Workshop 1: Visual Arts with Harper Johnston and Maddison Andrews
Join facilitator and Art Therapist Harper Johnson, BA, B.Ed, MFA, DTATI, and Assistant Maddi Andrews, MA Candidate, for a special conference Art Hive event. Here, we invite you to explore emotions and related sensations through the artistic process, experimentation and play. This hands on program begins with a short presentation by Maddi Andrews, who will share the philosophy, goals, and successes of Art Hive @ Agnes. A free and accessible program which has brought in more than 1000 attendees both online and in person, Art Hive @ Agnes addresses themes of empowerment, wellness, and self-care, while fostering a safe space and a sense of community.
Presenters
Harper Johnston
Harper Johnston, BA, B.Ed, MFA, DTATI has over thirty years of experience working as an arts educator with adults, adolescents and children. She is a professional art therapist, a play therapy intern and is currently completing the requisite hours to become a Registered Psychotherapist. Harper also worked in film for many years as a stills photographer and camera assistant. Her film work, primarily with the C.B.C. and the National Film Board, took her all over the world. Harper has received numerous arts council grants and her photography has been shown across the country. She also has work in the Canada Council’s Art Bank permanent collection. Harper is friendly and enthusiastic and is always happy when called upon to share her creative ideas and studio knowledge.
Harper has been facilitating Art Hive @Agnes since January 2019.
Maddison Andrews
Maddison Andrews is a MA Candidate in Art History at Queen’s University (Class of 2021). Although Maddison was born in Calgary, she was raised overseas in South Korea, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom. Maddison received her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Art History with a Certificate in International Studies in June 2019. She is currently employed as a Receptionist at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre.
During an internship placement at Agnes, Maddison researched and developed wellness related programs within the gallery, specifically Art Hive @Agnes. This successful program, which launched in January 2019, is a weekly drop-in program that encourages positive mental health practices through artmaking. Maddison has continued volunteering and working with Art Hive @Agnes, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped transition the program online. These opportunities allowed Maddison to discover her interest in museum and gallery education, which she hopes to pursue after graduation.
Workshop 2: Writing & Literary Arts with Sadiqa de Meijer
In 1985, a groundbreaking article called “I Can’t Hear You While I’m Listening,” by internist Dr. Richard J. Baron, appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The title referred to the doctor’s quieting of his patient during auscultation. In this workshop, we ask: what does it mean to listen to patients? On what levels, and with what ends in mind, might health care providers hear what is being conveyed to them? Please join Sadiqa de Meijer as we use literary, experiential, and written reflection to explore these questions for ourselves.
Presenter
Sadiqa de Meijer
Sadiqa de Meijer’s most recent books are The Outer Wards (Vehicule Press) and alfabet / alphabet (Palimpsest Press). Her poetry, essays, and short fiction have appeared in journals internationally, and been awarded the CBC Poetry Prize, Arc’s Poem of the Year award, and other honours. She is a graduate of Queen’s Medicine and a former instructor of the ‘Medicine and Literature’ course.
Workshop 3: Dance/Movement with Filipa Pereira-Stubbs and Natalie Ellis
Dance for Health (DfH) is Cambridge University Hospitals’ (CUH) flagship arts programme. Now an international leader in the field of participatory dance within hospital settings, DfH was piloted in 2013 with the initial aim to improve the hospital experience for older patients. In the past 3 years alone, DfH has had more than 3000 participant visits, and currently takes place weekly for inpatients on a number of different adult wards including stroke rehabilitation, neuro-trauma, diabetes & endocrinology, and the department for medicine of the elderly.
This workshop is an invitation for you to experience DfH from a patient’s perspective. By guiding you through a practical DfH session, Filipa Pereira-Stubbs – DFH’s lead practitioner and co-founder – will introduce the practices and principles that sit at the heart of the programme, followed by valuable time for us to reflect and discuss.
Presenters
Filipa Pereira-Stubbs
Filipa Pereira-Stubbs is a Cambridge (UK) based dance artist, dance teacher, and creative practitioner with thirty years’ experience in dance & health and in community arts. Filipa devises and delivers dance & health programmes, in the community, in clinical settings, in museums and galleries, and outdoors in Nature. Her projects, including ‘Dance for Health’ at Cambridge University Hospitals, and ‘Dance at the Museum’ (Fitzwilliam Museum) always hold inclusivity and integration of the arts at the core, finding inspiration in somatic practice and the process of improvisation & imagination, calibrating and bridging perceived cultural differences, age differences and health differences. Her work in the field of medicine seeks to create bridges between subjective, phenomenological perspectives of the body, and the larger naturalist and normative approaches to medicine, health and wellbeing.
Natalie Ellis
Natalie Ellis is a senior arts manager with a special interest in arts & health. She is currently Head of Arts at Cambridgeshire University Hospitals NHS Trust (UK), responsible for leading an innovative multi-arts engagement programme that enhances the hospital environment and aims to improve the experience of patients, visitors and staff. Prior to this, Natalie established the community and schools programme at Saffron Hall Trust in north-west Essex – one of the UK’s most progressive classical music venues. Natalie has worked in the community arts field for over 12 years, holding posts at organisations including the Royal Opera House, Spitalfields Music and Britten Sinfonia, and is a trustee of national music charity Orchestras Live.
The Jacalyn Duffin Health & Humanities Conference 