Opportunity
Image courtesy of the Irish Hospice Foundation.
The Irish Hospice Foundation is offering commissions for artists to develop new creative work in support of the health and wellbeing of healthcare staff in the HSE. Supported by the Creative Ireland Programme, the commissions will focus on supporting the professional care teams who engage with dying, death and bereavement on a daily basis, with the aim of figuring out how creative work can be of value to them in their work.
The pandemic brought many things to people’s attention including the value creative practice plays in people’s lives, and the crucial roles of care staff. IHF’s Arts & Engagement Programme, founded in the pandemic, has been supporting the role of creative practice for people affected by dying, death and bereavement. It has had a significant positive impact, helping people sense-make when they are bereft.
The HSE employs about 110,000 in Ireland. Those who work regularly with dying, death and bereavement could be in any part of the country doing emotionally demanding work. Their working days might be time poor and irregular. How can artists create something of value, useful and meaningful for these people, taking in to consideration the time pressures of staff and scale of the HSE? Could this be something people might carry in a pocket, reach for on a tea break, share with colleagues? Could it be a distraction, a moment of beauty, an exercise, recipe, manifesto, a wish for making wellbeing? A fifteen minute workshop for one?
IHF is commissioning creatives to join them on a journey to explore how creativity can make moments of care for HSE staff. They are offering four commissions of €2,500 for artists plus a materials budget. The project will be developed with the Arts and Cultural Engagement Team at IHF. Artists and IHF will liaise with relevant HSE teams and staff throughout.
This development will be informed by IHF’s Hospice Friendly Hospitals (HFH) and Compassionate End of Life in Residential Care Centres (CEOL) networks. Successful resources will be further refined and adapted so they can be widely distributed to HSE staff from early winter 2022.
Closing Date for applications: Wednesday 20 April at 5pm
For more information and details on how to apply visit the IHF Arts in Healthcare webpage.
