Arts Funding



 

Sarah's Sanctuary are delighted to announce that we have received arts funding from SeeMe, Scotland’sNational Programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination, for an artsproject which will challenge stigma around the topic of suicide and suicide bereavement. Artist Jane Harlington of Blue Pig studio in Carloway will run a series of workshops open to anyone who has been affected by suicide bereavement, whether that is the loss of a family member, friend or colleague. An initial round of workshops will take place in the art room at An Lanntair from 7 to 9 pm on Wednesday 1st and 29th May and 26th June. Meetings of Sarah’s Sanctuary suicide bereavement support group will take place between the workshops. These will be held from 7 to 8 pm in the Western IslesCounselling and Family and Mediation Centre on Bank Street Stornoway on Wednesday 15th May and 12th June.  Another series of workshops will follow in the autumn.

The aim of the workshops is to use art and creativity to help participants move farther along their healing journeys and make meaning from the experience of suicide bereavement.  The theme of the workshops is Slipping Through the Net. Those who have lost someone to suicide often feel that their loved one has, for whatever reason, slipped through the net of support.  At the same time, those bereaved by suicide often feel that there is no-one they can speak to and can themselves experience slipping through the net. Catherine Barron, a counsellor at Western Isles Counselling and Family and Mediation will be present at the workshops in order to ensure a safe a confidential space for all those who take part.

Workshop participants will also have the opportunity to contribute towards some final pieces of work with the aim of displaying them in the café space at An Lanntair with the aim of raising awareness and understanding of suicide bereavement and mental health issues. Jane Harlington who will be facilitating the workshops says, “Using art and creativity as a process rather than an endpoint facilitates individuals to engage with art materials, be that paint, clay or textiles in a way that is meaningful to them. The catch all phrase would be, ”process not product!” In the course of exploration, ideas and conversations are often sparked and emotions and feelings explored in an open, honest, non-judgemental environment. The group setting establishes a place of empathetic understanding that suicide has touched the lives of others within the group. To work on a collective project has the possibility of individual expressions adding quite literally into a bigger picture which could then be used to help inform, educate, raise awareness in others and to begin to highlight and breakdown misunderstanding, and therefore stigma.”

Sarah’s Sanctuary was set up in 2020 by Lewis man Kenny MacDonald after his daughter Sarah took her life. It aims to provide opportunities for those who have lost someone to suicide to support one another. A qualified counsellor is present at all meetings to provide farther support and ensure a safe and confidential space. Sarah’s Sanctuary is a branch of Beautiful Inside and Out SC044868 set up by Pauline Moriarty after losing her teenage daughter to suicide.

The Sarah’s Sanctuary support group offers a safe place to talk about the effects of suicide bereavement. On top of the grief and shock of suddenly losing a loved one, those affected can experience extreme emotions such as anger, guilt and fear, or numbness and an inability to feel emotions. People who are bereaved by suicide can even themselves experience suicide ideation. Catherine Barron says, “People bereaved by suicide are often traumatised by the events around their loved ones passing and go onto experience a complicated grieving process which can develop into depression, anxiety and other clinical conditions.  Sarah’s Sanctuary aims to support people in their grief and facilitate referral to other services when appropriate.”

The stigma around talking about suicide can mean that those affected by suicide loss can feel very isolated. The Slipping Through the Net project has been conceived in order to challenge the stigma around suicide bereavement, both by giving those affected a safe space to creatively explore their feelings and by raising awareness in the wider community through an exhibition of some of the work created during the workshops.

For farther information on the workshops, please email sarahs.sanctuarywesternisles@gmail.com


Popular posts from this blog

Turbulent Waves

Image
by Sheena Crichton McKenzie  As I began printing, I really didn’t know where I was going or what I’d like the end result to be. Printing was simplistic, so very different to my son’s life which had presented so many difficulties. But I wanted to depict his life in all its intricacies, flaws and beauty and my picture wasn’t cutting it. I thought about his poem ‘Turbulent Waves’, written at the tender age of 11 when he should have been carefree, happy and excited about all life had to offer. Instead, my son struggled; trying to take control of his confused thoughts. Life for Hugh was very much a mix of pushing, stopping, escaping and hiding. Under the theme’ Slipping Through the Net’, I imagined how Hugh might have felt, often trying desperately to reach out and fit in, and family, education and health professionals trying in their own way to reach him ... but not quite getting him. I remember holding my darling boy, thin through lack of food, a disordered eating pattern developed as...
Read more

A different coloured fish

Image
By Sheena Crichton Mckenzie   Our last workshop ahead of the exhibition was a flurry of busyness, conversation and questioning. There was the last- minute completion of art pieces, the start of new, the preparation of a brochure to give exhibition attendees the necessary background and the teasing out of arguments (friendly) with husband around worth and suitability of poetry. We also did a lot of soul searching around whether the exhibition matched the initial brief and whether we were hard hitting enough with our message. Jane mentioned the previous week that I still ought to do a tea towel and as I walked along the shore with my dog, Nellie, that morning I thought about how I could print the tea towel in such a way that a message about my son’s life could come through.  I decided on printing fish going along in one direction and there was to be one fish that was different and going against the tide. Of course, that was Hugh. He was always a little different. I liked that....
Read more

The holes in the net

Image
  June Graham This is a hard blog to write because I like to be nice to people. I don't like to ruffle people's feathers, but some of the things which happened to my sister when she was suffering from a mental illness were not nice, and so today I am writing about that. I won’t detail all the missed opportunities which occurred during the last months and weeks of Liz’s life. All I’ll say is that when I heard she had taken her life, I knew something had gone very, very wrong, because Liz was a fighter. She loved her children very much and was doing her best to be well enough to be with them. And Liz’s case is not exceptional. I have heard from other families, bereaved by suicide, who feel that if their loved one had received even half-decent medical care then they wouldn’t have lost them. About 6 or 7 months after Liz’s death, the NHS issued a Local Adverse Event Report. An adverse event is a huge understatement for the devastating loss of someone who was a daughter, wife, m...
Read more