Children’s Let’s Create Art Week 2024
Friday 28th June
- News
Over the past few years at Farleigh Hospice, our Yo-Yo Project bereavement service have highlighted how essential creativity and the visual arts are for connecting young people who are grieving and for supporting their wellbeing.
Let’s Create Art Week, which takes place between 29 June and 19 July 2024, is an annual programme run by Engage, the National Association for Gallery Education, which highlights the importance of encouraging creativity among children and the benefits this has for learning, connecting and wellbeing.
For our Yo-Yo Project who support children and young people aged 4-18 that have experienced a close bereavement, encouraging creative expression through art is also an important part of bereavement counselling as it allows children to explore and express their emotions in a safe way.
Ruth Felgate, Child Bereavement Counsellor here at Farleigh Hospice said, “I am an art therapist and I provide art therapy to children and young people in the Yo-Yo Project, a child bereavement service at Farleigh. Art therapy provides children with a safe space to express how they feel through the use of art materials. This can increase serotonin levels and increase blood flow to the part of the brain associated with pleasure with the benefit of fostering new ways of thinking.
We hold art workshops for children who have been bereaved. During the summer this gives them a chance to meet with other children who have also experienced the death of a loved one. It's also an opportunity for young people to get involved in art activities which we know have therapeutic benefits for young people. In previous years, we held spray painting workshops, which the young people found fun but also relieved stress and gave them a sense of accomplishment. One young person said after having therapeutic support, "I enjoyed making the sand different colours and putting it in a bottle.”
The team work artistically with bereaved children and young people in a number of ways:
Gallery Exhibitions
Our annual gallery exhibition provides the opportunity for groups of bereaved children and young people to showcase the artwork they have created in an art therapy session on a dedicated wall in the hospice building in North Court Road. The children’s parents or carers and family members are invited to attend a special gallery evening to look at all the different art pieces created.Some of the artwork captures the children’s thoughts and feelings about loved ones who have died whilst others capture meaningful memories that are shared and treasured. This is a great outlet that helps them come to terms with their loss.
Outdoor activity workshops
Our Yo-Yo Project activity days help develop and facilitate communication skills and improve self-confidence. They allow children to use different medians, including art, music and play to be creative and express their emotions. During one of the outdoor activity days, children had the opportunity to use paint and pens to create special messages on rocks. This special keepsake was then used to create a personal memory garden for their loved one.
Dream catcher workshops
During the summer holidays in 2023, we held some creative workshops for different age groups where they were encouraged to embark on a scavenger hunt in nature to find natural materials that they would use to create their dream catchers with. Some of the children wrote explanations to go alongside their creations about who they had made them in memory of, whilst others described what unique qualities theirs had. Afterwards, the dream catchers were then put up on display in the hospice building for the children, young people, parents, carers and family members of those who attended the group to view, creating a conversation about the personal meaning behind each one.
The workshop allowed the children to form connections and friendships within the group. They went on to make a group chat so they could continue talking after the session had ended.
A splash of colour
This year, Yo-Yo Project are running painting workshops called ‘A Splash of Colour’ for young people who have been bereaved. Here, they will meet with others who have a shared understanding, and will also experience the therapeutic benefits of art.