DIL TRUST UK’S MAGICAL JOURNEYS- SUPPORTING ILL CHILDREN IN LONDON HOSPITALS

By Ahmereen Reza OBE

The Covid-19 pandemic in the UK has caused an unprecedented challenge to our way of life and the safe delivery of health care. I wrote this article to pay tribute to both the NHS staff, the unobtrusive but much needed work of DIL Trust UK and the National Portrait Gallery’s (NPG) Magical Journeys- Hospital program, with the hope to relaunch it, once we have overcome the challenges of COVID-19.

In 2016, the NPG in London commissioned Shirin Neshat, the celebrated Iranian painter, for a very special portrait.  It was for one of the bravest, most inspiring girls of this generation, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani Nobel Laureate and international girls’ education campaigner who was brutally gunned down by the Taliban for her advocacy of girls’ education in Swat Valley, Pakistan.  Airlifted to Britain, Malala underwent life-saving surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.   As they do day in, day out, the many talented, dedicated doctors, nurses, administrators of the NHS saved a precious life and preserved the dreams of a girl, the dreams of her parents, and the dreams of the tens of millions of girls around the world denied basic education.

Every child has a right to dream.  And when they fall ill, some terminally, it is incumbent on us all to keep those dreams alive. In 2014, as the Chairperson of DIL UK, a charity committed to girls' education in Pakistan, I joined hands with the NPG to fund and develop a programme for sick children in NHS hospitals to engage in the creative arts. 

Called 'Magical Journeys', the programme introduced those children in hospital for extended treatments and surgeries to the NPG’s vast collection of portraits and artists.  NPG volunteers and artists led workshops that provided children and their parents much-needed creative distraction from the stress of a hospital stay, to make it less frightening, to give a child a rare moment to dream of life beyond illness, and reconnect with a happier, more carefree time.  The portraits and their inspirational stories of achievement, determination, tenacity and dedication are designed to help bring solace on days otherwise filled with difficult medical treatments and  provide a creative springboard for artists to engage with the children. 

There is of course a very real clinical basis underpinning Magical Journeys.  The artists use a variety of techniques aimed at eliciting a direct cognitive response from the patients. Encouraging children to focus their thoughts on a portrait and engage in a variety of creative mediums helps shift their attention from an inward perspective focused on their body, illness and treatment, to a different scenario;  a ‘magical journey’ in the present or in a re-created space, allowing them to express their emotions while socialising and reducing introversion.  

Magical Journeys was launched at four London hospitals: Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, Evelina London Children’s Hospital at Guy’s and St Thomas’, The Royal London Hospital at Whitechapel, and Newham University Hospital.  Each hospital is specialised in a field of medicine and our programme for each hospital was designed with this in mind.  

Magical Journeys book launch at Evelina London Children’s Hospital with poet John Hegley @ National Portrait Gallery & DIL UK

Activities are tailored to meet the individual limitations and handicaps, to be age appropriate and in tune with the ability of each child.   Central to each activity is engagement of siblings, parents, and the nurses on duty.  

Activities are typically scheduled during periods when hospital schools are closed. Children unable to attend sessions due to clashes with treatment times can still participate in creative activities in their own time with a book My Superheroes and Magical Journeys.

The stories of children’s journeys, their flights of utter, delightful fancy, are simply magical.  Whether it’s exploring the work of Sir Joseph Banks by creating a wishing tree on which all of their unmet wishes are hung, or copying dancer and choreographer Akram Khan’s hand gestures making shadow that explore emotions, promises an afternoon out of bed away from their daily clinical surroundings and routine treatment. Some children have even asked to change the time of their treatments so they could participate in a workshop.

Workshop inspired by Wedgwood & Akram Khan- dance artist, Royal London Hospital-@National Portrait Gallery & DIL UK

The programme has improved interaction between young people and parents in the same ward, allowing them to share their concerns in an informal way. It has been shown to improve the hospital experience even for children undergoing stressful treatments. It has allowed the families to share stress-free, pleasurable time together, co-creating positive memories of their time in hospital.  Staff at all four NHS hospitals in which it has been trialled believe it is having a unique therapeutic impact on patients and their families, describing it as ‘positive, distracting, relaxing and enjoyable’.  It has helped patients to break out of the awkwardness of their circumstances and to socialise and meet other patients. Parents have managed to shift their own overwhelming anxiety to something more positive.

One mother's comment captured the essence of the programme.  "This workshop has been an enjoyable distraction from the reason why we are in hospital. It's given me time to relax with my daughter. It’s the first time I’ve seen her smile."

Due to COVID restrictions, the Magical Journeys workshop was closed, parents were frightened of the possibility of having their children’s treatments, tests and appointments cancelled or disrupted. As the pandemic took hold, I saw the untold impact that the disruption to health services has had on such young patients. I am not sure Magical journeys will return to hospital soon enough, but I am certain of two things. Firstly, disruption to treatments can’t continue as terminally ill patients’ needs will not stop for the pandemic. Secondly, now more than ever, post-covid, we need to address the fear and anxiety faced by ill children and their families in hospitals.

The children look forward to having us back, with these messages: ‘I got to meet new people, make stuff and be happy’. ‘If you weren’t here I would be on my phone for the whole day’. ‘I want you to come back!

Ahmereen Reza OBE

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FASHION FLASHBACK - SARAH HELLEN

Sarah Hellen, who was born and brought up just outside Wrexham, has married her witty take on her hometown with cutting edge design in a street-style range adorned with exquisite artisan offerings from across her homeland for her graduate collection. Her short navy woollen jackets, loose cream and grey tops inspired by the shape of a traditional Welsh steelworker’s shirt and a show-stopping black, cream and red full-length coat were combined with accessories made by of a band of Welsh artists. One of the most eye-catching items was a large sports bag made from woven willow. Sarah worked with a basket weaver from Builth Wells to bring her designs for the bag to life. The cylindrical carry-all has a navy felt opening which fastens with a handmade copper zip pull. The metal artist who created it also fashioned handmade badges of some of the country’s iconic emblems and other delicate copper details which decorate Sarah’s garments.

Sarah even teamed up with an illustrator to turn legendary stories from the Wrexham local press – such as the man who tried to board a train at Wrexham station with his horse and the riot during the half-price sale in the town’s branch of Poundland – into illustrations embroidered on to her jackets and oversized knitted jumpers. The fabric used for the full length coat is a heritage check recreated from an original weaver’s pattern by Welsh lifestyle brand Blodwen General Stores and made in one of the country’s only remaining working mills, Melin Teify near Lampeter. The navy, cream and red colour scheme of Sarah’s collection was inspired by a 1970s Wrexham Football Club badge the young designer found on eBay.

Sarah’s pride and passion for the traditional produce of her home country is infectious. “I wanted to create a collection that celebrated Wales’ rich artistic heritage and showed how rural crafts could be used in contemporary menswear,” Sarah explained. “There are so many amazing designers and craftspeople beavering away all over Wales and I wanted to help shine a spotlight on what they’re doing.” Sarah met almost all of the people she collaborated with, covering 360 miles in two days with a photographer in tow to document her experiences. “My favourite part of making this collection was my rural road trip,” she said. “I visited most of the people I worked with in their studios to see first-hand how they made their products. They were all truly fascinating characters.” With a project so close to her roots, it comes as no surprise that the fledgling designer got her family involved. Sarah’s mother was tasked with recruiting a crew of local knitters to make socks to finish off the outfits. Sarah gave each of the volunteers a mood board to guide them on the colours to use, but let them create their own designs.

All Images - Kingston University via eStyler Magazine

Sarah Hellen graduated from Kingston University, where she studied MA Fashion.

https://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate/courses/fashion-ma

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A KITCHEN AT THE TATE MODERN?

By Fleur Butler

Walking around Tate Modern endless signs proclaim that there are not enough female artists on display but ironically the Tate often chooses female art in terms of its own oppression at being unheard. Unlike the Tate, prime space is given to the work of the anonymous New York female artists Guerrilla Girls and their appalling statistics on how few women artists make it. But curators misunderstand the problem if they think that this is the solution!

It isn’t just that women are oppressed in the world; it is that their very interests are seen as “uninteresting” to the curators, who have been trained by male-led academies for centuries. The Tate needs to start to listen to women and their interests if they are to overcome this gender imbalance. It’s not that women are not artists; it’s just that the Tate does not notice them. They do not hear the language of the domestic, caring, nurturing; or of love, private space, interior pain, the home and family that so many people experience. Being female is not all about oppression as left-wing feminists would have you believe, being female is being proud of female distinctions, and creating a world in which both men and women can explore their feminine natures.  If art isn’t the best medium to explore these issues than what is? Where is the feminine in art?

There are many artists, male and female, who are not on show because they have refused to produce work within the masculine definitions of “good” art. It is these artists who are the true feminists of the art world, not the ranting left wing with their pictures of rape, violence and oppression. Is this all the Tate think women are about? Can’t they see these artists speak a different female truth, on the sidelines of a monolingual male art world?

Such mistakes are everywhere: Leonora Carrington died only a few years ago as Britain’s most successful female artist but the Tate has only one picture on display. Carrington is known for her weird and mystical animal world, her powerful female figures, giantesses standing over the world, and witches concocting spells together on a cheery domestic hearth. The Tate never bought her or saw her as important. Even today they have not allowed Leonora Carrington through their hallowed doors into London. Her retrospective was at Tate Liverpool, an apologia for one of Britain’s greatest 20th Century artists, female or otherwise.  

The explorations of female pain against a hurtful world of love gone wrong is another ignored experience. Isobel Brigham paints her naked women in their private domestic space as a retreat from the male world.  The very softness and detail of cushion on which female forms can lie naked explores the strength and peacefulness of a world absent of men. So different from the voyeuristic work of Walter Sickert and the Camden Hill School, who peered at women in their private settings and painted weird and imprisoned images. Prisons or refuges? The domestic can be seen in many ways. And what about those artists who paint kitchens, why do we never see kitchens at Tate Modern? Or pots and pans.  If we can have a urinal, surely a frying pan is allowed.

Dame Laura Knight,

Artist, circa 1910

An alternative Tate Modern show would not have Modigliani being hailed as a feminist just because he liked pubic hair, but would show the longing innocence of the Windrush painter, Enid Richardson. Her art was chosen by the Caribbean female community in the Pepperpot Club in Nottinghill. They would show not Augustus John, and his dubious female images, all about to be ravished in real life by him, but Gwen John and her painful introspective female figures, often silenced by male society. Laura Knight would be welcomed, not because she is “safe” and didn’t shock the men at the Royal Academy, but for her depictions of women and nature. The interior stillness of the girl on the cliff of “dark pools” is an experience of many women who don’t rage in pain, but stand still and absorb shock. Or Winifred Nicholson, who was allowed to be Ben Nicholson’s muse until he ran off with the brilliant Barbara Hepworth. Her art explored children, kitchen tables, lights, simple beauty in flowers, her life is the real experience of deserted mothers, but an experience dismissed by Tate Modern as irrelevant.   Only the subtle tactile sculptures of Hepworth got past the anti-feminine, merely alluding to the female desire to caress and touch not as a sexual act but as an act of love of landscape, people and things.

And central would be Leonora Carrington’s witches stirring their cauldron of power, nurturing sustenance for the home dwellers and creating power as safety and peace for childlike beings to grow and change and develop under the strength of the female mother form. A real feminist vision of art.