June - September 2009

Welcome!

Exhibition Programme
Once Upon a Time
25th June - 13th August
Once Upon a Time is an exhibition of artworks by WHAT Artist-in-Residence Laura Fitzgerald. Laura has been based in the studio in the WHAT Centre for Arts and Health since January 2009 and has created a body of work on the themes of memory and connections between individuals. Laura’s has created work that built upon her previous work of dealing with personal memories into a more collective and collaborative approach. She has succeeded in bringing a visual experience to Waterford Regional Hospital which allows the viewer to become an active participant in creating a piece of art.  

Over 150 individual drawings will be on view for the duration of the exhibition. These drawings were collected from a series of meetings between members of staff, patients, and members of the Waterford community, where the artist asked each person to relay a vivid memory from their lives. These drawings depict a collective experience of what if is to be human...births, deaths, marriage, stolen moments and childhood memories. The works become a universal metaphor for the importance of archiving each of our own individual experiences.

This exhibition will be launched at 5.30pm on the 25th June in the WHAT Centre for Arts and Health by Julian Walton. All are welcome.

Captured Time
27th August – 30th September
WHAT Centre for Arts & Health
Captured Time is an exhibition of artwork and poetry by Johanna Tanner, Frank Curtis and Philip Cullen. Johanna and Frank are both patients in the Renal Dialysis Unit in Waterford Regional Hospital and they visit the hospital three times a week for four hour dialysis sessions.

The title of this exhibition Captured Time refers to how Frank and Johanna utilise their dialyses time to develop their creativity. Both patients are guided by artist Philip Cullen who has been working with them since September 2008 through a project funded by the Punchestown Kidney Research Association. Philip has made sculptural works in response to Johanna’s poems and Frank’s drawings. This exhibition will be launched at 7.30pm on the 27th August in the WHAT Centre for Arts and Health.

Healing Sounds Music Programme
The Healing Sounds music programme continues this summer with another exciting line-up of live music performances in Waterford Regional Hosptial. Musicians will perform in the main foyer of the hospital from 1.30pm – 2.00pm and then will move to the wards and outpatient clinics.

Simon Fay
Monday 8th June
Simon Fay is originally from Naas, Co. Kildare, but has lived in Waterford for the past four years. He has recently completed the music BA course in Waterford I.T., majoring in creative music technology. Simon has played jazz guitar for the past 5 years, studying first with Mike Brookfield in Dublin and then with Dylan Bible in Waterford. He has played in a number of bands around Waterford city and is currently a member of the electro acoustic group Number Theory.


Cultural Harmonies
Monday 6th July
Cultural Harmonies is an exciting music project initiated by WHAT that aims to enhance our appreciation of multi-cultural Ireland through song by facilitating a creative collaboration between Irish musicians and non-Irish musicians.
Artistic Director of Tramore Gospel Choir, Jane O’ Brien Moran will run two music-making workshops with the residents of Atlantic House and Ocean View House, Tramore in June. Residents living in these houses are from countries such as Nigeria, The Congo, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Iraq, Iran and Albania. The workshops will result in a joint celebratory performance by the workshop participants and the members of Tramore Gospel Choir as part of the Healing Sounds music programme at WRH. This project is supported by the Office of the Minister for Integration.

Hollering Pine
Monday 10th August
Kate Glavey and Eoin Dalton met up in March 2008 and started singing country songs together - songs about liars, cheaters, horse thieves, the Lord Jesus, murdering housewives, rare mountain flowers and lovesick losers! They draw their influence from folk, blues and bluegrass with an emphasis on the interplay between the male and female voice and close, finely-tuned harmonies.

In late 2008 Tommy Keating joined the group, adding an authentically raw, unpolished fiddle sound to the mix. They have played a range of venues around Waterford including the Candlelight Sessions in Phil Grimes, the Tuesday Night Folk Club in Downes, and Saturday night sessions in La Fontana restaurant. They have previously played as part of the Healing Sounds music programme. A personal highlight for the group was a support slot before Andy Irvine's gig in the Imagine Festival in November 2008.

Eamonn Kenny
Monday 14th September
Eamonn Kenny is from Kilkenny and has lived in Waterford for the last seven years. He studied classical guitar with Michael O’Toole in Waterford Institute of Technology and majored in performance. For the last two years, he has worked as a classical and acoustic guitar teacher in Maoin Cheoil an Chlair.
Eamonn has a varied performance history including various concerts through the course of college, performing at weddings and evening performances in a restaurant.

Arts Participation

ARTvENTURE
ARTvENTURE is a contemporary art project for HSE staff members. Since April, through a series of artist talks, WHAT has introduced a multidisciplinary team of staff members to the latest in contemporary art practice. The talks have been led by Claire Meaney, Mary Grehan and the WHAT Artist in Residence, Laura Fitzgerald.

The last two artist talks in this series will take place on Wednesday, 10th June and Wednesday 24th June in the WHAT Centre for Arts & Health at 1pm. If you are interested in participating or you would like further information please phone Claire on 051-842664 or e-mail what@hse.ie.

Open Art Workshops
Do you want to take time out to be creative and have fun, experiment with new art materials and meet new people?
WHAT invites you to come along every and any Thursday to the WHAT Centre for Arts and Health between 12 noon and 2.00 p.m. to join in our new open art workshops.

No experience is necessary and you can join in on a once-off basis or come along every week.
The cost is €5.00 per session.
Phone 051-842664 to book your place


Respond! Arts Project
Respond! is Ireland's largest not for profit Housing Association seeking to create a positive future for people by alleviating poverty and creating vibrant, socially integrated communities. Waterford Healing Arts Trust has teamed up with Respond! to deliver an exciting arts programme in the WHAT Centre for Arts & Health which aims to support a group of Respond! clients to have an enjoyable, creative and social experience. Some of the activities include drawing, painting games, clay making, basic printing, percussion, metal & wooden instruments, drama games and creative writing. This is a ten week project that will culminate in June.

Youth Arts and Health Programme
The next phase of the Youth Arts & Health programme will kick off in September for 20 weeks in Squashy Couch Youth Café. This main theme of this project is portraiture. The participants - the young people using the facility - will develop a body of work on their own self portrait. The self portrait will not simply be a physical representation of how the participant appears but will include elements of the participant’s life which best represents them.

In the final stage of this project, the participants will work together to create a final artwork that is a Youth Community Portrait influenced by elements of positive emotional health and contemporary art. This project aims to leave a visual legacy for the youth community in the form of a permanent body of artwork for display in Squashy Couch Youth Café.

This project has been kindly supported by Waterford Area Partnership, Waterford Youth Council and Waterford City Council.


Participatory Music Programme
WHAT engages Mental Health Service Users based across eight settings in and attached to St. Otteran’s Hospital in participatory music making. As part of the programme, musician Kevin O’Shanahan, with the support of an Arts Council bursary, is currently developing a repertoire of music for Music and Health. Earlier in the year, musicians Leah Clarke and Jane O’Brien Moran joined our team of musicians.

The programme has grown to promote wellbeing through music in partnership with a number of community-based groups. We are currently engaging the clients of Tory Services and Acquired Brain Injury Ireland in a programme of participatory music which will result in live performances at the new Ferrybank Arts Festival in Belmount House on 25th July.

From July, Liam Merriman and Mary Prendergast will engage Renal Dialysis patients in singing and playing music on hand-held percussion instruments. The monthly music sessions, which will take place at the bedside, are designed to a range of musical experiences. The programme is funded by the National Concert Hall and the Renal Dialysis Patient Fund.

Oncology & Haemotology Arts Programme
Artist Philip Cullen will begin a new participatory art project in June with the patients of the Oncology and Haemotology ward at Waterford Regional Hospital. Philip will deliver a workshop programme of arts activities in the HOPE room on the Medical 4 ward for a period of 20 weeks.

This programme aims to explore the role of artistic endeavours within palliative care settings while providing a positive, creative forum for Oncology and Haematology clients undergoing treatment.

Update on Art Collection
The Waterford Healing Arts Trust is the custodian of an art collection of over 200 works that are on display in Waterford Regional Hospital. Recently five artworks arrived in WRH on loan from the Arts Council and have been installed throughout the hospital. These include Maurice and Clea Wrestling as Jacob and Angel 2 by Nick Miller, Mung by Mary Farl Powers, Untitled by Michael Coleman, Bone by Barrie Cooke and Shelter by Catriona O’Leary.

Culture Night
Friday, 25th September
Want an alternative Friday night out?For one night only museums, galleries, churches, historic houses, artists’ studios, cultural centres and more, will open their doors late for a night of entertainment, discovery and adventure. This annual event first took place in Dublin in 2006 and has since grown to all of Ireland’s major cities. Join the thousands who will be staying up late for their Culture Fix here in the WHAT Centre for Arts and Health!

National Poetry Day
2nd October 2009 is National Poetry Day. If you have any ideas about how you would like us to celebrate this day in Waterford Regional Hospital, we would love to hear from you.