,24612832782648,510

- 15 -

Ideas team member, olfactory project: “this has been a very interesting project tobe involved with; it has been particularly interesting and stimulating to explorethe interface between art and science. I think this type of work has

great potential to enhance the lives of service-userswith profound disability.”

“In many ways, being avolunteer for Artlink isan individual activity(although the staff at‘headquarters’ make itseem less so) and so Ifind the occasions whereI can chat to othervolunteers and swapexperiences is very nice.Finally I should add thatevery single volunteer Ihave spoken to talksextremely highly of theorganisation behind thearrangements and supportoffered –

it is bothhighlyefficientand yet veryfriendly.”Artlink volunteer

“If everyone hadyou [Artlink] wewouldn’t need to take so many pills.”Mental health service user

Wonderful experience and very well done “Wonderful afternoon. Nice blether with [volunteer] when collected.Loved pictures. Got together at start for small talk and the coffeeafterwards. Revelation! Got on like a house on fire with thevolunteer.” Arts access service user

“It was great. We could have done with a bit more time perhaps toget the players settled in and relaxed before recording each group.However considering the time we had it was an incrediblyproductive day - most songs were recorded first take –

an album in one day would have made the Beatles proud!”

‘Excellent.Cheered patientsand staff up.Good for morale’

“I really enjoyed it - themusicians were all extremelygood and I kept forgetting I wasthere to take pictures. Itsounded like they’d been playingtogether for a long time.”

“Scary and weird– made loads of mistakesand got my breathing allwrong – dread to thinkwhat the CD will be like!”

“It was a greatexperience. I enjoyedplaying guitar andalong with ChrisHendrie, a staff nursefrom Ward 206, andMichael Pisanek fromthe patient and publicpartnership, werecorded three tracksfor the CD. Whatamazed me is thenumber of finemusicians there areamong the hospitalstaff.”

The past yearhas been a learning experience for all people involved withArtlink from artists, managers, coordinators, doctors andcareworkers. By being innovative and creative in the wayswe devise and place activities within these communities, welisten and learn from people’s responses, opening new doors,not just for those who take part but also for Artlink itself.

Perhaps summing up is best left to those who have beeninvolved in our projects and programmes.

Artlink Edinburgh and the Lothians13a Spittal Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9DY

0131 229 3555

info@artlinkedinburgh.co.uk

www.artlinkedinburgh.co.uk

Odd Things Websitewww.oddthings.org.ukA range of limited edition products created for every occasion.The products on sale reflect the personalities of the peoplewho make them varying from prints and paintings of flowers, toDoctor Who inspired models, to shiny jackets to models ofbirds and coats for squirrels.

Royal Reels & Tennessee 3 CDs£5 plus p&pMusic recorded live at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in June2007 by Royal Infirmary staff. Royal Reels CD is a mixture ofScottish music. The Tennessee 3 CD consists of three rock songs.

Forget Us Not DVDFree plus p&pA film about Moira and her family and how they live with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The film was made by Anthony Schragin conjunction with the West Lothian Dementia Palliative CareProject (NHS Lothian).

Folking It… DVDFree plus p&pA document of Folk Fair, a weekend of cultural activity at StJohn’s Hospital at Howden, Livingston showcasing the creativetalents and interests of people from across West Lothian.

Totally Minted Theatre DVDFree plus p&pThe DVD showcases artwork created by young people from theChill Out Zone in Bathgate and older people from WhitdaleHouse residential care home in East Whitburn.

If you would like to find out more about Artlink or you are interestedin volunteering, please feel free to contact Artlink at the addressabove by either telephone, email or in writing.

This publication is available in PDF, Braille, Tape and Large Printformats, please contact Artlink for your copy.

A full set of detailed accounts is available from the Artlink office.

Artlink is a company registered in Scotland No 87845 with charitablestatus, Scottish charity number SC006845

Individual donations and grants from Trusts and Foundations