Drawing for your own good: a year of Digital Drawing
We first launched our Digital Drawing courses in 2022, with the aim of introducing people to the apps and techniques used to create art in this innovative way. The results have been really powerful, not only some excellent art work but participants reporting improvements in wellbeing and confidence.
This week we’re celebrating not one but three Digital Drawing exhibitions! Three groups in Gateshead have had the joy of putting apple pencil to screen with some rather beautiful results.
We were delighted to work with Gateshead Clubhouse again, a mental health community hub, run entirely by its members.
“We are a group of individuals who all have lived experience of mental health problems/issues. We have come together to ensure that a genuine peer support led community hub is here for all who need it within the borough of Gateshead.”
At Bensham Hospital, the Younger Person’s Memory Service invited us to work with people diagnosed with early-onset dementia as well as a group of people with learning disabilities.
All three groups worked with the Digital Voice team on a Wellbeing Through Digital Drawing course with some lovely results which they shared in their exhibitions:
Feedback has also been very positive with participants commenting on increased creativity, confidence and a sense of connectedness. Elizabeth Sommerset, Team Manager at the Woodside Centre, Bensham Hospital, reflects on the experience of her group:
“The Younger Persons Memory Service in Gateshead have worked with Digital Voices on a digital art project. What an opportunity! The service users have really enjoyed the experience and gained so much beyond the physical skills. This opportunity has allowed the service users to grow in confidence, self-esteem and social inclusion. They all have engaged and taken home the skills which they had learnt during this. The staff on the project were very knowledgeable but also considerate of the needs of the group. It was a lovely group, so much so everyone is asking if it can continue! This was such a valuable project and a great experience! To come so far in so few sessions! I can’t thank them enough!“
Our thanks to all the participants for their willingness to try something new with us and to the Heritage Lottery Fund for making these projects possible.
Want a Digital Drawing project for your group? Get in touch here.