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Rosie Goodwin
Family Arts Correspondent
12:42 PM 4th August 2019
family

Embracing The Arts In Unusual Places

 
It’s been a busy few weeks for me: I’ve been running an exciting new project, designed to encourage young people to take part in a range of arts activities across Ryedale and Scarborough.

My reasons for initiating the project were fairly straightforward. It’s because I believe that the arts are good for us - better than most of us realise. As a result, all the art I’ve been creating has been themed around health and, fittingly, this month I’ve joined forces with someone who works to keep kids healthy every week of his life.

Robbie Hawkes, who runs Hawkes Health, Fitness & Coaching LTD, delivers soccer camps and after-school football clubs with hundreds of young people each week. I invited him to take part in ‘The Big Healthy Art Project’ because I couldn’t think of anyone better to help me talk to Yorkshire youngsters about staying healthy and I was delighted by his excited response.

During two of his camps, at Swinton football pitch near Malton and Raincliffe Sports Hall in Scarborough, we made sport-themed bunting and flags in lunch-time art workshops. It was really inspiring to see how motivated and animated the youngsters were – these kids love sport, love football, and were equally pleased to have a go at some art with me!

Linking sport and art in this way has taken a few people by surprise. And yet, to me, it somehow makes sense. So many children and adults will be affected by stress and anxiety at some point throughout their lives; and both exercise and art have been shown to be effective in combatting this. Both activities help us to take our mind off our woes and worries, enabling us to relax and give our minds time to switch off and recover.

As a society, it may be that we are only just beginning to scratch the surface in our understanding of the health benefits of arts participation.

In 2017, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing Inquiry Report, ‘Creative Health’, made a strong case for recognising the power of the arts to keep up healthy as a population. They ran participatory arts programmes across deprived communities in London with significant findings: after taking part in arts activities, 79% of people ate more healthily, 77% increased their exercise levels and 82% enjoyed greater wellbeing.

Robbie Hawkes is widely-respected within the community for his valuable work with young people, encouraging them to develop and grow as footballers whilst also promoting important social skills and values: teamwork, manners and fair play. In a lovely touch, he awards the two young players who have most shown these values during each club day a football each. He doesn’t go in for medals that gather dust or end up at the back of a drawer. He wants his prizes to get played with.

Where to find me for ‘Art in the Park’ across Ryedale (10.30 – 12.30 each day)

7 August: Norton Riverside Play Area
16 August: Pickering Manor Drive Play Area
17 August: Malton Rainbow Lane Play Area
22 August: Kirkbymoorside Old Road Play Area
28 August: Swinton Play Area
Working with Robbie on The Big Healthy Art Project has been a great way of bringing art into the lives of Yorkshire children in quirky and unusual places. Little did I imagine that I’d be running art clubs on the side of a football pitch.
The next few weeks will see me delivering more healthy art workshops in external settings, with 5 family fun mornings for Ryedale District Council, making ‘Art in the Park’ – giant land art themed around health. These sessions are also part of the Breathe 2025 Campaign and I’ll be encouraging families to explore the need for clean air and smoke-free play areas through the art we create.

The Big Healthy Art Project is kindly sponsored by Kitching Walker Solicitors in Kirkbymoorside. Any child who completes 3 activities this summer can qualify for the Arts Award. You can find out more about the project by liking MakeMore Arts on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/makemorearts/
For more information about Hawkes Health’s popular summer soccer camps visit www.hawkeshealth.org

Images courtesy of Jacob Lucas Film and Photography.

Rosie Goodwin runs Yorkshire-based arts engagement projects through MakeMore Arts, working across the region with schools and community groups, museums and heritage organisations.