We have been successful in our application to the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme and over the next three years will receive £96,295 to deliver our ‘Pathways to Wellbeing’ project. This will build on the foundations of our highly successful Gardener’s Lodge Art Group working with those with lived experience of mental health issues, social isolation and homelessness and offering a creative outlet to build confidence and social skills.
We will be working with our museum partners Bath Preservation Trust, American Museum in Britain and our healthcare partners Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health NHS Trust and Creativity Works.
Pathways to Wellbeing will support up to 200 participants by offering them different options to use their creative skills:
• Those interested in Museum volunteering will be supported by trained visitor services mentors to increase their knowledge, confidence and independence;
• Others will join a new peer-led museum group to develop interpretation and other public engagement projects;
• The Holburne Museum will continue with its Gardener’s Lodge Art Group – a regular art workshop taking inspiration from its own and partner museums’ collections;
• Pathways to wellbeing will also be taken to different healthcare settings and partner museums allowing a wider variety of vulnerable groups to participate.
Louise Campion, Learning and Community Engagement Officer at the Holburne said, ‘We are very excited to receive Big Lottery funding for this creative project which allows us to develop our established outreach programme. We’re looking forward to sharing the results with all our visitors. The first of our Pathway projects will be showcased during Fringe Arts Bath (FAB Festival); The Gardener’s Lodge Groups’ papercut installation Utopias of the Mind can be seen on Walcot Street, and Fresh Art (with Creativity Works and AWP Mental Health Trust) at Bath Artists’ Studios (both from 28 May to Sunday 12 June). Fresh Art will also be on show at The Holburne Museum.’