Art proving antidote to lockdown anxiety
Free activity packs have been distributed across six Sunderland communities to help residents stay creative during the pandemic.
Award-winningartsproject The Cultural Spring commissioned six artists to produce 720 activity packs and then worked with a range of community organisations in six council wards to distribute the packs.
E m m a H o r s m a n , Project Director of The Cultural Spring, said: “We’ve been working with artists and creative organisations to create and distribute art activity packs since the first lockdown, but this is the most we’ve delivered in one go. Our aim has been to keep people creative during these uncertain times.
"It’s been proven time and time again that arts activity can be an antidote to anxiety and isolation – and we’ve had some lovely feedback from people telling us how much they’ve enjoyed working on previous packs.”
The latest packs were produced with funding from Sunderland Council’s East Area and West Area Committees’ Community Chest, and have been distributed across Ryhope, Hendon, Doxford, St Michael’s ward and Millfield in the east and Silksworth in the west.
Community organisations who distributed the packs to people they work with included Blue Watch Youth Group, Ryhope Community Centre, CHANCE, Young Asian Voices, Gentoo, The Box Youth Project, City Life Church and Youth Almighty Project.
Emmaadded:“Hugethanks go to the organisations who so generously agreed to distribute our packs, and of course, the local artists who created the packs for us.
"All of our commissioned artists did an amazing job.”