“THINKARTS provides arts-related events, projects, voluntary and freelance work opportunities for individuals who experience or have experienced mental health recovery journeys”.
Welcome to Thinkarts
THINKARTS provides arts-related events, projects, voluntary and freelance work opportunities for individuals who experience or have experienced mental health recovery journeys.
Recognising talent and expertise, alongside the barriers often experienced by individuals when accessing the worlds of art and business, THINKARTS endeavours to decrease exclusion by developing healthy and mutually beneficial partnerships with organisations in the wider community.
THINKARTS members can participate in activities, volunteer, enjoy paid positions or receive permitted earnings which protect benefit status.
We are currently affiliated to North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT).
Thinkarts welcomes people in North East London who have an interest in participating in creative activity, have mental ill health needs and are in receipt of NELFT services. Click here to read more
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Summer Newsletter is here!
Click here to see our summer newsletter.
New Members' Gallery!
To see more of Cheryls' work, click here.
New Members' Gallery!
Click here to see Felicien's gallery
Phase 1 Arts Project Summer 2010
Making ARTwork for public places
Studio 3 Arts are running a series of creative workshops over the summer to make artworks for the new Phase 1 development at Goodmayes Hospital.
We welcome any adults accessing mental health services provided by the North East London Foundation Trust to come and take part in the project. Working alongside professional artists and Think Arts volunteers you will have the opportunity to contribute to the design of the artworks for the new hospital.
It doesn’t matter what level or experience of art you have. This is a chance to try something new and contribute toward something that can be enjoyed by everyone using the building.
Workshop sessions will be held in sets of four in each of the NELFT boroughs. Please sign up to the borough that is most convenient for you to access.
Try something new. Contribute your ideas. Meet new people. Create exciting artwork.
Get Involved:
There are a limited number of places for workshops so please sign up asap, by contacting:
Rosie or Teresa at Studio 3 Arts
020 8594 7136
admin@studio3arts.org.uk
Please note that you will need to be able to be able to access the workshop independently.
Carers are welcome to attend with you, but please notify Studio 3 Arts if you intend to come with a carer.Refreshments will be provided.
Please do not wear your best clothing as some activities maybe messy.
All workshops take place from 1.30pm – 3pm.
Havering:
Hornchurch Library
44 North Street, Hornchurch, RM11 1TB
Tuesdays: 17th/24th/31st August & 7th September
Waltham Forest:
Harmony Hall
Unit 1, The Mews, 2a Truro Road, Walthamstow, E17 7BY
Wednesdays: 18th/25th August & 1st/8th September
Click here to view/download the Studio3arts Workshop Poster
E17 Trail 2010
You will be able to see details of all the listings on this website from August.
This year’s trail will run over 10 days in September from 3rd to 12th. The theme is ‘Welcome to Walthamstow’.
http://www.e17arttrail.co.uk
For more info about previous E17 Trail events please go to our archive page, where you will find E17 Trail galleries
Paint the town Red!
"Paint the Town Red" is the title of our annual
art exhibition, held collaboratively by
Redbridge Concern for Mental health and
thinkarts, to celebrate world mental health week.
The exhibition will run from the 6 October to 17 October at Central Library, Ilford
Application forms and details ( An extra drop-off point for artwork has been added see updated pdf for details ) are available at
www.redbridgeconcern.org or click here for an updated downloadable factsheet in PDF format. Or you can download a copy of the poster here
Creative Writing Group
A fortnightly forum for all thinkarts members who express their creativity through written word.
For more info and contact details Click here.
About Us
Thinkarts staff members:
- Vivienne Wheeler Lead for Thinkarts NELFT
Lead Occupational Therapist, Rehabilitation (Redbridge),
- Administrator
- Matthew Lewis Art Therapist
Link for Waltham Forest
- Cherry Lawrence Art Therapist
Link for Waltham Forest
- Asheley Lotter Occupational Therapist
Link for Redbridge
- Nicky Jackson Support Worker
Dagenhem CMHT
- Jane Burges Link for Older People Waltham Forest
- Michelle Summerbell Link for Older People Redbridge
Who are you calling an outsider?
"Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself"
Albert Camus
In 1971, the term 'Outsider Art' was used by historian Roger Cardinal to apply to products that belong to no movement or school, and are made by people who have no supposed artistic background.
The suggestion is that outsider artists have had no conditioning and therefore show purity of expression. However, the phrase can be misused or misunderstood, and is felt to be offensive to many individuals, particularly those who use mental health services and often experience daily marginalisation from society.
According to current British statistics, one in four people will suffer with a mental health problem during their lifetime. It follows that this will include a quarter of all trained or untrained artists too, whether they are involved in conventional settings or not. Where would that leave Van Gogh or Beethoven if they were living in the 21st Century?
Thinkarts holds dear the importance of equitable access and creative liberty for all artists. To continue removing the straight jackets and labels that exist in both the arts and health, perhaps 'Free Art' or 'Open Art' should become a more fitting description to recognise those making their own work beyond traditional routes.
Copyright © Jackie Ede
Phase 1 Arts Project Summer 2010
Making ARTwork for public places
Studio 3 Arts are running a series of creative workshops over the summer to make artworks for the new Phase 1 development at Goodmayes Hospital.
We welcome any adults accessing mental health services provided by the North East London Foundation Trust to come and take part in the project. Working alongside professional artists and Think Arts volunteers you will have the opportunity to contribute to the design of the artworks for the new hospital.
It doesn’t matter what level or experience of art you have. This is a chance to try something new and contribute toward something that can be enjoyed by everyone using the building.
Workshop sessions will be held in sets of four in each of the NELFT boroughs. Please sign up to the borough that is most convenient for you to access.
Try something new. Contribute your ideas. Meet new peeople. Create exciting artwork.
Get Involved:
There are a limited number of places for workshops so please sign up asap, by contacting:
Rosie or Teresa at Studio 3 Arts
020 8594 7136
admin@studio3arts.org.uk
Please note that you will need to be able to be able to access the workshop independently.
Carers are welcome to attend with you, but please notify Studio 3 Arts if you intend to come with a carer.Refreshments will be provided.
Please do not wear your best clothing as some activities maybe messy.
All workshops take place from 1.30pm – 3pm.
Barking:
Studio 3 Arts The Malthouse:
62-76 Abbey Road, Barking, IG11 7BT
Wednesdays: 21st/28th July & 4th/11th August
Redbridge:
Goodmayes Hospital, OT Department
157 Barley Lane, Ilford, Essex IG3 8XJ
Thursdays: 22nd/29th July & 5th/12th August
Havering:
Hornchurch Library
44 North Street, Hornchurch, RM11 1TB
Tuesdays: 17th/24th/31st August & 7th September
Waltham Forest:
Harmony Hall
Unit 1, The Mews, 2a Truro Road, Walthamstow, E17 7BY
Wednesdays: 18th/25th August & 1st/8th September
Click here to view/download the Studio3arts Workshop Poster
Thinkarts Members Gallery
Thinkarts would like to welcome you to our members art galleries.
Our members galleries is an exciting online art gallery, established in 2007, to provide artists with space and exposure.
The creativity and determination of thinkarts artists, wishing to be exposed motivates us. To this end thinkarts galleries will continually present exciting, dramatic and provocative works of art in on the web and to the local art market.
Please click on a link below to go to a individual members gallery
- Adrian's gallery
- Alan's gallery
- Androula's gallery
- Carlton's gallery
- Charles's gallery
- Cheryls's gallery
- Daniel's gallery
- Felicien's's gallery
- Glenn's gallery
- Graham's gallery
- Jo's gallery
- Johns's gallery
- Marilyn's gallery
- Pat's gallery
- Peter's gallery
- Russell's gallery
- Sandras's gallery
All content Copyright © Named Artists and Thinkarts, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
Thinkarts Members Poetry
Click on a link to go to a members poetry page
- Anon Poetry
- David Berlevy's Poetry
- John Edward Dunn's Poetry
- Ruth Hill's Poetry
- Jo Landau's Poetry
- Keith Martin's Poetry
All content Copyright © Named Artists and Thinkarts, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
Thinkarts Exhibitions
Click on a link to go to an archived exhibition
E17 Trail 2008
The exhibition 'Arts and Minds II' has closed now. It show cased more diverse artwork produced by mental health service users in Waltham Forest. The Ferguson centre is hosted the group show including contributions from members of Thinkarts. In addition artwork produced by participants of the Psychiatric Systems Survivors art studio was shown.
The exhibition aimed to value diversity and promote an inclusive sense of community. You can still experience the wide variety of creativity and self-expression on display by clicking the link to go to the online gallery
Six Days In A Lifetime
Vestry House Museum is curating an exhibition of photographic work by members of thinkarts, an Arts organisation affiliated to the NELFT.
Every Thursday at 1pm, for 6 weeks, participants were asked to capture their lives on film.
The results are eclectic, poignant and quite stunning.
Here is a chance to enter their world if only for a brief moment. An opportunity for all to reflect on our own behaviours and experiences; to realize the similarities, and to challenge any differences. To question what mental health means and most of all to...break the chain of misconception.
The E17 Art Trail produces an annual visual art trail with over 300 artists represented in exhibitions and events across the Walthamstow postcode, E17.
The E17 Art Trail was established in 2004 by two Walthamstow based artists. It has grown into an annual event with more than 300 artists from Waltham Forest taking part. Each artist, group of artists or venue in the E17 postcode organises their own events in their homes, gardens, streets, shops, cafes, libraries, galleries and museums and then submits the details to the organisers who produce a printed trail map and this website
Here's a link to a poster for "Seeing The Wood For The Trees" (Link opens a pdf document)Seeing The Wood For The Trees
All content Copyright © Named Artists and Thinkarts, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
Thinkarts Newsletters
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Download the reader here
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Newsletters
- Spring 2010
- Autumn Exhibition Special 2009
- Summer Special 2009
- Spring 2009
- Christmas Special 2008
- Winter Special 2008
- Autumn 2008
- Summer 2007
- Summer Special 2006
- August 2006
- Winter 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
All content Copyright © Thinkarts, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
Thinkarts Shop
Socrates Mug
Coffee mug bearing the legend "Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock" and a cartoon of Socrates dying in agony.
Click here to open order form.
Drake Mug
Coffee mug bearing the legend "Francis Drake circumsised the world with a 100 foot clipper" and a cartoon of Francis Drake saying "It was a snip"
Click here to open order form.
Milton Mug
Coffee mug bearing the legend "Milton wrote Paradise Lost ...since then no one's ever found it" and a cartoon of Adam saying to Eve "We'll finish off the apple and get an early night" Eve replies"Sounds good to me"
Click here to open order form.
Solomon Mug
Coffee mug bearing the legend "Solomon had 300 wives and 400 porcupines" and a cartoon of Solomon.
Click here to open order form.
Contact thinkarts
Snail Mail
thinkarts,c/o Occupational Therapy Department,
Goodmayes Hospital,
Barley Lane, Ilford, Essex
IG3 8XJ
Tel: 0844 600 1218