Branching out

Background 

This is one of a series of five articles showcasing the interim insights of the Learning through the pandemic project.

Common Vision and Creative United have been commissioned by Arts Council England to deliver the project, listening to cultural practitioners and sharing community engagement and participation best practice from the first two years of the pandemic.

Each of these articles are a preview of content which will appear in a final playbook; they include an overview of the learnings under this theme followed by practical resources you can explore. The playbook will expand on this with top-tips, case studies and consideration points

This article was written by Matilda Agace, Senior Research and Engagement Manager, Common Vision.

Learnings

With most venues shuttered during the pandemic lockdowns, cultural organisations and practitioners have been adapting to work in unconventional places, creating art with and in communities in schools, care homes, prisons and homeless hostels. These approaches pre-date the pandemic, but the scale and scale and spread of work has grown enormously over the last two years. 

Through conversations and focus groups with practitioners, we heard how many cultural organisations had turned to develop creativity and culture for non-art settings. Some organisations had always done work in non-traditional settings, such as care homes, but had to develop new techniques for doing this work safely, working closely with and through community partners, such as care home staff. Often these social and third-sector relationships were strained by the practicalities of social distancing and partner capacity. Yet cultural practitioners worked hard to demonstrate the social value of culture and how creativity can support wellbeing. Developing these relationships further will be crucial through the recovery. We heard about work in a number of different settings, including:

Schools

Though strong relationships, embedded ties within schools, and well-designed programmes lots of cultural organisations have successfully worked with schools to support children and young people through the pandemic. Theatre Alibi’s Down to Earth performance, which followed the story of a lonely astronaut, toured primary school classrooms in Devon, helping children deal with difficult feelings like fear and isolation. To keep everyone safe, it was designed to be performed by a single actor in individual classrooms, alongside an outdoors component and an online interactive version.

Elsewhere, Attenborough Arts Centre commissioned artists to make tailored sensory packages for students in SEN schools, whilst the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s partnership with Wandsworth Music devised tailored musical pieces with small groups of children in five SEN schools. Others focused on creating connections between different groups. People United’s Steampunk Bob’s Videogram Express organised video exchanges - children of key workers at St Stephen’s Primary School asked questions to older people supported by the Cares Family, and they responded by video back to the school. Meanwhile many libraries like St Helens Borough Council’s service continued to run their Schools Library Services through lockdown, becoming essential for children of keyworkers. 

Care homes and day centres for older people

Older people and those living in care settings often experienced heightened vulnerability during the pandemic, and cultural organisations stepped up to help residents through extended periods of physical isolation. Barnsley Museums pivoted their in-person Reminisce programme to be delivered through fifty care packs containing archive film, activities, and games, prompting residents of care homes and others to talk, share their stories, and find comfort in unsettling times. South East Dance’s Luan Taylor also kept connected with residents of Brooke Mead extra care residential home through care packs, letters, and gentle activities. ZoieLogic Dance Theatre performed a series of live dance theatre shows RIDE, in the car parks of five Southampton care homes, designed to support residents’ healing process through fun and creativity.

Other organisations worked directly with care home staff, and codesigned activities for residents based on staff’s knowledge, care priorities, and relationships. Magic Me’s Inside Out and Magic Moments projects focused on engaging residents who were reluctant to leave their rooms and were eating less, using creative activities to support care priorities and build confidence. Wlywood Arts’s The Meeting Post magazine was distributed in print to care homes and packed full of dementia-friendly activities.

Hospitals

Hospitals have been at the centre of the Covid-19 crisis and have often been hard places to work in during the pandemic because of disease control. However, cultural organisations have managed to find creative ways to work within restrictions and support patients through illness. Ex Cathedra continued to deliver their long-running Singing Medicine project in Birmingham Children’s Hospital by turning in-person visits into short, personalised, interactive singing videos for referred children to watch at their bedside. London Symphony Orchestra also made online visits to children’s bedsides via touring iPad; as well as playing in the corridors and foyers of hospitals to lift the spirits of passing patients, staff and visitors; and creating ‘musical hugs’ in the form of short films of improvised music that individuals could send to their loved ones. LeftCoast CPP’s Scrub Hub started as an at-home project initiated by and artists and run by volunteers to sew over 400 scrubs for hospital workers, but transformed into a wider creative community which went on to put on its own exhibition Inside Out within the Old Fleetwood Hospital, showcasing the creativity and talent which exists in our communities. 

Criminal justice settings

People in the criminal justice system faced some of the toughest lockdowns, isolated in their cells for long periods of time with most shared activities stopped. Many cultural organisations had to adapt quickly to these restrictions, finding novel ways to maintain relations with incarcerated people and prison staff, and to keep creative support in place. Peterborough Presents adapted their Bretton Royalty programme, nominating 15 isolated Bretton residents to receive a gift made by Jailbirds, a social enterprise based in in the Women’s wing of Peterborough Prison. Open Clasp Theatre co-created the digital play Sugar with women who are homeless, on probation or in prison in collaboration HMP Low Newton, Women’s Direct Access Centre and women attending West End Women & Girl’s centre. The play was then screened in 50 prisons. Clean Break ran a letter-writing project, connecting women in cells with women in the community; and the Koestler Trust ran weekly creative activities, designed around the limited tools and resources which prisoners could access. 

Homeless shelters and supported accommodation

In the early months of lockdown there was a huge push to get everyone warm and secure homes, with hotels and hostels around the country taking unhoused people. The Museum of Homelessness initially pivoted away from creative work to focus on lobbying and mutual aid, borrowing a vacant council community centre to launch a seven-days-a-week operation and even repurposing their museum shelving for dried goods and cans. Many other organisations doubled down on what creativity could offer in a crisis, for instance Accumulate delivered over 3,500 art packs to hotels and hostels around London and Bristol, and Cardboard Citizens ran weekly Hotel Creative Challenges in partnership with St. Mungo’s hostel and its residents. And Street Wise Opera launched a busy programme of digital activities for people with experience of homelessness, including virtual singing classes, an online gallery, and digital dance. 

Resources

The resources below may help your organisation develop your at-home provision, get new ideas for developing your existing at-home work, and reflect on what the future of these methods are beyond lockdowns. More will be available in the ‘Learning through the pandemic’ playbook, due to be published by Common Vision in early 2022.

Resources about working in schools and education settings:

Mighty Hub: One-stop-shop of online creative resources for children and young people to use at home or in the classroom: Over 100 examples of creative activities which could be used in a school or at-home environment to feed children’s creativity during lockdown. 

Arts in Education Recovery Group: Eight case studies of creative learning during the pandemic: Focusing on work in schools, this report profiles eight organisations who found a way to continue face-to-face delivery safely in the pandemic. It covers a range of approaches, from online and outdoor working, to distanced delivery in classrooms. 

A New Direction: Learning under lockdown series: A series of practical guides and reflections from educators is useful for understanding more about the experience of schools during the pandemic, and how cultural organisations can best support pupils and teachers. 

Norfolk and Norwich Festival Bridge: Making the most of your digital content for schools: Developed with consultation from teachers, schools and education settings, this toolkit is designed to support arts and cultural organisations to make the most of their digital content and resources for schools. It provides good examples of how cultural organisations can practically support schools and classroom teaching during the pandemic.

Resources about working with older people in care settings:

Age and Opportunity: A Toolkit for arts and creativity in care settings: A practical toolkit to help cultural practitioners and care home workers deliver meaningful creative and cultural activities to residents. It gives straightforward advice and processes to try, and plenty of examples.

Arts in Care homes: Creative Communities Resource Pack: Produced in 2020 during the pandemic, these five activity guides were produced in September 2020 and revolve around a set of themes: nurture, play, create, relax, and celebrate, with a range of arts activities to try. 

Baring Foundation: Treasury of Arts Activities for Older People, Volume One and Volume Two: Both volumes contain 50 accessible creative activities, long and short, for use in any setting with older people. Alongside the activities, the treasury contains practical tips for working in alternate setting like care homes – from finding a project champion to getting a sense of the centre’s rhythm. 

Repository for Arts & Health Resources: Arts, Ageing and Wellbeing Toolkit: Produced by an academic and practitioner working in Singapore, this guide also contains a range of activities to use in care settings, usefully arranged according to participants’ physical abilities.

Resources about working in other kinds of institutional and community settings:

National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance: Creativity in a restricted regime: Though designed for prison officers, this guide gives insights for anyone trying to do work in prisons during the pandemic. Page five gives a set of recommendations for creative practitioners for they can support participants to feel they are a part of something beyond their cell.

Clinks: Engaging people with convictions: Brief guidance for voluntary sector organisations working with people in criminal justice settings. It is largely about approaches and project design, but also includes practical resources.

Libraries in the community response: Libraries Connected’s research found that a quarter of library staff were redeployed to other areas of the local pandemic response. The way libraries worked during the pandemic, supporting core council services and the emergency community response exemplifies how not only cultural organisations’ buildings but staff teams supported communities beyond their usual scope and purpose.

Homelessness Link: Covid-19 guidance for hotel staff: Designed for hotel workers who housed homeless people during the ‘Everyone In’ campaign in the first lockdown, these six short webinars could also be useful to arts practitioners working in these settings. The webinars cover safeguarding, alcohol and drug awareness, trauma-informed care, and maintaining boundaries. 

Art and Homelessness International: Project map: This map contains examples of 27 projects made with people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic. Most examples are from the UK, but there are also a couple from the states, providing a source of inspiration.

Cardboard Citizens: Setting up a mobile library for people who are homeless during Covid-19: A practical easy-to-follow one-page guide from Carboard Citizens to help others replicate their approach of setting up mobile libraries in hotels housings homeless people during the pandemic.