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WHAT has been running an Artist in Residence programme since its first artist Aifric Gray came to Waterford Regional Hospital in 1994. In the case of visual arts, artists are given a studio space in the WHAT premises in which they create a new body of work for exhibition in the hospital at the end of the residency.
The residency programme enables artists to forge closer links with the hospital community through direct engagement of staff, patients and visitors in creative projects such as Laura Fitzgerald's memory project and through participatory arts programmes.
The residency programme can accommodate a range of art forms including music, writing and dance. In 2002, poet Mark Roper became WHAT’s first writer-in-residence. During his residency, he invited staff, patients and visitors to write a haiku about their hospital experience. This resulted in a publication of 238 haiku about hospital life entitled Did you bring the socks?
In 2004/5, dancer and choreographer, Libby Seward, piloted an action-research project entitled Back to Dance in collaboration with the Department of Physiotherapy and the Backcare Clinic of Waterford Regional Hospital. This project set out to explore the relationship between Physiotherapy and creative movement/dance.
In 2007, Musician in Residence, Kevin O Shanahan facilitated a series of participatory music making workshops with the clients of the Department of Psychiatry in Waterford Regional Hospital and Ard na nDeise Hostel, a residential high support hostel for people with mental health problems in Waterford. The success of this residency led to the establishment of the Participatory Music Programme.
In 2010, Animated State Dance Theatre Company is in residence in the WHAT Centre for Arts & Health.
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