Recovery Through Ceramics: Supporting people with experience of addiction
Ben Jones, Project Coordinator (Arts Participation), Shipley Art Gallery
August 2024
The Shipley Art Gallery is widely recognised as having one of the UK’s finest collections of Dutch and Flemish 16th and 17th century paintings, Victorian paintings, and one of the UK’s most important and largest collections of contemporary craft. Using the collection as inspiration, my job is to work with a wide range of community groups, statutory organisations, and local people to explore the gallery through workshops, tours, talks and exhibitions and support people’s creativity and interest in the arts and craft we have on display.
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums’ Communities team have run a Recovery programme for the last twenty years; connecting creativity, health and wellbeing and recognising the positive health impacts of cultural participation. According to the Office for National Statistic figures, the North East has the highest deaths linked to drug misuse in England - almost twice the national average. The Shipley Art Gallery itself reports to Public Health through Gateshead Council, meaning the work we do has to consider the health and wellbeing benefits of creativity and the arts. Since 2020, I have worked across both the Shipley and Recovery programme to support people in Gateshead on their recovery journey through workshops, talks, tours, and visits to other galleries.
‘Recovery through Ceramics’ was initially an eight-month programme — October 2023 to June 2024 — funded by the NHS through the Gateshead Community Mental Health Grant Fund. We worked with Recovery Connections, a Lived Experience Recovery Organisation, part of Gateshead Recovery Partnership; and ceramicists from Bensham Grove Pottery at Bensham Grove Community Centre. Weekly sessions took place inspired by our extensive studio ceramics collection. The programme worked with Gateshead people who are in addiction recovery to develop new creative and practical skills to support them in their journey. It brought together TWAM’s Recovery programme and the Shipley’s remit, to help Gateshead people with their wellbeing through creativity.
Led by ceramicists Christine Constant (who has a few of her own ceramic works in the Shipley collection), Lisa Delarny and Clare Cantwell, participants came to the Shipley or Bensham Grove Pottery every Friday to learn different ceramic techniques. From simple coiling and pinch pot making, to more complex techniques such as using a pottery wheel, glazing, and firing. We also encouraged communal making where the group engaged in raku and smoke firing.
The group explored the Shipley ceramics collection for inspiration for their own work. This included the Henry Rothschild Study Centre’s collection of 20th century British studio pottery and the exhibition ‘Makers in Clay: British Studio Pottery’, which highlights the John Christian Studio Ceramics Collection. Studying the collection enabled them to understand how different techniques and styles of glazing look on finished pieces and think about what ceramic techniques they would like to use to make their own artwork. In June 2024, some of the work they made was displayed in a co-curated exhibition in the gallery. The participants worked with us to decide where each piece would go in the exhibition, as well as writing the accompanying exhibition title and text.
They also had the opportunity to work with our Keeper of Art at the Shipley to co-curate a display of ceramic pieces from the John Christian ceramic collection, in our new community cabinet in ‘Makers in Clay: British Studio Pottery.’ Working with Esme they jointly decided on a theme for the display — nature and geometry — and chose pieces from the collection that connected to this theme. By doing this, they developed research, curatorial, and interpretation knowledge and skills and learnt about what a Keeper of Art does. This was important aspect of the project — that they not only developed creative skills but also worked through, from initial idea to final display, how to create an exhibition and display of artwork.
One of the workers commented that coming to the Shipley and being creative has resulted in a clear difference in how people were. That attending the sessions were therapeutic and participants were more relaxed for the remainder of that day. It gave people the opportunity to try something new and focus on a talent that they did not know they had. Other comments included:
‘Being able to attend sessions at Shipley has expanded the creative side of my personality and given me a safe environment to explore. I have been able to learn new styles of creating art and it inspired me to attend museums and art galleries in my private time. Shipley has a calming effect.’
When asked about why they attended the programme, the main reason was to support their wellbeing through creativity, developing new creative skills and knowledge, developing practical skills and knowledge to support future employment, and meeting people for social engagement. One participant said to us as they left one session, ‘I have been so happy doing this today. I cannot remember being this happy for some time.’
Seeing their work on display in the gallery meant a lot to the group and there was a clear sense of pride and achievement. Having an exhibition opening where they could invite friends and family was a powerful and a heartfelt experience as they saw their work on display in the gallery. A member of Recovery Connection staff commented after the opening that ‘The works on show looked brilliant; the atmosphere of achievement was tangible. I found the whole experience of Friday powerful, real, and empowering. A day I will never forget and a day those involved will always remember.’
In a feedback session at the end of the programme one participant commented that:
‘It has been monumental in my recovery from having a space to create and produce pieces of artwork from drawing, printing, pottery, sculpting in a great environment. For someone who would not have ever thought of doing something like this while struggling with the effect of alcohol addiction and sobriety..to have positive influences on my mental health, spiritual health, doing things that make me happy and taking a break from the long-term effects like anxiety and depression while engaging in something so creative, is worth its weight in gold.
Over the course of the programme, as a group, we discussed ideas around resilience in both recovery and ceramics. Sometimes the ceramic work breaks or cracks in the kiln, the glaze does not come out the colour you hope, or work does not look like what you planned. They have learnt to accept it and work with the ceramicists and their peers to problem solve, learn how to patch up any cracks or broken pieces, or start again and make it better. This resilience and willingness to learn, discuss ideas and solutions, and repair or start again if needed, connected to their recovery journey, development and the need to be resilient in their personal lives. As a participant commented, being creative and making ceramics ‘Channels the mind into a new challenge. As individuals and as a team, having work on display shows what being in recovery can do: acommunity project. The project opened up awareness for recovery services and Bensham Grove… to community and other service users.’
There is now a core group of 10–12 participants, including Recovery Connection workers who all have lived experience of recovery, who continue to come to the Shipley to be creative and learn about art and crafts. Some of the participants come to the sessions, even after they have completed their Recovery programme, whilst others have started to attend ceramics courses at Bensham Grove pottery independently from the group.
We have recently received further funding from the grant fund to continue the project into April 2025. From feedback and discussions with participants, we are looking to expand the programme and give them greater control and ownership of the project. Experienced participants who took part before will have the opportunity to become museum volunteers, technicians, and mentors for future participants. New participants will have a mentor with lived experience to support them on their creative journey, support them in learning about ceramic techniques but also about resilience through ceramics. This new direction will give participants greater control and co-design of the programme and become active members developing the programme for future people on their recovery journey.
