News
Fragments is an arts for health residency taking place in Studio 3, Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre from 6 May to 27 June 2019. In Spring 2018, following the annual Arts + Health Check Up, Check In, a reflective practice and reading group was initiated at Uillinn. The group comprises West Cork-based Sarah Ruttle and Charlotte Donovan, Galway-based Marielle MacLeman, and Glasgow-based Kirsty Stansfield – all visual artists with over 15 years experience of working in arts and health.
This group provides a supportive space for the individuals to reflect on their broad experience and explore pertinent questions relating to maintaining an artistic practice in health settings. The residency will form an important incubator period for the group – time to focus on critical reflection with peers, using dialogue, making and writing to explore participative and collaborative methodologies in Arts and Health – and a catalyst to generate the momentum needed for continuous exchange.
During the residency at Uillinn, the group will explore ideas related to:
- autonomy, creativity and end of life
- place-making and place-based knowledge in hospital and community health contexts
- the interplay between participative and collaborative approaches in hospital and community health contexts
- authorship and visibility of the visual artist in Arts and Health and in the wider contemporary art world
Information will be shared on the residency as it progresses on www.westcorkartscentre.com
Kirsty Stansfield
As an artist Kirsty explores ideas around the body, including the voice, and how objects, gestures, sound and mark making can mediate our relationships with others and our surroundings. In 2009 she completed a PhD from the University of Dundee. More recently she has been working in a range of participatory arts and health settings, including care for the elderly, renal dialysis, neonatal and palliative care. Since 2014 she has been a member of the Creative Arts Service team at The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice, Glasgow. She also co-written an Arts & Medical Contexts module for students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is one of the collaborating artists: Tracing Autonomy www.tracingautonomy.net.
Marielle MacLeman
Marielle studied Drawing and Painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee and relocated to Galway in 2011. She has worked widely in participatory Arts and Health contexts for 15 years including the development of long-term programmes in palliative care and haemodialysis, and public art commissions spanning care for the elderly, paediatric, maternity bereavement, neonatal, and mental health contexts. She has written and designed for publications including The Music of What Happens (2014), The Magician and the Swallow’s Tale (2013), The Pattern of a Bird (2008), and Creative Engagement in Palliative Care (2007) and collaborated with filmmaker Tom Flanagan for GUH Arts Trust on the artsandhealth.ie Documentation Bursary 2017-18. She was awarded the Arts Council Artist in the Community Scheme Bursary Award 2018: Collaborative Arts in Health Contexts.
Sarah Ruttle
Tyrone born and West Cork based visual artist Sarah Ruttle is a graduate of Textiles 2002 from DJCAD Dundee, Scotland. Sarah has developed a strong participatory arts practice working within arts and health for ten years. She has received awards from Create and Cork County Council supporting collaborative and participatory projects, including a research project exploring ‘Consent, Confidentiality and Decision Making in Arts and Health Participatory Practice’ supported through the Arts Council’s Arts Participation Bursary Award, 2014. Sarah currently works as part of the Arts for Health Partnership Programme, West Cork artist team, developing, amongst other projects: ‘Parachute in the Purse’ and ‘The Museum of Making and Mending’. She is an arts educator on the ‘In the Picture’ Uillinn; West Cork Arts Centre’s Dementia friendly gallery programme and also works for West Cork Mental Health Services’ Centre for Mental Health Care and Recovery Centre. Her participatory practice includes work in early years and families, an artist creator for West Cork Arts Centre’s ‘Discovery Box’ a gallery resource for parents and carers to use with their young children in the gallery.
Charlotte Donovan
Charlotte studied Fine Art Printmaking at Glasgow School of Art. She has worked as a socially engaged collaborative artist in community and healthcare settings for over 25 years. Charlotte came to Ireland from Scotland in 2005, and was Triskel Art Centre’s full time artist-in-residence in St Finbarr’s Hospital for 3 years. For 10 years she has co-ordinated a Community Arts for Health Programme and Community Garden in Knocknaheeny, Cork, for Niche Health Project. Charlotte has been a visiting artist and mentor on the West Cork Arts for Health Programme, and was Uillinn Artist-in-Residence: Learning and Engagement June 2018-March 2019. She continually undertakes a variety of freelance participatory, curatorial and consultancy projects as well as public and private commissions.
