It's been a busy time for us

It's been a busy time for Open to All Training since the last Blog entry. Below is a summary of what we have been doing:

June 2010
In June we worked with East Lothian Council, providing Open to All training for a range of staff and volunteers, who worked in museums, archives, libraries and local history.



July 2010
In July we were successful in gaining funding through NHS Lothian, to put on an exhibition and workshops as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival 2010.

August 2010
In August we worked with the Assisting Artists and the gallery on the corner to plan for the exhibition for the Mental Health Arts & Film Festival.

September 2010
In September we worked with a group of the Artists in preparing to tell part of their recovery story for workshops and training in the future. We also worked with all Assisting Artists to plan what work they wanted to include within the exhibition.

October 2010


The 'Creativity, Recovery and Wellbeing' exhibition was launched at our opening night on 1st October and ran for two weeks. Funded by NHS Lothian, the exhibition space was at the gallery on the corner. The exhibition provided a thought provoking and insightful look at what mental health means to individual artists.

In addition to the exhibition and funded by the Lothian Recovery Network, we provided three workshops which provided an exploration of mental health, art and recovery using personal stories shared by artists with personal experience of mental distress.

November 2010
In November, Open to All training was delivered in Inverness. Working with Highland Council we worked with staff and volunteers in the Highlands a lot of whom worked in smaller museums.

We also had a meeting to celebrate the achievements of the exhibition and workshops in October. We also discussed ideas for the future.

February 2011
In February we were in London, delivering Open to All training at the Geffrye Museum to a range of staff connected with the museum.

March 2011
In March we undertook an evaluation of the Museums of the Mind Project in Nottingham. Commissioned by Renaissance East Midlands, the evaluation looked at the work of five museums working in line to recommendations of the report produced by Culture Unlimited in 2008

April 2011
As we begin April, we are putting together a bi-annual newsletter to ensure all our partners are kept up to date with news of what we have been doing.

Providing Opportunities for Assisting Artists

On first glance, it would be easy to assume, that Open to All Training focuses purely on providing mental health and social inclusion awareness training for museum and gallery staff. However, there is a lot more to Open to All Training than just that..! One particular, example of this is the opportunities that we provide for Assisting Artists. An area that Jenny and myself (Jim) have been working on a lot this year.

What is an Assisting Artist?

An Assisting Artist is someone who identifies themselves as an artist and sees that their experience of being an artist and/or visiting museums & art galleries has helped them with their mental health recovery.

Role of an Assisting Artist

The role of an Assisting Artist is to be part of Open to All Training in a supportive and positive way. This includes putting images on the website, writing for the Blog, taking part in workshops, working with Jenny and Jim as a co-facilitator and sharing personal stories about experiences of art, mental health and recovery.

The concepts of Assisting Artists came about as a way to model what Open to All training sets out to achieve. Open to All training was developed across a partnership of organisations including people who are artists and have experienced mental health issues. The role of an Assisting Artist continues this ethos. Research has shown that people with mental health issues, participating in museums and the arts can help in many different ways including helping with isolation, focusing on interests rather than problems, increasing confidence/self belief and help with mental health recovery. The role of Assisting Artists models the underlying values and approach of Open to All training, both within developing it, delivering it and its main aim.

Developing a pool of Assisting Artists

This year, we decided that we wanted to expand the number of Assisting Artists we were working with and so have been spending quite a lot of time on this. In January and February we sent out a series of emails inviting people to get in touch. In February we provided an Information Session for people interested in getting involved with Open to All Training as an Assisting Artist. All those who had shown an interest were invited to submit a brief application form, providing information in various areas including their interest and background in art, experiences of going to museums/galleries and benefits would they gain from being involved with Open to All Training.

Following the application process, Jenny and Jim met each person individual at a new gallery which is also a social firm, called ‘the gallery on the corner’. The informal interview process gave us the chance to get to know each other, for them to share some of their art, learn more about Open to All training and to tell stories around recovery. All the art that was brought along and shared was very inspiring and interesting. We also really enjoyed meeting everyone.

In June we provided some training with the Assisting Artists, which today we finished. The training provided an opportunity for everyone to get to know each other some more, look at Open to All Training and the process of sharing personal stories. We (Jenny & Jim) have really enjoyed working with everyone in these sessions and all those attended seemed to get a lot out of it. We are really looking forward to working with all the Assisting Artists in different ways in the future.

Looking Ahead

Jenny and I are both passionate about how Open to All Training has been developing this year, especially working with Assisting Artists. Often, training simply has a business focus; however Open to All Training focuses on so much more. For me, sharing and modeling my own learning and experiences is something I always strive to do. The role of the Assisting Artists gives me the opportunity to do this, which can so often help people develop new skills, confidence and knowledge, as they move forward in their mental health recovery and well-being.

Open to All Training goes to Manchester and Nottingham

It's been an interesting time for us over the last couple of months, delivering Open to All Training in Manchester and Nottingham.

Modelling the social inclusion values that Open to All is grounded within, the training venues were within contemporary museums, which were open to the public. This allowed the training to be on-site and also provided us with the perfect opportunity to explore some of the museums during breaks!

The Manchester Museum
At the end of March, Jenny Pope, Lorraine Nicholson and myself (Jim Campbell) spent 2 days delivering the Two Day Workshop of Open to All Training to staff and volunteers at the Manchester Museum. Participants came from different organisations including Renaissance North West, The Manchester Museum and Salford City College, with a range of roles from Volunteering to Learning & Education, Conservation & Curator and Equality.



The Manchester Museum, which is part of the University of Manchester, is set in a group of neo-Gothic buildings situated on the Oxford Road at the heart of Manchester and the University. The museum houses almost four and a half million specimens and objects in archaeology, natural history and anthropology from across the world for research, teaching and public display.

The training was well received and evaluated, in particular learning on recovery, mental health, people's experiences of museums/galleries and how art can help people with mental health issues. The group of volunteers and staff were a good mix of people. With the training providing a good environment for people to work together, learn from each other, connect and understand how they can support each other.

Jenny, Lorraine and myself all enjoyed delivering the training in such a great place, getting to know the participants and working with them. During the lunch break on the 2nd day, we were given a brief and interesting tour of some of the store rooms, seeing conservation and preparation work of objects.

It sounded like they were embarking on some interesting projects. We wish them well for the future.


Wollaton Hall - Nottingham
In April, Jenny, Deborah Harvey and myself (Jim) delivered the Two Day Workshop to staff from across Nottingham at Wollaton Hall (see above). Set in 500 acres of gardens and parkland, Wollaton Hall is a spectacular 16th Century Elizabethan Country House standing on a prominent hill on the outskirts of Nottingham. Housing Nottingham's Natural History Museum, Industrial Museum and Gallery Yard, Wollaton Hall is within a deer park for Red and Fallow deer.

Arriving a bit early on the 1st day, we found ourselves banging on the huge front door in an attempt to make ourselves known. Although we could hear people inside, the door was too thick for them to hear us! It was all a bit surreal, feeling like we were in the middle of nowhere, trying to get in. However, it wasn't long before the big door was opened.

Like the whole building, the training was in a listed room, with a grand portrait of cattle on the far wall. You could feel the history in the building as we walked around. Directly outside the room where we delivered the training was a full size stuffed tiger...! It all felt a little unreal compared to other training venues, but we soon adapted and settled in, finding alternative ways to display things that could not be stuck on the listed wall paper!!

The training was to people involved in a range of new projects called 'Museums of the Mind', which focuses on similar ideas to Open to All training, which aims to make museums more inclusive and accessible to people with mental health issues as therapeutic and healing 'sanctuaries'. Most participants came from some of the 4 areas involved in the project - Mansfield Museums, Wirksworth Heritage Centre, Chersterfield Museum & Art Gallery and Bassetlaw Museum. Their working roles included Curator, Museum Officers, Education and Outreach, Development Officers, Coordinators and Managers.

The 2 days training gave participants an opportunity to come together, learn and plan for the future. Developing an understanding of some of the issues around mental health, access and society in the first day, which acted as a foundation as they began to develop skills and confidence on the second day. Although, the majority of the participants came into contact with people every day as part of their work, Open to All training began to help them extend their practical skills and understanding on working directly with people with mental health issues, for the Museums of the Mind project.

Jenny, Debs and myself had a great time in Nottingham, both delivering the training, working with all involved and exploring some of Nottingham, especially the canal walks and the highly recommended Le Mistral restaurant.

We are looking forward to hearing how the Museums of the Mind projects develop.

Healing Places: Therapeutic Museums Conference

Museums can play a key role in people's mental health, wellbeing and recovery. Open to All training addresses this area, providing people, working in museums and galleries, gain skills, knowledge and understanding to ensure more accessible work places.

You can therefore imagine our excitement when we heard about the Healing Places: Therapeutic Museums' conference put on by The Musuems Association (www.museumsassociation.org).

Myself (Jim Campbell) and Jenny Pope headed down to London last Friday (12th March) for the conference. It was well worth the trip, with great speakers and meeting some really interesting people, all sharing ways of connecting with people to make museums a source of inspiration to help improve people's mental health and wellbeing.

The morning presentations provided projects and case studies on work that is already taking place, including Catherine Chastney talking about the Outreach Programme at the Wallace Collection (London), connecting with people in a Prison, Hostel and Residential Home; Claire Benjamin from the National Musuems Liverpool's project using tools to improve mental health and wellbeing in communities; and Gill Hart from the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge) presenting examples of working with people with Alzheimer's and their carers in the 'Beyond Words' project. It was great to hear about so many positive projects.

The afternoon started off with Michael Philips from the Bethlem Royal Hospital providing a inspiring presentation on the History of people who have used mental health services, followed by Caroline Bloore talking about working in Hospitals with children and finishing with an interesting presentation in research on outreach work in hospitals (Guy Noble).

Open to All training had a table set up next to the registration desk, providing information about Open to All, relevant literature (books, reports, leaflets, etc...), background information about Open to All training and leaflets to be handed out.

We met a lot of really interesting people, hearing about a whole range of work going on across the UK and Europe.

We thank everyone who came to talk to us and hear about what we are trying to achieve with Open to All training. A lot of people were inspired by Open to All training. We hope we will work together with them in the future.