Checking In: Online event showcasing new methods of working in arts and health

**This is event is now sold out following an increase in capacity due to demand.**

We are delighted to announce a virtual gathering of the arts and health community in Ireland on Thursday 23 April 2020 at 11am. Checking In will showcase examples of some of the new ways of working devised by arts and health practitioners since the introduction of Covid 19-related restrictions. This online event is open to healthcare professionals, arts practitioners and anyone interested in learning more about arts and health.

Programme
Checking In will feature performances by music and health practitioners Gráinne Hope and Jane O’Brien Moran, and leading examples of new arts and health practice for the current climate including:

• The Museum of Song Postal Project, with Tess Leak and Sharon Whooley
• Art4All and Sing with Me, with Alison Baker Kerrigan
• The World of Scribes, with Eszter Nemethi
• Creative Writing for Staff Health and Wellbeing, with Lani O’Hanlon

‘Our annual national event Arts + Health: Check Up Check In was due to take place on 23 April at Draíocht in Blanchardstown. Thankfully we have been able to re-schedule it to November, but, in the meantime, we really wanted to offer the arts and health community a way to get together and to share some of the new methods of working which artists and healthcare professionals have come up with in the face of our access to healthcare settings being completely curtailed. People who are unwell – and their healthcare staff – still need support and the proven benefits that access to the arts can bring. There’s a huge amount of really creative work by arts and health practitioners going on quietly throughout the country, in response to the current challenges and in spite of all the restrictions. Checking In gives us a wonderful opportunity to present some of these and hopefully inspire each other and remind us of the value of the arts in difficult times.’ – Claire Meaney, Director of Waterford Healing Arts Trust, which manages artsandhealth.ie

Booking 
Checking In is free but ‘ticketed’.
Booking link: www.eventbrite.ie/e/checking-in-tickets-102804003542
Those who register to attend will receive login details by email the day before the event.

Background information
Arts and health programmes comprise a range of arts experiences, presented in healthcare settings, for the benefit of health service users, healthcare staff and artists. This expanding field of work fosters creativity, wellbeing and access to the arts and is based on partnership between the artists, arts organisations and those working in healthcare and/or the wider community. Further information about all aspects of arts and health work, including case studies, is available on artsandhealth.ie

artsandhealth.ie is managed by Waterford Healing Arts Trust and funded by the Arts Council and the HSE.