Arts Health Antigonish (AHA!) 2022 Chair Report March 2, 2023
Although Covid is still very much in our midst, 2022 started to feel as though we were slowly emerging from this pandemic cocoon, thanks to vaccines and public health measures. AHA!’s year reflected this transition, with further disruptions to program delivery, adjustments and creativity needed in engaging participants, along with hope that in-person programs could resume.
At St. Martha’s Regional Hospital (SMRH), Shelley was able to offer Art Care only sporadically due to pandemic restrictions and therefore left her position in June. We are most grateful to Shelley for navigating the challenges of the pandemic at SMRH with us, and know that she touched many lives through her work there. With only a little funding remaining for this position, we changed our model to an artist-in residency. Maureen St. Clair embraced this position, listening, exploring and creating with staff and patients, for three months. Together they created a paper quilt, entitled, The Language of Being Human. Maureen’s full report is submitted separately.
AHA!’s photography project continues to be enjoyed on the Palliative Care Unit at SMRH. Also in Palliative Care, music therapist Rebecca MacDonald’s value was readily recognized during her six-month pilot in 2022 and she is continuing there in a part-time position.
In early 2022, we completed our first year of Art Larks! then relaunched it in the fall as Art Larks! Encore, both coordinated by Rachel Power. Art Larks!, a virtual arts-based program, attracted seniors from across the province. Promotional videos for the program were created by Corinne Dunphy. Rachel’s full report is separately submitted.
Inspired by our virtual toolkit, Spellbound by Nature, and in partnership with Writers in the Schools (WITS) and ArtsSmarts, several artists and writers created nature programs that were successfully piloted in classrooms across the province in the spring of 2022. The Spellbound toolkit, now offline, is still available by password and has continued to be accessed in this way.
Nancy will be submitting a report on the program she created.
In November, Arts-Health Month, Nancy Turniawan collaborated with the Arts House to offer artful activities at the Wednesday markets, engaging youth, families and newcomers. Our immense gratitude to Nancy for her initiative and energy in facilitating this.
AHA! primarily creates arts programs for people at vulnerable times of their lives, programs that show the value of the arts in wellbeing and healing. However, we are also committed to arts-health education, research and advocacy. In 2021-2022, AHA! advocated for Rebecca’s music therapy position in Palliative Care at SMRH. In the fall of 2022, AHA! mentored a group of nursing students in exploring the social determinants of health with an arts-health lens, a commitment we hope to continue each fall. One of AHA!’s new programs this year will be part of a larger research project in collaboration with a StFX researcher. We hope to strengthen these commitments in the coming years, with more research collaborations and educational opportunities.
In 2023, AHA! is celebrating ten years of ‘fostering creative expression for community health’ and it is looking like an exciting year! We will be offering three new programs. New in Town, A Comedy Cabaret, will engage new immigrants in storytelling, with comical and serious pieces, songs and poems, about their experiences leaving a home behind and putting down roots in the Antigonish area. These will be shared with the community through live performances in July and a radio performance in August. Dance for Health: Parkinson’s will engage through dance, people with movement challenges, and be offered both in Antigonish and Pictou Counties. A Tapestry of Tales will share a multitude of interwoven stories of local seniors via radio podcasts in the fall. We are trying to secure funding to continue Art Care at SMRH and Art Larks! for seniors in the province and both are looking hopeful. Keep an eye on social media for plans for our 10-year celebrations!
AHA! programs, although primarily offered in the Antigonish area, are now reaching province-wide through virtual programming, artist training and advocacy. Since 2013, at least 2500 people across the lifespan have engaged with AHA! programs; AHA! has hired more than 60 artists for part time, full time and contractual work and has engaged at least 50 volunteers, from StFX students to seniors. AHA! has attracted financial support from all levels of government and both private and public business sectors. Our sincere thanks to those who facilitated, contributed to, and participated in, our 2022 programs. And my profound gratitude to the AHA! team, who, behind the scenes, coordinate logistics, payroll, grant writing, bookkeeping, communications, and in many other ways, support this movement.
By engaging people in the arts with intentional health goals, particularly at vulnerable times of their lives when there is less access to the arts, we are indeed improving the wellbeing of both participants and our communities. We are noticing a greater interest in AHA! programs, perhaps because the pandemic has made us all more vulnerable through unprecedented disruption to our lives. Transformative societal change is now needed to restore not only individual and collective wellbeing, but also systems and societal health. The arts-health movement offers us a roadmap in addressing this challenge.
Respectfully submitted,
Liz Brennan,
Chair, AHA!