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Art From The Heart

© Jo Murphy

Suggestions about how art projects can foster health, rest and recreation in Aged Care Facilities, Hospitals, and Places of Rest.

Some of the benefits of Art Projects in places of healing are:

• Fostering Self-Awareness.
• Developing Social Skills.
• Managing Stressed Behaviour.
• Upskill Staff Volunteers and Clients
• Enhancing the Environment.
• Having Fun! Creating a Cheerful and Restful Environment where people can work, play and live together with a lil' less tension and have a lot more fun!

The Bi Products Can Be The Greatest Benefit.

• Colouring Pages for the Kids.
• Art Work For Web Page.
• Artistic designs for Promotion.
• Aesthetic Improvement to the Facility.
• Make the Working Space more 'workable'
• and the Living Space more 'livable'.
• Lift the Value of the Environment.
• Bring 'Charmed' Energy to the Environment and Healing to the people living and working in it. Feng Shui.
• Can Lead to Other Projects such as Fountains, 'Charmed Energy Lighting', Pathways, Garden Projects etc.
• Can Stimulate Interest in Art Lessons and Workshops.
• Let your imagination go wild!

Inclusion of relatives and Clients.

• Can encourage the same cheerful and therapeutic effects for Relatives of the Clients as well.
• Gives visitors a reason to stay longer, to get involved and to bring more family, members. Can become a focus for visits - gives relations something positive to share. Both experientially and conversationally.
• Gives reason to bring grand children. For example the centre can plan grand children days. (Children in turn bring with them the sound of love, laughter and cheerful fun.)
• Plan opening something to celebrate.

Don't Bight Off More Than You Can Chew

Before a community can begin a project there are many questions that must be:

• asked
• work-shopped
and
• documented.

Who Will Be Involved?

• Target Group.
• Administrators.
• Volunteers.
• Is there a key player?.
• Is it fully own by the entire community?.

How Will It be Powered?

• Who will own the project?
• Take responsibility.
• Give of their time.
• Plan
• and Direct.(These two things are not necessarily the same.)
• Power Drive. (Energetically give enthusiasm and direction to)
• Make the decision about which design to use.
• Generally Over See. (By this I mean literally..."Make It Their baby!" If you don't have a key player who really, really wants this to happen....it won't!)

Where Will The Money Come From.

• Grants.
• Sponsorship.
• Friends Of.
• Fund Raising.
• Or can you just begin?.

It is possible that with a small ammount of consultation you find that you have all the resources you need to get going!

How It Works.

What you will find within the network of resources I have gathered together throughout Australia and presented on the Busy Women Networking Website and in combination with Suite101 and it's ever rapidly growing University.

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