Doing something creative is a good way of relaxing or
taking your mind off things, and it’s great for your self
esteem to learn something new or produce something
that gives you or others pleasure. Both our art/craft and
music groups are an ideal way to do this, and it doesn’t
matter if you’ve never done art or music before. Both
groups are run very informally and you can attend when
you want to – just as with our more general social
support activities. When you first attend, if you wish,
you can let us know so that someone will look out for
your arrival and show you around.
Art and crafts
The group takes place on Thursday mornings, 10am –
12-30pm. Many different types of art and crafts are
carried out, most of which are chosen by the group
themselves. These have included mosaics, clay
modelling, decoupage, paint effects, papier mache,
candle making, puppets etc. as well as painting and
drawing. The majority of work takes place in the
conservatory at Faulkner Road, but we also go out to
draw and paint from life, including going to our
horticulture project in Knowle which provides a quiet
place, free from interruption to draw subjects ranging
from the surrounding landscape to individual
wildflowers or gardening tools. We also undertake the
occasional trip to art galleries etc. particularly when
there is a special exhibition on at the Birmingham
Museum and Art Gallery.
All art materials are supplied by Mind, and the two
facilitators, Jo and Nick, are there to give help and
guidance if you’re new to the activity, and to stand back
and admire when you’ve finished or if you’re already an
expert! The group also regularly make props and
decorations for the various social events that take place
at Mind. As well as the usual Christmas decorations
they have made items ranging from giant packets of
sweets to a 21 foot pirate ship!
Music - due to restart later in 2022
This group, facilitated by Andy, a professional musician,
is on Thursday afternoons, 1pm – 4-30pm, also in our
conservatory. 1pm - 2pm is for tuition, so if you’d like to
learn guitar, keyboards, drums etc, this is your chance!
From 2pm until 4-30pm the group play and jam
together. A wide variety of music styles are played – it’s
up to group members what they play – and Mind
provides all the equipment (although you are welcome
to bring your own if you wish). We have guitars, drum
kits, keyboards, amplifiers, digital recording equipment
and other assorted stuff. Everyone is welcome whether
you are an experienced musician, have never played
before, just want to have a go at singing or are
interested in the technical side of recording/producing
music.
As well as playing music for fun, the group also write
and record music - they have released several CDs of
original music and plan to do more. They also, for those
who want to, play live occasionally.
Other activities
In addition to our regular groups, subject to interest and
funding and/or tutors/facilitators, we are occasionally
able to run one-off courses which in the past have
included creative writing, pottery and song writing –
contact us to see if there are any on at the moment.
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Solihull Mind 2019
Registered Charity Number 516058