“The challenge of doing something new and previously unexplored was awesome and I found that working with each artist helped me explore new ways of working.” – Artist
Art Beat was delivered by Turner Contemporary in partnership with Pie Factory Music and Thanet Libraries. The project saw high quality art brought together with the Six Ways to Wellbeing in an attempt to engage young people.
“The young people created plasticine avatars and placed them on a rung of the ladder at the beginning of the day to reflect how confident they felt and then adjusted them at the end of the session to show any changes. At the end of the two day session, for Seb, a young boy with autism, the ladder wasn’t tall enough”
“Sometimes being out of your comfort zone brings about the best ideas” – Artist
The partnership collaborated with 4 experienced artists who delivered the project’s workshops and activities. A dancer; a sculptor and installation artist; a digital musician and DJ and a theatre practitioner were selected due to their experience with engaging and working with young people.
Art Beat worked with youth centres, churches, schools and children’s homes across Thanet in order to recruit young people. The project also led a number of taster events across Thanet and successfully signed up 70 young people to take part.
“I've discovered I love philosophical enquiry, even though I was a little unerved by the concept at first. I now want to do it on a monthly basis as a social activity”
A Wellbeing Picnic was held at Turner Contemporary to launch Art Beat; this gave participants a chance to take part in sessions with the artists. The workshops that followed, explored the Six Ways to Wellbeing, putting specific focus on Keep Learning and Give. These workshops were successful with 124 young people attending.
In order to promote the Six Ways to Wellbeing to the wider community, Art Beat held 2 Wellbeing World Café Events that focussed on philosophical enquiry. Art Beat culminated in a Wellbeing Festival, successfully reaching 1,500 residents. The finale corresponded with the final events for the Summer of Colour festival, greatly increasing the audience and awareness of Art Beat and the Six Ways to Wellbeing.
Over the course of the project, Art Beat discovered 31 wellbeing champions and helped 17 young people achieve their Arts Awards.
Turner Contemporary has continued to replicate the World Café and philosophical enquiry approach after identifying how effective this can be in uniting communities.