Mary Grehan and Claire Meaney, Arts Directors of one of Ireland’s leading Arts and Health programme, the Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT), are coming to Sligo for a three-day residency at The Model from 25th – 27th October.

Established in 1993 and based at University Hospital Waterford, WHAT supports the development of arts and health practice in Ireland through training, advice and artsandhealth.ie, the national arts and health website. Between them Mary and Claire have over 25 years experience of curating arts programmes in a range of healthcare settings including acute hospitals and mental health settings.

During their time at the Model, Mary and Claire will share their experience of running arts and health programmes via free advice clinics on 26 October in the Gallery Café at The Model and visit similar programmes in the North West. They will also facilitate an Introduction to Arts & Health, a one day training programme for artists and healthcare professionals who are new to the area of arts and health.

The residency will conclude with the launch of An Introduction of Arts and Health // 10 Things to Consider , a short publication by Mary Grehan which describes the various aspects of arts and health practice, offers guidelines for good practice and signposts readers to further information. This will take place at The Model at 5pm on Thursday, 27th October. All are welcome to attend.

An Introduction of Arts and Health // 10 Things to Consider will be launched by Niamh O’Connor an artist and arts coordinator for the Arts Initiative in Mental Health, a programme of Sligo Leitrim Mental Health Services.

In the words of Mary Grehan, Arts Director of WHAT, ‘Sligo County Council was the first local authority in Ireland to publish an arts and health strategy and in the light of this and the personal relationships we have built up over the years in the north west, we are very much looking forward to our residency at The Model. This is not just about sharing our experience but also being inspired and reinvigorated by the work of others in the field of arts and health.’
If you are interested in meeting Mary and Claire during their residency at The Model, please e-mail info@artsandhealth.ie to book your place.
For more information on the work of the Waterford Healing Arts Trust / artsandhealth.ie phone 051-842664 or see www.waterfordhealingarts.com and www.artsandhealth.ie.