Tuesday 28 Feb 2012, 1.30 – 4.30pm, Oakengates Theatre, Telford

The personalisation agenda in Social Care means that service users are being given their own personal budgets, effectively becoming individual commissioners. It is predicted that by April 2013, over a million people will have a personal budget.

The opening up of service provision means that artists now have the opportunity to develop and offer services that creatively meet the needs of individuals. This event offers an introduction to personalisation and how to prepare for this growing micro market.

Contributors will include Tony Nottingham, independent consultant and support broker working in the area of personal budgets.  Read more... (117 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)

Writing a Case Study

Wednesday 1st February, 6pm, Mitchell Arts Centre, Stoke-on-Trent

The first event in this year’s programme is a practical, hands on workshop on how to write a case study that effectively communicates your work and its benefits to potential employers. You will need to bring a laptop to write and upload your completed case study to the Praxis website.

To book a place or for more information on this event and the rest of the programme for 2012, contact Sarah-Jane Watkinson on sarah-jane@praxisartsandhealth.org.uk

Home is a bold, inventive new dance production that will move through the streets of Birmingham city centre. We are looking for 1000 individuals from across the West Midlands to contribute towards the creation and be involved in the performances (23 April – 13 May 2012).

We would like to know what home means to you. If you could describe it, how would it look? How would it sound? How would it move? When you think of home what do you see, hear, taste, smell and feel? We are collecting creative contributions in any art-form from individuals, friends, families, work colleagues, community groups, and professional artists – anyone who would like to share their thoughts of home and be a part of this flagship festival project.  Read more... (192 words, estimated 46 secs reading time)

Friday 27^th January 2012, 9.30am – 1pm

Birmingham City University, School of Art, Margaret Street, Birmingham

praXis is one of ten regional organisations that are working together to establish a new, National Alliance for arts and health. As part of this process, a series of events are taking place across England to develop a Charter that will set out the mutual values for those working in arts, health and wellbeing and embody the founding principles for a National Alliance.  Read more... (441 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

The Creative Communities Unit, Staffordshire University and the Participatory Practitioners for Change PPfC are hosting a one-day conference on participatory video which will take place at Staffordshire University on 10 January 2012, 11am – 4pm. This conference will be of interest to people working with communities and anyone concerned with issues of engagement and representation. Key Note speakers include Chris High (Lecturer in communications at the Open University), Su Braden (Author of Video for Development) and Ray Johnson (Emeritus Professor of Film and Documentary at Staffordshire University), speakers will outline issues in the use of participatory video and set some questions for the participants to consider during the day.  Read more... (137 words, estimated 33 secs reading time)

Monday 7^th November, 2011, Heartlands Hospital

This well attended event was put together in response to the growing use of volunteers in delivering a range of arts and health work, both directly delivering creative workshops and in planning, support etc. It was attended by a wide cross section of independent artists and staff from arts, health and social care organisations involved in delivering arts in health.

Presentations were as follows:

Advinder Gill, Volunteer Manager, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust

Practical considerations on the recruitment and management of volunteers, including how to make the experience mutually useful.  Read more... (457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

The latest in the series of professional development events took place in Stafford on Tuesday 8th November. The session was led by Kate Gant of Creative Health CIC.

Notes from the session are available to download here.

At the end of the session, attendees identified ten top tips:  Read more... (139 words, estimated 33 secs reading time)

1. Think about the type of work you want to do.
2. Read the brief thoroughly at least twice
3. Ask relevant intelligent questions of the contact on the brief.
4. Include lots of evidence of all of the submission criteria.
5. Include your relevant past experience.

The Arts and Health Conference took place at Mitchell Arts Centre in Stoke on Trent aimed to provide a forum for discussion on arts and health practice across the region, build on existing links and networks and examining local infrastructure to establish what provision is still required to support artists, organisations and good practice. The event was a great success with over 100 delegates coming along to a wonderful programme of workshops and discussions.

Click here to see a report from the day include a copy of Mike White’s key note presentation.  Read more... (118 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)

The latest in the series of professional development events supported by Creative Remedies and Praxis was held on 27th September. The presentation on branding made by Mark Yorke of Born Communication is available to download here.  The presentation on Social Media by Alison Finn of Audiences Central is available to download here.

Following the event, attendees compiled the ten top tips that they had gained from the session:  Read more... (220 words, estimated 53 secs reading time)

1. Make the most of social media – Facebook, Twitter, Linked In.
2. Create a brand – make sure your logo is scalable to be used on all marketing materials