Can creating art help your wellbeing?

The birds have been made as part of the Flock project. Flock is a collaboration with UCL, artist Julie Nelson and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM Grounding Project). 

The project supports people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), particularly asylum seekers, refugees and displaced people, through therapeutic activities including gardening and crafts. UCL Institute of Education (IOE) academics Dr Humera Iqbal and Dr Katie Quy, and Professor Helen Chatterjee (UCL Division of Biosciences) will examine the effect creating art has on mental health in displaced migrant populations.

Flock is the creation of artist Julie Nelson and the exhibition is the result of workshops with members of the Grounding group, which started in early 2019.

Dr Iqbal said: “We know from research that participating in cultural activities can improve wellbeing and combat loneliness in individuals. It has been great to witness first-hand the healing power of clay. Our ceramic birds stand for a shared community and a sense of resilience; they have been able to battle the odds, just like their makers.”

Julie Nelson said: “One interesting result of the project has been the diverse styles and forms of birds that have been made. When I’ve researched birds from Ethiopia, Syria and Iraq, for example, I can see where the inspiration comes from. I think that having a common goal of the exhibition has really helped.”

“The workshop has been a focus for people to think about the metaphor of birds and to engage with nature and the environment. We encourage shared production, so that a clay pinched head may attach to a press moulded body created by someone else in the group.”

Several of the participants have noted the benefits of the project. Working with the clay has been therapeutic for Rita* who suffers from arthritis. It helps her to move her fingers and reminds her of her former home. She spent a lot of time moulding out her bird, explaining, "Playing with this clay takes me back to my childhood in Africa when we used to pull clay from the rocks and make pots and plates. It was a fun time."  

"I used to have many of these as pets and I know how intelligent they are,” says Daris* who kept homing pigeons back in his country. “I am really enjoying learning more about birds and working with the clay".

The Flock project runs from 4-15 September. The project will include an event on 12 September bringing together the collaborators. The project has been supported through UCL Grand Challenges.

*Names have been changed

Links

• Flock project
• South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM Grounding Project)
• Julie Nelson
• UCL Grand Challenges
• View Dr Humera Iqbal’s research profile
• Department of Social Science
• Thomas Coram Research Unit

Images

• Ben McDade and Maudsley Charity