Posted on: May 15th, 2012 by emmaeager No Comments
Are you interested in filmmaking or acting?
Would you like to tell your story in a unique and creative way?
Creative workshops for teenagers living with chronic illness will take place in Dublin on June 26th and June 29th, facilitated by artists Emma Eager and Ben Murnane, in association with Helium Children’s Arts & Health and the Digital Hub Development Agency.
These workshops are aimed at teenagers who are interested in exploring their creativity through filmmaking, acting, writing or art. Participants will have the opportunity to take part in theatre games and creative writing sessions, to film small scenes and to try out animation software and drawing tablet apps.
The workshops are free and if you have any short stories, poems, scripts or artwork you would like to share you are welcome to bring them with you. If you can’t make it in person but would like to take part you can join us online via Skype to share your creative ideas.
Where: The Learning Studio, Digital Hub Development Agency, The Digital Exchange Building, Crane Street, Dublin 8 [download directions here] When: 26th June & 29th June 2012 (Specify which day suits you best.) Time: 2-5 pm Contact: Emma Eager at communications@helium.ie for more information and to register for one of the workshop days
If you enjoy the workshop day and you are keen to develop your filmmaking and animation skills, do some acting or turn your creative writing into a short movie, we aim to hold a film week in August where you will get the chance to collaborate with professional filmmakers and artists.
Emma and Ben teamed up with teenagers in February to make a short film based on Ben’s memoir, Two in a Million, about his teenage experiences of living with the rare genetic disease, Fanconi anaemia. Ben’s film will be screened at the workshops and you can learn more about the film, watch a trailer and view behind-the-scenes photos here
Emma Eager has been funded by the Arts Council’s Artist in the Community Scheme managed by Create – the national development agency for collaborative arts, and is kindly supported by Children in Hospital Ireland. Emma studied film and broadcasting at DIT and English literature at Trinity College, Dublin. She works with Helium on communications for various projects. Ben Murnane studied theatre and English at TCD; he has published three books, including his memoir and a collection of poetry, and written for newspapers and radio.
The Two Suitcases Project is a film & technology project which supports the creativity of teenagers living with chronic illnesses through the development of filmmaking skills. Teenagers have the opportunity to film their own stories or take on acting/production roles in the films of their peers. The project supports the creative potential of teens who are unable to participate in person through virtual collaboration with professional filmmakers and artists. In the pilot phase, the writer Ben Murnane made a short film about his experiences of living with Fanconi anaemia & the importance of creativity during his teenage years. Young people with chronic illnesses took on camera, animation, editing, art department and acting roles. We would like to thank them for the super ideas they brought to the film and the fun they brought to the set. Check out the trailer for Ben’s film below:
In February, Ben Murnane filmed his story, Two Suitcases, which we decided was a great name for the whole project. This short film is based on Ben Murnane’s memoir, Two in a Million, a beautifully written and warm account of Ben’s experiences of living with a rare genetic disorder. Ben was diagnosed with Fanconi anaemia at the age of 9 and at the age of 16 he was the first person in Ireland to receive a new type of bone marrow transplant. The title of the film comes from an old hospital saying that the nurses used to tell Ben: ‘When you go into hospital, you take two suitcases with you – one to carry your clothes, and another to pack away your dignity.’
Creativity has played a vital role throughout Ben’s life and we were keen to bring his trademark humour to the making of the film. As a child he loved superheroes and at the age of 10 he wrote and starred in ‘Superman and Supergirl’, which his father filmed and then accidentally recorded over with his sister’s ballet. In his early teens he wrote and filmed his own episode of Father Ted, the highlights of which appear in Two Suitcases. At the end of primary school Ben set up the Nottwel Club and began bringing out a monthly magazine, The Fush Monthly, with contributing articles from friends and family. The magazine was later revived as Totally Fushed in 2000 and Ben talks of the importance of his mag in his memoir: ‘I’d needed my mag through the years. Without it, I would never have known where to turn for comfort. In the summer of ’02, I wrote the first short story based on my transplant for TF… Writing about my life had become an essential part of living it. I now knew that, whatever career path I took, I would want it to leave room for my writing.’
Check out the behind-the-scenes photographs:
Photographs by Helene Hugel, Scott Anthony Kelly, Zachary Griner and Emma Eager
The pilot phase of the Two Suitcases Project was produced by Helium Children’s Arts and Health in association with Spunout.ie. We would like to acknowledge the Vodafone Ireland Foundation for sponsoring the iPhones that were used to film “Two Suitcases” and the In-kind support of the DIT Student’s Union and DIT School of Media for providing the venue for this event. The making of “Two Suitcases” would not have been possible without the support and mentorship of professional filmmakers, artists and DIT film students who volunteered their time to make it happen.
Posted on: April 20th, 2012 by emmaeager No Comments
Creative Connections, a 2-day professional development programme in the area of arts, health & early years (arts for babies/toddlers and their parents) was held at the end of March, with a very exciting line-up of speakers and artists from around Europe contributing.
Ruth Churchill Dower, Director of Earlyarts UK, and Catherine Maguire, President of the Irish Association for Infant Mental Health, spoke at the seminar.
Artists’ workshops were presented by Kate Wilson (Visual Artist, Ireland), Hannah Lefeuvre (Community Dance Artist, UK), Anna Rosenfelder (Children´s Theatre Artist, Facilitator, Germany) and Ger Relph (Musician, Ireland)
Creative Connections was hosted by Helium in association with Westmeath County Council Arts Office, with support from the Arts Council. Helium would like to gratefully acknowledge Mullingar Arts Centre for providing a venue for part of this event.
Catherine Maguire’s presentation will be made available to download in early May.
Feedback from participants after Artists’ Workshop at Creative Connections
Artists were asked to share something that they would take away from the workshop:
• It was great to learn how early children start to absorb and react to the activities around
them.
• The importance of providing bonding experiences for parents and children.
• Fantastic Experience! Thank you so much!
• Stimulating, with inspiring workable ideas on many levels.
• Process more important than product. Concept – setup and clean up become part of
interaction. Focussed space!
• The atmosphere today has been so inspiring! I hope I can take a little of this to my own
workshop spaces. Thank you!
• Giving children space to be creative, use of storytelling, and the importance of sensory
activities.
Creative Connections: Workshop with children and their parents
Posted on: April 19th, 2012 by emmaeager No Comments
In March, Helium, in partnership with Waterford Healing Arts Trust, organised a talk and workshop with artists Caoimhe Conlon (Musician) of MusicAlive and Fiona Dowling (Storyteller) at the WHAT Centre for Arts & Health, Waterford Regional Hospital. Caoimhe and Fiona talked about their recent collaboration together on Scales & Tales – a storytelling and music residency for children at Cork University Hospital – and reflected on their learnings and methods. They then facilitated a workshop based on their devised approach.
Combining Storytelling and Music in a healthcare setting
Caoimhe and Fiona started with a discussion on their experience of bringing Scales & Tales to children and their families at Cork University Hospital. The philosophy behind the cross-artform partnership was inspired by children themselves. Children love storytelling, dance, music, song; they do these things all the time, without ever differentiating between them. These creative outlets, which are part of a child’s everyday existence, should also form part of their hospital stay. Caoimhe gives an example of a little girl who was very upset when they met her in the hospital but who calmed down when she heard the music playing. For Caoimhe, the emotional (the children’s enjoyment) and the social (the sense of community created) are the most important elements. Fiona gives examples of how their collaborative approach worked in practice on the children’s ward and how they continually learned from each other. The ability to adapt to the changing conditions of the hospital environment is a necessity in a project like this. The fact that children and their parents could choose if they wanted to take part was important as so many elements of the hospital setting are beyond the control of the patient. Parents were always invited to pick up an instrument and join in and participation was extended to healthcare staff. Fiona emphasised the need to adapt to different age groups, to find stories that were universal in nature and could be appreciated by older children, and stories especially for the younger ones. The same approach was taken with the music, with Caoimhe playing Lady Gaga and Rihanna tunes for teenagers on the flute.
Fiona Dowling writes about the workshop she and Caoimhe gave on the day:
“We introduced everyone with a musical name game, after which we offered warm-up activities to get the story and music-making muscles ready. The workshop culminated in us teaming up musicians and storytellers and setting them two tasks to get them working together (the first: to work out a musical accompaniment to one of the storyteller’s tales, the second: to find ways of building audience participation into their musical story). Then each team performed for the rest of the group. By the end of the workshop, because of all the discoveries people had made, and all the moments of beauty we had witnessed, everyone was on a high! Trumpet, clarinet, violin and percussions brought humour, depth and poignancy to the stories in ways I never imagined. Stories in turn made us more aware of the personality, quirks, and characters of the different instruments. In one exercise, everybody closed their eyes as instruments were played one at a time, -’What could this sound be if it was in a story?’ -’… A secret!’.”
Photographs from the workshop. Photographer Eleonore Nicolas.
Feedback from storytellers & musicians who attended:
“Really enjoyed the workshop. Great insight to what you do and are about. Great to meet people with interests in similar work.Would have liked more time to develop stories more and maybe some constructive criticism even though I know in these circumstances everything is right and welcome. ”
“Really enjoyed the workshop, particularly the storytelling aspect (which I have no experience of as a musician).”
“Lovely facilitators. Did a lot in 3 hours! Very creative.”
“I have really enjoyed today’s workshop. It’s always great to meet new musicians and other artists. I will definitely use some of the exercises in my own work and I have already got ideas about incorporating stories into music in my work. It was so interesting to work with artists who work with another art-form, this is something I’ve never done before so I really learned alot!”
“Very interesting how both art forms can merge together in such a complimentary manner! The stories were fascinating. I thoroughly enjoyed the day. Thanks!”
“More please! Great work! Very inspiring! Like improvise”
“I enjoyed very much to involve storytelling with music together. I can see how they can work well together. Each one helps to bring living emotions and images.”
Learn more about Scales & Tales at Cork University Hospital here
Posted on: April 19th, 2012 by emmaeager No Comments
Helium delivered training workshops for Community Mothers in Longford and Westmeath in early spring. Participants learned new, accessible, creative and imaginative play techniques which they could apply to their home visits with parents and babies. Using everyday materials, the Community Mothers made simple performance props like twinkle twinkle hand puppets and ‘peepo’ toys which they have since used to model creative play to parents. Consequently, some parents have become interested in making the props themselves after expressing surprise at how well their baby responded.
As part of the training, Helium also facilitated the ‘Winter Workshop’ for a group of mums and toddlers in Athlone.
The Community Mothers Project aims to support and encourage parents to reach their full potential thereby enhancing parents’ confidence and self esteem, through non-professional volunteers who use their experience as mothers as well as local knowledge to support families. Learn more about the programme here: http://www.cmums.ie/about.html The Community Mothers Programme is HSE funded.
Posted on: April 18th, 2012 by emmaeager No Comments
Brian’s Treasure Chest, a local charity shop in Castle Street, Mullingar, is donating the proceeds of all sales to Helium between May 7th-12th.
If you have any pre-loved items you would like to recycle, please drop them into the shop from the 1st of May, & be sure to mention Helium. Books, clothing, toys, small furniture, household goods, baby accessories, unused gifts and vouchers are all accepted in good condition. If you are a treasure hunter, stop by the shop between May 7th-12th and you may find just what you are looking for! You’ll also be helping to support our art programmes which bring joy to children in hospital.
Thank you to Brian Fegan for selecting Helium as one of this year’s charities. For more information on Brian’s fantastic initiative to support local charities, please see: http://bit.ly/sbEYwO
Many thanks also to Teresa McBride at the Treasure Bin in Letterkenny for selecting Helium as their charity of the month in March.
Posted on: February 25th, 2012 by emmaeager No Comments
The Two Suitcases Project is a film & technology project which supports the creativity of teenagers living with chronic illnesses through the development of filmmaking skills. Teenagers have the opportunity to film their own stories or take on acting/production roles in the films of their peers.
In February, Ben Murnane filmed his story, Two Suitcases, which we decided was a great name for the whole project. This short film is based on Ben Murnane’s memoir, Two in a Million, a beautifully written and warm account of Ben’s experiences of living with a rare genetic disorder. Ben was diagnosed with Fanconi anaemia at the age of 9 and at the age of 16 he was the first person in Ireland to receive a new type of bone marrow transplant. Though the memoir never shies away from addressing the life-threatening nature of his illness throughout his childhood and teenage years the account is shot through with his trademark humour which is something we were keen to bring to the short film. The title of the film comes from an old hospital saying that the nurses used to tell Ben: ‘When you go into hospital, you take two suitcases with you – one to carry your clothes, and another to pack away your dignity.’
Creativity has played a vital role throughout Ben’s life. As a child he loved superheroes and at the age of 10 he wrote and starred in ‘Superman and Supergirl’, which his father filmed and then accidentally recorded over with his sisters’ ballet. In his early teens he wrote and filmed his own episode of Father Ted, the highlights of which appear in Two Suitcases. Writing was and is Ben’s passion and at the end of primary school he set up the Nottwel Club and began bringing out a monthly magazine, The Fush Monthly, with contributing articles from friends and family. The magazine was later revived as Totally Fushed in 2000 and Ben talks of the importance of his mag in his memoir: ‘I’d needed my mag through the years. Without it, I would never have known where to turn for comfort. In the summer of ’02, I wrote the first short story based on my transplant for TF… Writing about my life had become an essential part of living it. I now knew that, whatever career path I took, I would want it to leave room for my writing.’
Interested in reading Ben’s memoir, Two in a Million? Click here
This film was made with the partcipation of young people (16-19) who took on key filmmaking and acting roles. We would like to thank them for the super ideas they brought to the film and the fun they brought to the set:
Eoghan McConnell – Assistant Director, Cameraman, Storyboards, Editing
Stephen O’Driscoll – The roles of Ben and the comic serial killer, Camerawork, Editing
Caroline Morgan – The roles of Gina and the alien, Camerawork, Animations, Editing
Kayleigh Nolan – Animation, Artwork, Editing
A huge thanks to those who volunteered their time and expertise and mentored the young participants on Two Suitcases. Filmmakers Alan Brennan and Anna Rodgers, animation designer Scott Anthony Kelly, art director Sandra Butler, Jason Coomey, Adam Eager, Zachary Griner, Andrew Holohan, Marcus, Mark Canton, Mark Cummins, Simon Garrad, Sarah Turner, Emma Day, Ciaran Dooley – we couldn’t have done it without you! And a special thank you to Donal Haughey who played the doctor.
Check out the behind-the-scenes footage:
Photographs by Helene Hugel, Scott Anthony Kelly, Zachary Griner and Emma Eager
OVERVIEW OF PROJECT
Two Suitcases is the first in a projected series of films where young people (16-19) living with chronic illness get to write and film their own stories. The aim is to raise awareness about what it’s like to be young, Irish and living with a chronic illness and to highlight teenagers’ experiences of the hospital environment. All the films will be made on iPhones and edited on iMovie to demonstrate the creative possibilities of working with technology that teenagers may already have at their disposal. As the project is aimed at giving a creative voice to teenagers with experience of chronic illness, the films will be made with participation from their peers, with mentoring and support during the process provided by professional filmmakers, artists, writers, and editors.
We plan on making more films this summer so if you are between 16-19 and would like to turn your experiences into a short film get in touch with us. Perhaps you would just like to try out some acting, filmmaking or animation? If so, we would love to hear from you! Contact Emma: communications@helium.ie
Two Suitcases was produced, co-written and co-directed by Emma Eager. Two Suitcases is produced by Helium Children’s Arts and Health in association with Spunout.ie. We would like to thank the Vodafone Ireland Foundation for sponsoring the iPhones that were used to film “Two Suitcases” and for helping to get these important stories heard. We would like to acknowledge the In-kind support of the DIT Student’s Union and DIT School of Media for providing the venue for this event. We would also like to acknowledge the In-kind support of Filmbase. For the great lunches the participants received, we would like to thank Brioche Cafe, Crunch Cafe and The Bald Barista for their In-kind sponsorship.
Posted on: February 17th, 2012 by emmaeager No Comments
Helium Arts, in association with Westmeath County Council Arts Office, presents a continuous professional development opportunity for professionals across the arts, health, and early years sectors interested in investigating the role of the arts in supporting very young children, 0-3 years, and their parents.
Seminar: Fri, March 30, 1:30pm-4:30pm
With Ruth Churchill Dower, Director Earlyarts UK and
Catherine Maguire, President of the Irish Association for Infant Mental Health
The seminar is aimed at artists, healthcare professionals, and early years practitioners.
Venue for the seminar:
Council Chamber, Old County Buildings, Westmeath County, Council, Mount Street, Mullingar
Costs for the Seminar – Free, but booking is required. Contact details below.
Contact: bookings@helium.ie to book a place at the seminar and to request an application form for the artists’ workshop. Deadline for artists’ applications is Monday, March 12th.
Supported by the Arts Council and Westmeath County Council Arts Office. Helium would like to gratefully acknowledge Mullingar Arts Centre for providing a venue for part of this event.
Anna Rosenfelder: Islands Workshop at Mermaid Arts centre (for toddlers 2-4 and their carers), which was held with Eoin O Brien. Photographs by Dermot Marrey.
Kate Wilson: ‘The Big Draw’ at The Model, Sligo. Photographs by Kate Wilson.
Hannah Lefeuvre: Photographs by Richard Tomlinson
Infant Imaginings: An Early Years inititaive from HeliumArts. Photographs by Niamh O’Connor.
Learn more about Helium’s Early Years work here
Posted on: February 2nd, 2012 by emmaeager No Comments
Are you between 16-19 years old and living with a chronic illness or have you spent long periods of time in hospital? Maybe someone close to you has?
Are you keen to learn about and try out some filming, acting, editing, or animating?
Would you like an opportunity to have your story heard?
If you answer yes to ANY of the above, we would love to hear from you!
Two Suitcases is a film and advocacy project in which young people living with chronic illness get the opportunity to share their experiences and film their own stories with professional mentoring and support. The aim is to raise awareness about what it’s like to be young, Irish and living with a chronic illness.
DETAILS
Stage 1: Filming Ben’s story 13th – 17th February (10am-3pm daily)
Location: Black Box Theatre, DIT Aungier Street, Dublin
Learn, have fun and act! Ben Murnane was diagnosed with Fanconi anaemia, a rare genetic disorder, when he was 9 years old and underwent a bone marrow transplant when he was 16. We are going to make a short film with Ben about his experiences. We will need volunteers to take on filming, acting, editing, animating and art department roles. If you have no experience in this area, no problem! We will have film professionals on hand who will guide you through the process.
- Workshops include: the basics of scriptwriting, drawing up storyboards, filming with iPhones, editing with iMovie, creating quick but effective animations.
- If you can’t attend for the full 5 days, that’s okay, just let us know when you sign up what days you’re free to help out. Travel and food expenses will be paid.
- During the Easter break, volunteers on Ben’s Movie will get a chance to film their own movie about their experiences.
Stage 2: Experience sharing afternoon18th February (2-5pm)
Chat with other teens! An opportunity to share your experiences of living with a chronic illness and share your thoughts on how you feel the hospital environment could be improved for young people. Your experiences are important to us because we’re developing an arts and technology project for teenagers in hospital. Your ideas will inform this project and your voices will help us to create change.
Interested in all or some of this and want to find out more? Email the super-friendly Emma! communications@helium.ie
Two Suitcases is produced by Helium Children’s Arts and Health in association with Spunout.ie.
Posted on: January 30th, 2012 by emmaeager No Comments
Continuous professional development talk and workshop for musicians and storytellers with storyteller Fiona Dowling and musician Caoimhe Conlon
Date: Saturday 3rd March 2012
Time: 2 – 5pm
Cost: €20 euro (includes resources)
Location: WHAT Centre for Arts & Health, Waterford Regional Hospital
Helium in partnership with Waterford Healing Arts Trust presents a continuous professional development talk and workshop by artists Caoimhe Conlon (Musician) of Music Alive and Fiona Dowling (Storyteller) at the WHAT Centre for Arts & Health, Waterford Regional Hospital.
This workshop is open to musicians and storytellers with some experience in participatory and/or collaborative arts practice, preferably with children and young people and/or in arts and health.
Caoimhe and Fiona will be talking about their recent 6 month collaboration together on the Scales and Tales project in Cork University Hospital and reflecting on their learnings and methods.
The talk will be followed by a practical workshop based on their devised, collaborative approach.
Deadline for all applications is 5pm on Thursday, 16th February 2012.
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