About The Hearth Centre
History
The
Hearth Centre was set up by Polly Wright in 2003, as
a centre for
Health,
Education
and the
Humanities
with
Art
at the
Heart.
The primary aim of the centre is to use the arts to
animate key issues in health, social care and the
humanities, specialising in the use of theatre to
address mental health issues.
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Since its inception, Hearth has produced eight
plays, seven of which are still available (link to
theatre section) on request. The subjects range from
early intervention in serious mental illness to the
experience of BME patients in the forensic mental
health system, to improving access to for LGB
patients in Primary Care. In 2009 we received an
Arts in Health Award from the Royal Society for
Public Health for contributions to the field of Arts
in Mental Health Practice.
The humanities have also been an important strand of
Hearth’s work since its launch in 2003. We offer
creative writing courses and have recently developed
projects which use reading to promote well being in
mental health contexts. Hearth was recently awarded
a year’s contract with the Recovery and Well Being
department of
the Birmingham and Solihull Foundation Mental Health
Trust
to set up reading groups with
mental health service users and train NHS staff in
the approach. |
Mission
Hearth’s mission is to harness the power of the
performing and literary arts to promote change:
-
Hearth produces powerful and persuasive theatre
to help professionals in health, social care and
the criminal justice system to reflect upon and
change their practice to the benefit of clients
and service users.
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Hearth offers role playing services in clinical
communication to change and improve health
professional and medical practice
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Hearth offers drama based DVD training products
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Hearth offers creative writing and reading
approaches to promote well being in individuals
and groups.
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Hearth offers drama workshops to groups of
mental health service users to raise confidence
and develop skills
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Hearth offers theatre and role play based work
for use in training in diversity and Equality
and Human Rights.
-
Hearth offers training in all of the above
approaches.
All
of Hearth’s work has a strong commitment to social
justice and to the promotion of equality.
What we do
We perform anywhere to do
anybody!
-
Hearth offers short tours
of existing plays.
Our plays are
directed to be flexible and versatile- and we
can perform in virtually any venue from a large
room to a well equipped professional theatre.
We are also able to perform to a wide range of
target audiences in a huge variety of contexts.
Target audiences have included:
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Hearth offers
reading and creative writing workshops to groups
and individuals in any venue which is warm and
has chairs and a table!
Who does
the work?
Hearth believes in
maintaining high standards of artistic excellence
Hearth’s contracts teams of theatre professionals to
produce and perform the plays and our workshops are
delivered by professional writers and actors.
Who writes
the work?
Polly Wright, the
Artistic Director of Hearth has written four of the
plays which are currently on offer. In the last
three years, however, Hearth has commissioned and
developed plays by other writers, including Mandy
Ross, Jimmy Whiteaker and Lorna Laidlaw.
All
plays are researched thoroughly with appropriate
groups prior to script development.
Who
commissions the work?
Hearth accepts commissions from agencies which are
committed to using the arts to affect change. Recent
commissions for plays and reading / creative writing
projects have been received from :
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Mental Health Trusts and services
-
Regional Development Centres
-
PCTs
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Voluntary Sector agencies such as Rethink and
MIND
-
Developing Racial Equality
-
SHOUT
LGBT Arts Festival
-
Unison
If you are interested in commissioning a new
project, contact us and we will tailor make a
project to your brief.
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Who is the
Artistic Director of Hearth?
Polly
Wright is a writer, performer, theatre director,
lecturer, researcher, business manager and group
facilitator. She has made pioneering contributions
to the innovative field of Arts in Health over the
last 25 years.
After
completing her higher education in art, English
Literature ( BA Hons) and post graduate teacher
training ( PGCE) in Birmingham and London she worked
for five years in secondary schools in Birmingham in
the 1970s before gaining a additional post graduate
diploma in drama at the Welsh College of Music and
Drama in Cardiff.
Following graduation from this course, she worked in
professional theatre for 13 years and co-founded
Women and Theatre in 1985, which is still a
successful theatre company today. Originally a
feminist company, the company rapidly developed a
specialism in health issues and pioneered the use of
theatre in health, social care and medical contexts.
During this time Polly chaired the Theatre in Health
Education Trust and she also gained an Msc in Health
Promotion from the University of Central England
(1994) where she developed her ideas about the
potential of the use of drama as a research method
of social research. On completion of her Msc, Polly
was commissioned by several health authorities in
the Midlands to use these techniques to research a
wide range of health and social issues, including
CHD, parenting and primary care and the perceptions
and uptake of health services, such as breast
screening and maternity services.
In
1998 she was appointed as the Head of Arts and
Creative Studies and Curriculum Area Leader for the
Humanities at Fircroft College of Adult education in
Birmingham, where she developed the curriculum in
drama, literature, visual art and creative writing
on access programmes. She successfully bid for and
managed a highly innovative two year Dfee funded
project called The Play’s The Thing in which drama
was used to research the special learning needs and
promote educational access for mental health service
users. Involvement in this project developed her
strong interest in mental health.
In
January 2003 she left Fircroft College to set up an
Arts in Health business called the Hearth Centre,
which has gained many achievements over its six
years of trading. The purpose of the Hearth Centre
is to promote change through the arts, focussing on
theatre, creative writing and reading for well
being. The Hearth Centre produces professional plays
about mental health. Topics over the last few years
have included: Schizophrenia, young male suicide,
BME communities and the forensic mental health
services, the mental and sexual health of people in
same sex relationships, and young people and
deliberate self harm. Polly researches and writes
most of Hearth’s plays and appoints professional
teams to direct and perform them. She also works
with groups of mental health service users to
develop their own plays on recovery.
The
Hearth Centre also offers courses in reading and
creative writing, and some multi disciplinary
courses where visual art is combined with the
development of creative writing skills. Polly is an
accredited Get into Reading facilitator.
Polly
has a part time post in the Interactive Skills Unit
of Birmingham University Medical School, teaching
communication studies and literature in medicine.
Her duties have included the facilitation of
communication skills sessions with under-graduates
and Fy2 students, and the delivery of Master Class
sessions with post-graduate doctors. She is also the
course leader of popular special study modules in
Literature and Medicine for second and third year
medical students, and offers input to drama in
medicine modules.
Polly
has written widely on Arts in Health - and is on the
editorial board of
the Arts and Health journal,
Policy and Practice.
Polly is also an Associate of
the Sidney de Haan
Arts in Health centre in Folkestone.
Apart
from having published articles in academic journals,
Polly has had a parallel career as a published
fiction writer. Work to date includes five short
stories, published by Tindal Street and Diva
Presses.
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