Posts Tagged ‘collaboration’

Creative Voices: film, drama and writing workshops for teenagers living with chronic illness

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.

Two Suitcases Project: A creative voice for teenagers living with chronic illness

Posted on: May 15th, 2012 by emmaeager 1 Comment

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

Read an article about the Two Suitcases Project from “Hot Press” magazine

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.

REFLECT Lab

Posted on: October 21st, 2011 by emmaeager No Comments

Ireland’s first REFLECT Lab co-mentoring programme is currently being implemented in the Northwest. The programme kicked off in April 2011 in Sligo, initiated by REFLECT Lab trainers from The Sage Gateshead, UK. REFLECT Lab is a model of cross-sector co-mentoring devised and delivered by The Sage Gateshead. The REFLECT Lab programme is a collaborative learning process for people working across a range of sectors and offers participants the space and time to reflect on what they do and why they do it. People taking part in REFLECT are given the opportunity to think creatively and to reappraise their professional practice from a new perspective.

Eleven artists and eleven healthcare workers from Sligo and Donegal who work with children and young people are co-mentoring each other with a view to sharing skills and experience between the two sectors. They have been given training in reflective practice, active listening and active questioning. Paul Devlin, Professional Learning Manager with The Sage Gateshead, said, “Co-mentors from previous REFLECT Lab cohorts have taken their learning back into their organisations and businesses creating new partnerships, strengthening creative learning, developing new approaches to leadership and establishing their own co-mentoring programmes.”

The aim of the REFLECT Lab cohort in the Northwest is to advance arts and health partnerships in the provision of services for children and young people in healthcare settings. The long-term objective is to roll out the REFLECT co-mentoring programme throughout the Irish health sector. Sligo County Council Arts Service has said of the REFLECT Lab initiative, “We are committed to working with Helium, the HSE, the artists and our partners to ensure the REFLECT Lab model will contribute to a sustainable Arts and Health partnership programme for young people and the wider population in Sligo and the North West area into the future.”

The participating artists in Sligo and Donegal work with children in services that include education and youth work and have backgrounds in theatre, music and puppetry, movement, writing and directing, textiles and glasswork, visual arts and street theatre. Their healthcare co-mentors work with children in services ranging from mental health to early intervention and include occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, a clinical nurse specialist, a hospital play specialist, a care assistant, a clinical psychologist, and disabilities keyworkers.

There is also a train the trainer programme running alongside the main co-mentoring programme so that Irish organisations can learn the skills required to implement future co-mentoring projects. Helene Hugel of Helium is leading the Irish cohort and has said of the programme, “REFLECT Lab provides a unique opportunity to develop a cross-sectoral professional learning opportunity, to build shared understanding of arts and health contexts and to connect the skills and vision of two diverse sectors in benefitting artistic practice and the quality of the healthcare context for children. Through the REFLECT Lab programme, Helium hopes to advance understanding of the mutual benefits of arts and health partnerships.”

An evaluation of the REFLECT programme undertaken by Peter Renshaw in 2008 found that REFLECT Lab co-mentoring has a deeply positive impact on individuals, their organisations and their wider sector. HSE West is supporting an evaluation of the Irish REFLECT Lab cohort. The last cohort meeting took place in late September and this phase of the REFLECT programme ends in March 2012. The evaluation will be published later in 2012.

This REFLECT Lab cohort is led by Helium under the Arts Council of Ireland Local Partnership Scheme with Sligo County Council Arts Service, Donegal County Council Arts Office, HSE West (Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal), Letterkenny General Hospital, and Sligo General Hospital.

A huge thank you to Sligo Park Hotel and the Radisson Blu, Letterkenny for sponsoring the accommodation – our visitors were thrilled to be staying in such luxury! Also thanks to Café Fleur for the wonderful catering! And last, but certainly not least, thank you to The Model, Sligo, and the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny for providing the training venues.

To find out more about REFLECT Lab, visit www.helium.ie/reflect.html to view the introductory presentation.

Images and words from Mark Storor’s Workshop

Posted on: December 23rd, 2010 by Avril Carr No Comments


Let’s say you have an opportunity (o, joy!) to work with a bunch of people (children, adults, students, patients, friends, colleagues … whatever) who have the time and energy and the will to do something creative/imaginitive/artistic together, for fun and whatever else may come out of it; irrespective of what medium you plan to work in, how you plan to proceed, what you want to achieve, it seems like a good first step in the process to enable as much creativity, collaboration and flow of imagination as possible.

Thank you to workshop participant Paul O’Connor for his insightful blog entry on Mark Storor’s Workshop, which can be found here: http://bit.ly/exWRps

And further reflections on the seminar:http://bit.ly/eUjKIM

More photos can be found here and here http://bit.ly/fEoEYT and here http://bit.ly/gLF7YL. Participants traveled from Donegal and Cork to take part. Here’s some of their reflections on the day:

“I am totally inspired. So much of this is going to be relevant with groups I work with.”

“Really thinking about how my own practice relates to participatory arts.”

“Brilliant. so delighted I came.”

“Thanks for today. It was wonderful.”

“It really flowed.”

“You can get carried up in it.”

“We can enjoy others to lift and carry us.”

“We can do things that make us feel awkward.”

“It takes time to be in yourself… and try.”

And comments from those who watched the seminar online:
“I just wanted to say congrats on the conference yesterday.
I watched the conference from home and really enjoyed it and thought Mark did a great job without Anna. I was especially touched by the story of Opi which was beautiful.”

“Thank you Mark for bringing your work to Ireland. Enjoyed the presentation from my sofa in Sligo.”

Thank you to the Arts Council for funding the two events via a Travel and Training Inbound Award, Tallaght Community Arts and the Science Gallery for support, and Jurys Inn Dublin for sponsorship.

New Puppet Portal Team announced!!

Posted on: August 23rd, 2010 by Avril Carr No Comments

Helium is delighted to welcome three new artists to the Puppet Portal team for 2010. They are Sally Maidement who will be based in Donegal, David Kavanagh in Cork and Niamh Lawlor in Dublin. The three new artists will be joining Emma Fisher in Limerick and Siobhán Clancy in Dublin for the project which will start in September this year. The project is a collaboration between artists, children and healthcare staff in five paediatric wards across the country. Through the use of Solas webportal which was developed by the Centre for Health informatics, Trinity College, Dublin, artists and children in each of the hospitals will be able to share their work and work collaboratively. The project will run for 10 weeks and includes professional development days and creative exchange days where artists, healthcare staff and hospital teachers come together to share skills and knowledge. There was a huge amount of interest from artists for this year’s Puppet Portal Project and we’d really like to thank everyone who applied and came for interview.

Puppet Portal Stage unveiled at Beaumont Hospital

Posted on: July 21st, 2010 by Avril Carr No Comments

Here are some photos from the unveiling of the Puppet Portal Stage in Beaumont Hospital recently. The Puppet Portal Stage was created by Siobhán Clancy and John Dunn in collaboration with the patients of St. Raphael’s Ward to commemorate their involvement in the Puppet Portal Project, an arts and technology partnership project between Helium Children’s Arts & Health, The Centre for Health Informatics, Trinity College Dublin and Beaumont Hospital in collaboration with Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership. The creation of the stage was supported by Beaumont Hospital School and Beaumont Hospital Arts Office and was launched in Beaumont Hospital on 22nd June 2010.


The Puppet Portal Project  took place in 2009 and will recommence in five hospitals in September. See our call for artists if you are interested in getting involved. http://bit.ly/cNemcr. We will also be launching an evaluation of the project very soon so keep visiting to find out more about the outcomes.

Call for Artists – Helium’s Puppet Portal Project

Posted on: July 5th, 2010 by Avril Carr No Comments

Helium invites applications from multi-disciplinary artists working in the Dublin, Letterkenny, and Cork areas to collaborate with children across 5 participating hospitals in the next phase of this arts and health and technology project. Contemporary puppetry techniques, storytelling and technology will be explored to create live, interactive, puppetry performances via the hospital web portal, Solas, an online community for children and young people in hospital. Deadline for applications: Friday, August 6th at 5pm. Download the full artist’s brief below or contact Avril Carr on info@helium.ie with ‘Puppet Portal Project’ in the subject heading.

Puppet Portal Project – Artists’ Brief