What does your organisation do?

Head4Arts provides community arts activities across Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Merthyr Tydfil and Torfaen and is governed by a partnership of 5 local authorities and Leisure Trusts

We work with all art forms and for all ages, specifically focusing on the most disadvantaged communities where there are barriers to participation or gaps in provision, developing creative interventions to support the well-being priorities identified by the Public Service Boards for the Heads of the Valleys East area. Our programme is also linked to the seven target areas of the Well-being of Future Generations legislation and the Five Ways to Wellbeing.

Our projects are delivered by a wide range of experienced freelance professional community arts practitioners, and we are mainly funded by Arts Council of Wales as one of their National Portfolio of arts providers. Other funding is accessed through a range of sources including contributions from project partners, Welsh government schemes (eg. Winter of Wellbeing / Summer of Fun), Heritage Lottery, and WWF Arts Award.

Our work includes activities and events open to the general public, but we frequently work with specific groups in partnership with other services or third sector organisations to address disadvantage. Pre-Covid, we were reaching approximately 14,000 participations annually across the region. Over the past two years we had to adapt our work to deliver some activities online and some via craft packs, but since last autumn are now able to deliver face-to-face sessions. Although we are based in Llanhilleth, Blaenau Gwent, our projects are all delivered on an “outreach” basis.

You’ve been around for a while, what has changed over the years?

We work within a constantly changing context and we have to maintain flexibility to reflect the priorities of the communities we serve, whilst being mindful of the current priorities of Welsh Government, the Well-being of Future Generations’ targets and those of Arts Council of Wales (as our main funders). These priorities have seen considerable change over the years. Addressing poverty has always been an issue, but these days health and well-being, equalities and sustainability have moved much further up the agenda.

When we were set up in 2008. We were tasked with working alongside the Communities First programme, which no longer exists, but we continue to focus our work on the most disadvantaged communities and those with barriers to participation. This means that more of our work these days is often in partnership with Housing Associations and voluntary organisations. In 2008 all four local authorities had thriving arts development services and we were careful not to duplicate their work (eg. we didn’t work in schools). Now, only one authority has an arts development team, so we have adapted our work to help fill gaps in provision left by their absence.

There are current issues that would have been difficult to have imagined in 2008 – a global pandemic, Brexit, mass displacement of people, record inflation levels, energy problems, a rise in right wing governments. We also recognize the responsibilities that we all have to take in addressing climate and biodiversity crisis.

Another thing we have noticed over the past few years is an increasing movement towards co-production and partnership. This has been central to our work from the outset, but it is now being adopted across many different sectors. There is a greater recognition that most challenges require a co-ordinated, multi-faceted approach. As arts organisations get better at providing evidence of their effectiveness within arts and health provision, (and in addressing other issues), there is more interest in including us as partners, even though we work in a very different way to many other organisations and public services. We generally welcome this emphasis on partnership working, but it also brings some frustrations!

Can you provide an overview of social prescribing-related activity?

Head4Arts works both proactively and reactively.

Sometimes we are commissioned by another organization or service to run arts activities specifically to address identified health and wellbeing priorities (eg. the partnership with Abertillery Met Theatre to develop the Golden Melodies singing group for people with dementia, the Strike a Chord  choir for stroke survivors originally set up in partnership with the Stroke Association and the arts club for disabled young people in partnership with Familiy First in Blaenau Gwent). We have also been involved in running activities under the “Summer of Fun” and “Winter of Wellbeing” schemes, providing creative play activities to support the mental health of children and young people.

Other programmes are instigated by us, but within a broader partnership – for example our two projects exploring how the arts can support people in bereavement (Galaru with Gwent Arts in Health and Aneurin Bevan UHB and Celf Bytholwyrdd / Evergreen Art, in partnership with Cruse Bereavement Care, Coed Lleol and Valleys Steps).

Often our workshops are open to the general public and offer a “safe space” with a creative activity that becomes an opportunity for social prescribing. A good example of this is our weekly Celtic Café traditional music sessions, where people choose to attend (or are brought to the sessions) for a range of different reasons related to health and wellbeing, as well those who come just to take part in the music. This session, like many other community arts offers, isn’t designed to support a specific need, but caters to the needs of the participants that show up. In the instance of Celtic Café, we are supporting people with dementia, carers, adults with learning difficultiess, children with autism, single parents with low level mental health problems and people who are lonely/isolated.

Duration of projects

Most of our work is project-based and time-limited, often related to grants accessed in order to deliver the work. In some ways it feels that our best possibility for creating the sort of regular activity that becomes most useful to social subscribing services is the most difficult to fund. Most social prescribers are looking for activities that are already happening so that they can direct clients towards them. There is little funding for creating those regular activities in the first place – and when there is, it is almost always restricted to one particular category of client/participant. This means that we are often under-used as a potential social prescribing partner.

Why do participants take part in your activities? What matters to them?

A simple explanation would be to say that the activities we offer are usually seen as fun/enjoyable, and we promote a welcoming and informal atmosphere. We are good at engaging people. Also, the arts sector values the unique qualities that individuals bring to a session – viewing them all as participants or as creative individuals, rather than as clients or patients, and we don’t expect them to conform to a “norm”.  Our activities are delivered by experienced arts practitioners, who have high quality artistic skills alongside a genuine interest in developing the creative skills of the participants (and learning from them).

Our activities often take place in nice surroundings (friendly cafés, arts venues, libraries, community centres). This makes the sessions more inviting and social.

You operate in the Welsh Valleys, how do high unemployment rates impact what you do?

The biggest issues we face are lack of disposable income and transport problems. Most of our activities are free of charge to participants and we have to focus our activities where they are needed rather than expect people to travel to one central place. This means that we sometimes need to duplicate work, running similar sessions in different locations. This has implications on our budgets and staff.

You’ve championed inclusive arts community spaces where young and old mix. Can you elaborate?

We deal in community arts, and this most often means working with the community as a whole. We find that people respond well to intergenerational opportunities and it also encourages community cohesion, broadens people’s experience and supports families rather than just individuals.

What are the outcomes?

Reduced isolation, people better able to manage their health issues, improved sense of happiness. This is evidenced in the Celtic Café video (link below)

https://vimeo.com/395987491

How you do it

What do you do to meet their engagement needs?

First, we have to find out what people want to do. Sometimes there is an obvious direction or gap in provision. There’s usually a period of trial and error before we latch onto what would work best in that situation. Often our first sessions are exploratory, where the Head4Arts team delivers an activity that is really easy for people to do but which provides an opportunity for conversation and consultation. This way we find out what art form and what community arts practitioners might have the best chance of success in that area or context. Sometimes, it’s more about having the right tutor/artist, rather than a particular art form. We are constantly listening to our participants, partners and practitioners to identify the groups needs and try to address them.

What is important to you in terms of values?

These are stated in our business plan:

We believe that:

• The arts are for everyone – accessibility must be at the heart of everything we do
• Artistic quality always matters, even when this sits alongside other positive social outcomes. Inspiring and supporting creativity is central to our work.
• Participatory arts activities led by inspirational practitioners promotes positive transformational experiences for individuals and communities
• Being part of a bilingual nation is an asset, and we are privileged to be able to work in both English and Welsh.
• Partnership working and co-production are fundamental to our success. Working collaboratively with artists, partners and participants allows us to be more ambitious and enables us to make work that is relevant and impactful
• Participatory art must be guided by the participants – flexibility is embedded in our work to reflect the individual (and changing) needs of our participants and their communities
• Artists should be paid fairly, in line with industry standards, to support a vibrant, diverse and sustainable arts sector
• We should be open to learning – and share good practice
• We are all responsible for helping to create a sustainable planet and must consider the environmental impact of our actions. This includes reducing waste, raising awareness of environmental issues through our practice and promoting sustainable lifestyles.
• The integration of the Five Ways to Well-Being into the delivery of our work is important to us: Take Notice, Be Active, Connect, Keep Learning, Give
• We uphold the 7 goals of the Well-Being of Future Generations Act and agree that our decision making should reflect its 5 ways of Working

What takes a lot of time but is really important?

Developing relationships of trust – with partners, participants and practitioners.