15.
art & wellbeing
Working in collaboration with Manchester Art Gallery, students on this option were asked to create ideas for art gallery’s wellbeing programme. The plan was for them to select items from MAG’s collections, then produce visitor resources including audio guides/podcasts, performances and interventions in the gallery to engage with the public as part of the wellbeing/mindfulness walks series. If the ideas had come to fruition and students were able to complete their work, visitors to the gallery, would have been able to enjoy a very innovative visitor experience.
Unfortunately the lockdown intervened and we had to cancel podcast training sessions and planned installations and performances. The brief was rewritten to take into account the new limitations and give the students different options to choose from that would still push them to research further and be creative with the brief. Tutors have been supporting them during lockdown and the students have worked magnificently to create written proposals and scripts for assessment.
As the students have had to propose written proposals/scripts for site-specific public engagements, we did not feel it would be fair to display their final pieces in this very visual digital exhibition. The work would be seen out of context and away from the galleries it was intended for, and would not have the impact with the public that it was intended to create. We would however, like to say that we are all incredibly proud of the hard work and resilience the students have shown in engaging with the project during this extreme period. They have also written some really good work. Hopefully the ideas can be developed and used again by the students in various exhibition spaces in the future, once we can all visit galleries safely again.
Thank you to Manchester Art Gallery, the Academic staff involved, and of course to the students.