Publications

In Yonder Garden Grows combines poetry, music and flowers to connect participants in in three hospitals; Castletownbere, Clonakilty and Bantry. Each week, artist Tess Leak would take in armfuls of flowers from The Glebe Gardens in Baltimore to inspire lively and thoughtful conversations, with a small part of the natural world enlivening the hospital setting.  Tess curated the poems and artwork with designer Orlagh O’Brien from Haiku Island Press to create by hand a limited edition book for this exhibition.

Limited Edition, price €10

Residents of Castletownbere Community Hospital, Bantry Day Care Centre and Clonakilty Community Hospital working with artists Tess Leak and Sarah Ruttle produced Arboretum during a series of lively and thoughtful conversations about favourite trees. Many of the writings were inspired by ‘Haiku’ and others are more prose-like in their nature. Tess and Sarah worked with designer Orlagh O’Brien from Haiku Island Press to create by hand this limited edition book of the collection. The cover features a print of a ‘Haiga’ (a haiku ink drawing) created collectively by the participants in Clonakilty Community Hospital.

Limited Edition, SOLD OUT

Frozen and Forgotten is the title of a project celebrating personal associations with their bikes led by artist Anne Harrington Rees working with participants on the Monday afternoon Arts for Health sessions at Dunmanway Community Hospital. The artist, resident, staff and visitors shared their experiences, relationships and knowledge of their bicycles in drawing and text. The stories and images were collated in a publication as part of the on-going commitment to share and celebrate the important artwork that is created throught the Arts for Health Partnership programme.

Limited Edition, SOLD OUT

Castletownbere Day Care Centre Tuesday Group present a collection of original poems entitled Meitheal with artist Tess Leak. The poems were all created through conversations with the artist and inspired by the participant’s working lives and featured as part of a Bealtaine exhibition in the local library and will again resurface as part of a new project The Waiting Room, currently being developed. Three selected poems are being framed and presented for a tour of HSE waiting rooms across the services of West Cork.

SOLD OUT

By The Smoke of the Train documents an eight week project, facilitated by artist Anne Harrington Rees, with staff and clients at Dunmanway Day Care Centre. This is a wonderful and unique collection of folklore, stories, photographs, artwork and personal memories shared and celebrated. “As much had been written about the history of the West Cork Railway already, my aim for this project was to make a collection of people’s stories and experiences of the railway during the 1940s and 1950s, and to illustrate some with the participants’ own drawings and paintings.” Anne Harrington Rees.

Price €10

The Threshing Machine Made a Devilous Sound by award-winning singer song-writer and musician Liz Clark, in collaboration with visual artist Tess Leak in 2012, “Starling Song” is a song-writing project which brings together older people from all over West Cork. Collaboratively with participants in 11 healthcare settings, they composed a collection of original songs to make this compilation. ‘We wanted everyone to connect and have a sense of pride in accomplishing a musical piece.’ said artist Liz Clark. ‘Also we wanted participants to feel easy about sharing their stories, knowing that they will work into a format that we can all sing together.’

Available for download

The follow up to “The Threshing Machine Made a Devilous Sound”, “The Fiddle and the Harrow” forms the second part of the “Starling Song Project”.This new production continues on featuring nine new tracks, all written by participants in collaboration with the artists. ‘I am absolutely overwhelmed by the positive feedback.’ said Phil Murphy, Castletownbere Day Care Centre Coordinator. ‘The project was very inclusive, clients with memory loss could still participate. We are all looking forward to more!!’

Available for download

Where in the World is the most beautiful place?’ this small publication is collection of meditation-like responses gathered by artist Tess Leak, as way of exchanging ideas about beauty between people residing in the hospital and living in the local community. Launched on 15 May 2013 (Where in the World revised)

Available for download, Print Limited Edition, price €5

Spectrum is an image-based book featuring spectacular colour illustrations of art works created by residents from six long-term hospital units in West Cork.
The publication reflects a five month collaborative visual art project led by the Arts for Health artists’ team; Sharon Dipity, Julia Pallone, Tess Leak, Anne Harrington Rees and Seán O’Laoghaire. The project explored colour: its associations, versatility and emotive response.  Curated by the artists’, these images were transformed into a carefully considered poetic vision of the process. Throughout the book the artists share a brief insight into how they converse, encourage and collaborate with the participants.(AfHSPECTRUMinteractive)

Available for download, Book Price €5

The purpose and aim of introducing the arts into health care settings is first and foremost for the benefit of the users of the hospital. In May 2005, a one-year arts programme and action research project was implemented in the 5 Community Hospitals in the West Cork region, Skibbereen, Schull, Dunmanway, Clonakilty and Castletownbere. It examined the feasibility of supporting access to and engagement with the arts for older people in this context through having a dedicated post administered by West Cork Arts Centre and supported by an Advisory Committee. The programme was evaluated by an external researcher to examine the effects on the participants of involvement in a long-term developmental arts programme. The evaluation Conversations in Colour (Conversations in Colour) was published in May 2007 and a hard copy be obtained through West Cork Arts Centre.

Available for download