Reconnecting and Re-visiting Blether TayGether!

For this week’s blog post, we’re taking the opportunity to re-visit our recent ‘Reconnect’ work with the Blether TayGether sessions, developed for a group who are supported by Alzheimer Scotland in Dundee.

Throughout the programme the sessions were developed to support engagement with the museum collection and exhibitions and provide a bespoke and personal learning and engagement experience to combat the social isolation that this group, and many of us have experienced over the past year.

Over the 10 project sessions, we explored our current temporary exhibitions Time and Tide: The Transformation of the Tay and A Love Letter to Dundee: Joseph McKenzie Photographs 1964-1987, had two session with our exhibition curators to learn how these exhibitions are developed and curated and worked through the project ‘Memory Journal’, alongside listening to clips from the museum’s oral history collection to support and facilitate discussions and sharing of personal stories and memories.

Screengrab of Blether TayGether session.

Now these sessions have finished, we’re delighted to be able to share some feedback from our participants and project team.

Participant Feedback

Interactive, helped to facilitate conversation.

Jogged my memories and good for sharing experiences and stories.

[I] liked the dancing and social life theme.

 [I enjoyed] the social space. [I was] lovely chatting with people and meeting people. We’ve all been so isolated, in these four walls.

Learning more about Dundee, which we didn’t know about.

Memories, made me think about all the places I’d been, reflected on my own memories.

Interesting listening to other people [and] reflecting on my own memories that related to [each] topic.

Staff Feedback

[The sessions] have changed my perspective on what our tea and blether group can be.

Group enjoyed the curatorial input from Anna Robertson and David Lampard.

We all agreed that there were some challenges when working across digital video platforms. Participants and staff felt that the technical side of working remotely presented some difficulties. We encountered some problems getting into the Microsoft Teams meetings, muting and un-muting microphones, microphone feedback and sound distortion, and some found it difficult to read facial expressions and body language to make sure that people didn’t speak over one another. However in general, participants felt that the social connection and friendships that were developed were more important to support and no-one was put off too much by the technology.

Keep up-to-date with ‘Reconnect’ through our online and social media channels as the project progresses!

The project has been made possible thanks to Art Fund support and additional funding from Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust.

Home-Start Reconnect – Special Delivery! Creative Books & Art Packs are Delivered to the Family Group!

Back in January, we started working with the Home-Start Family Group. The group expressed their feelings of disconnectedness and felt that they needed some help with creative activities to try and regain some of the contact that had been lost throughout the first national lockdown. This was done through weekly online consultations with the group. We wanted to create a resource that the participants could use at home with their children and provide all the materials that they would need along the way. We discussed what kind of activities would most benefit the participant’s children and what support they needed at home in order to build the package of activities.

We looked at the problems faced by the participant’s children that the group themselves had identified; the parents in the group had highlighted that the children were having great difficulty with expressing how they felt during lockdown. This age group were hit particularly hard during the lockdown and felt that they lacked the creative inspiration gained from things such as messy play and toddler sensory classes which were all cancelled. The parents also felt isolated and lacked the confidence to do some of these things in their own home, some of them becoming parents in the pandemic. This was also carried over to the children who were separated from their peer group and from their families.

All the materials for the activities were delivered in a canvas tote bag which the participants can then use again. Similarly, many of the activities included are geared around participants being able to make their own art materials; salt dough recipe, edible finger paints, play dough, all of which are reusable and environmentally friendly. Several of the activities are designed to be completed outdoors; and this is to encourage the families to get out and explore their city and surroundings. This impacted positively on their mental health and wellbeing.

Alongside the materials, participants received the ‘Big Creative’ book which is a collaborative effort between the Home-start participants, the Creative Learning Team and the LACD Design team to tailor a learning resource and journal that is specific to the group’s needs. It will also be used to form part of a legacy for Reconnect, a community project spanning several organisations aiming to combat Covid-19 isolation.

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The group were keen to use materials that they perhaps hadn’t had much experience with before such as clay, textile and magnetic tape, learning new skills along the way. We were keen to combine art, science and nature to create an enriching home-learning experience that families could engage with at home and outside. We were eager to show them that making art isn’t just about buying expensive materials at a time when a lot of people may face financial concerns. By using a lot of recycled materials, we were also teaching the children the importance of reusing or conserving resources. We began to open up their imagination by using household objects to make marks; sticks, leaves, stones and flower petals for collage and even experimented with ice, snow and food colouring to make sculptures inspired by David Batchelor’s ‘Waldella, Dundee’ in The McManus.

With the McManus being closed to the public until very recently, the group expressed that they had missed the opportunity to visit, in particular to see the temporary exhibitions ‘Time and Tide’ and ‘A Love Letter to Dundee’. Bringing the exhibitions to them virtually through the ‘Big Creative’ book and online sessions, we have tried to remedy this. During our weekly virtual sessions, the group are given the opportunity to ask questions about our exhibitions and are given support to develop their knowledge and understanding of their favourite objects in the museum, giving them the confidence to share this with their children.

The ‘Big Creative’ book is intended to be a guidebook that parents will use again and again or pass on to friends and family for them to use with their children. In addition to this, the book serves as a memento for the children and their families of this period in time, with pages dedicated to documenting their thoughts and feelings during the pandemic. The intention behind each activity and challenge was to allow parents to create alongside their children; to strengthen bonds, enhance moods in a positive way, improve speech, develop fine motor skills and to encourage and motivate the parents to continue on with these activities long after the sessions have finished. This resource is as much for the parents as it is for their children.

The project has been made possible thanks to Art Fund support and additional funding from Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust.

ST/ART Group – Loving Photography

Today we’re taking the opportunity to have another look at the amazing photography work that has been created by the ST/ART group, as part of our ‘Reconnect’ project. We previously profiled the group in an earlier post and are delighted to re-visit their work and share some more of their photographs with you.

The ST/ART group have been focusing on creating their own body of photographic work, inspired by the work and photographic essays of Dundee-based photographer and tutor Joseph McKenzie and our temporary exhibition ‘A Love Letter to Dundee: Joseph Mckenzie Photographs 1964 – 1987’.

Supported by the Creative Learning Team, Chris Kelly from THAT and freelance artist David Scott, the group meet weekly through Zoom for their ‘Reconnect’ sessions. They have now completed their art works and have been able to capture their images using cameras or mobile phones, either from home or when out for daily exercise, in keeping with current COVID-19 restrictions. Here is a small selection of images by each artist that we are delighted to be able to share in the blog.

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  Alice Jones

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  Alison Reeves

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  Athene Bergamino

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  Eilish Nairn

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  Helen Gowland

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  Issy Robertson

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  Mark Pennycook

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  Michelle Cassidy

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  Robert Carrie

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  Steven Ogg

Participant Feedback

I enjoyed absolutely everything, taking pictures, getting outside, learning new skills, was buzzing with ideas, images, took thousands of pics lol. Who knew I could do this, I’ve shocked myself, always loved photography but never knew I could be this good.

Being part of the programme has given me a push to leave the house and interact with the world and begin to see the beauty of life again.  The sense of accomplishment each week, completing a series of photos had a huge benefit to my wellbeing and seeing & hearing others enjoyment in my photos definitely was a boost to my self-esteem.

This was an exceptionally well organised and run programme. A good mixture of learning and showcasing our own work. Given the pandemic restrictions, I cannot think of how this could have been done differently.

Creative Learning Team Feedback

At this point in time, it’s so important for cultural venues and teams to reach out and provide high-quality creative engagement with groups. Working with the ST/ART group through the ‘Reconnect’ project has been an absolute joy. 

Week by week, the creative tasks led by David Scott helped encourage everyone to be more creative, enjoy being outdoors, and share their new-found skills and work with each other. We watched each of the group blossom in confidence, develop new photographic skills and create strong, thought-provoking body of images inspired by both the museums exhibition ‘A Love Letter to Dundee’ and in response to the world around them. 

We will shortly be launching our online, digital gallery where you can see all 60 photographs that have been created by the group, currently hosted here https://davidpscott.com/loving-photography/.

Stay tuned on our social media channels to get the link for the gallery once it goes live and for further news about ‘Reconnect’!

The project has been made possible thanks to Art Fund support and additional funding from Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust.

Reconnecting with the Home-Start Family Group!

In this week’s edition of the blog we are excited to reveal another slice of our ongoing ‘Reconnect’ project and showcase the fantastic charitable organisation, Home-Start Dundee!

Home-Start plays a vital role supporting parents and giving their children the best possible start in life. Their positive impact makes a real difference to the lives of children and families in communities across the UK. They work alongside parents, in their own homes, to help them cope with the stresses and strains of life and make sure they have the skills, confidence and strength they need to nurture their children.

Before the Corona Virus Pandemic, Home-Start ran regular group sessions at a local venue, where parents and their children could come along and meet other families. Pre-lockdown, the children are given the opportunity to play, learn, have fun and socialise with toys, books and often activities are designed to nourish and encourage their development. Parents also get the chance to meet and talk to other adults and many parents discover they are going through the same kinds of experiences and feel less alone. It was vital that the group continued to remain connected virtually throughout the pandemic. Home-Start currently facilitate these group sessions regularly online to help tackle feelings of isolation and loneliness during these uncertain times.

Screen grab of Reconnect session.

The Home-Start family group have previously worked with the Creative Learning Team on the 150th Anniversary project ‘The People’s Story’, participating in a series of outreach weaving sessions using a loom to create a year-long community weave featuring the work over 850 participants. We have also worked together to create ‘Bash Street’s Back at the Mc Menace’ inspired lanterns as part of Dundee’s first ever UNESCO City of Design Street parade.

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  Getting activity bags ready for Home-Start

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  Art and craft materials

For this part of the ‘Reconnect’ Project we been liaising with the group on a regular basis since January. We have worked closely with the participants to tailor a selection of resources and materials for them to use at home. Each family will receive a tote bag of art materials, a custom-made ‘Think Big’ book to help them explore our city, keep them connected to the museum collection, and providing space to record their thoughts, feelings and discoveries.

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Throughout each online session we share inspirational ideas for the parents and their children to engage in activities together, talk about current exhibitions, history and importantly, mental health and wellbeing. There will also be a physical element to the project through dance. We are working in partnership with local dance company Shaper/Caper to provide the families with a series of online dance sessions for them to do in the comfort of their own homes. Each of these ‘A Day to Play’ dance sessions will be pre-recorded using green screens to incorporate the museums collection, so that busy families can participate at a time that is convenient for them.

After the Easter break we will continue our collaboration with Home-Start with more practical activities to develop knowledge and understanding of the Museum’s Collection, encourage creativity to improve mental and physical health and wellbeing and of course keep connected with one another throughout these challenging times.

Keep up-to-date with ‘Reconnect’ through our online and social media channels as the project progresses!

The project has been made possible thanks to Art Fund support and additional funding from Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust.