Jenny Brown, Author & Coordinator
Cindi Hankinson, NSW, Australia.

Brown, J. in Schmid, T. (2004). Art and Health, Whurr Publishers, London. “In press” (book)

Newcastle’s first accessible Sculpture Trail, a community arts project, was recently completed at The University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. It was a large complex piece of work coordinated by Jenny Brown that involved eleven artists, over 100 participants, a Steering Committee and numerous disability sector services.

The Centenary of Federation, and State and Federal government arts agencies provided grants with many organisations donating materials. Marginalised community groups took part in the project. These included people with a disability from Newcastle and Hunter Community Access, people from the Living with Memory Loss Group, Indigenous people, and individual artists who have a physical disability. They participated in various sculpture workshops and horticultural practices to learn creative skills, enjoy the benefits of self-expression, and assist their groups within the wider community. Access components were developed for the project to take into consideration the physical and intellectual access to artworks in the environment. Four carved sculptures and a stone slab that provides access information for the trail were created, and a CD Audio guide (Brown, 2003) was developed.

A small exploratory, qualitative study was conducted with six ARTnode participants (Hankinson, 2002). The study aimed to investigate the relationship between creativity and health, with a group of people who were engaging in a community creative activity or project, rather than in a therapeutic context. Two of the participants had severe physical disabilities. Two carers of those participants and two support workers were interviewed. All participants were actively involved in the creative activities.

There were three main themes identified from the data: ‘Being engaged in creating’, ‘Creating a stronger sense of self’, and ‘Developing connectedness with others’. These themes indicated that creative activities provided unique experiences of absorption through creative engagement, choice through creation and the expression of identity. Additionally, they provided opportunity for connectedness with others. These experiences, in turn, enhanced the participants’ sense of control, self-esteem, identity, enjoyment and motivation as well as capacity to cope with stress, pain and negative emotions. The results indicated a positive relationship for those participants, between engaging in the creative activity and their well-being.

References
Brown, J. (2002). “ARTzone; environmental rehabilitation, aesthetic activism and community empowerment. Cultural geographies in practice”. Cultural geographies, 9, 467-471.
Brown, J. (2003). ARTnode audio guide. [CD]. John Gray 2003: The University of Newcastle, NSW Australia.
Hankinson, C. (2002). “The experience and effect of creative activities for participants in a community arts project” (unpublished manuscript, The University of Newcastle, NSW Australia.)