This year Cardiff Print Workshop partnered with Ty Canna – Cardiff Council’s Mental Health Outreach Services. In April 2023 we ran six weekly printmaking sessions with two groups, followed by an exhibition. A further three training sessions were delivered for volunteers and staff at Ty Canna, to enable them to deliver printmaking activities in-house.
As a pilot project funded by the Arts Council of Wales and Ty Canna itself, the aim was to explore whether there are any particular characteristics of the printmaking process that can promote wellbeing and that are beneficial to people with mental health difficulties. Significant research has been done on the benefits of the arts for wellbeing and mental health but there is limited evidence for the benefits of the specific art form of printmaking (aside from work undertaken by workshops such as Double Elephant Print Workshop in Devon who have worked for many years in this field*). This can inform and shape any future health-related projects led by CPW and can contribute to evidence about this specific art form in relation to health and wellbeing.
Both CPW and Ty Canna have a shared belief in the power of the arts to promote wellbeing. Ty Canna works with adults living with poor mental health, who are referred to the service by the Community Mental Health Team, Community Addictions Unit or Community Forensic Team. They assist their service users to see a life beyond their mental health diagnoses and work with them to achieve goals towards recovery.
The sessions were designed so that no prior artistic experience or skills were necessary. Time was taken at the end of each session to reflect on the work produced and to comment on each other’s prints. The artworks made during these sessions were then exhibited for a month at Llanover Hall Arts Centre in Cardiff and an opening event was held for participants, family and friends.
In July 2023, three training sessions were delivered to Ty Canna volunteers and a member of staff, teaching the skills required to lead simple printmaking sessions in-house at Ty Canna and focusing on techniques that do not require the use of a printing press. In addition a collection of step-by-step work sheets were developed to support the continuation of Ty Canna’s printmaking journey and a kit with all the necessary printmaking equipment was provided. These worksheets are now freely available to download on the resource page of this website.
It was clear that at the end of this short project printmaking had much to offer and provided many benefits for our participants from Ty Canna and we found that printmaking does appear to have particular characteristics that are beneficial to people with mental health difficulties:
- The possibility of reworking a print – the need to embrace “trial and error” and the element of chance involved – encourages participants to relinquish control and promotes experimentation
- The printmaking process – giving form to the idea as the artwork progresses in stages – promotes concentration and problem solving
- The print workshop space – where inks, materials and the press are shared – helps to promote social connections
These are selection of the feedback that we had during and after the project:
“A lot of us like to be in control. Printmaking forces you to let go – in a safe way – and to try new things”
“I’ve experimented more in the past 4 weeks than I have in years”
“I do a lot of art and craft activities but I usually don’t think about it after the end of the session. With printmaking, I kept thinking about it afterwards, trying to figure out the best way to achieve the effect I wanted”
“I don’t normally stick to things, after a while I give up. But I’ve been able to keep my concentration, which is hard for me”
“Printmaking helps to overcome the perfectionism, because you can just try again”
The majority of the participants also said that they would have liked the project to have been longer.
CPW hopes to continue working with Ty Canna and to expand the project in partnership with other organisations working to promote improved wellbeing amongst adults with poor mental health. A copy of the case study is available on the Wales Arts, Health and Wellbeing Network website: https://wahwn.cymru/case-studies
*https://www.doubleelephant.org.uk/print-on-prescription
