Wellbeing Weekend, The Arts Bar
20th and 21st of May, to mark the end of Mental Health Awareness Week.
The weekend pop up will feature three visual artists, Amy Cummings, Kathleen Charters and Alisha Friday.
Amy Cummings is freelance illustrator from Cardiff who’s currently based in Liverpool. Her main body of work consists of abstract illustration using geometric shapes, bright colours and patterns.
For the last 35 years Kathleen Charters has worked in Liverpool for a health and wellbeing charity, with a focus on HIV. During that time Kathleen has experienced a great deal of loss but thankfully she’s found ways to process that, which has been crucial to her mental wellbeing and often involved exploring the art and culture of other countries. When travel wasn’t possible during the pandemic, Kath started to create her own pieces and a whole new world opened up to her.
Alisha Friday is a freelance visual artist, who first moved to Liverpool to study Fine Art at LJMU. Since graduating in 2016, aside from producing her own work, she’s also worked as a community artist, running events and workshops for vulnerable and marginalised people. Alisha’s work has always been informed by race, identity and mental health but the latter became even more important after facing her own personal experience with psychosis, which first occurred whilst she was pregnant in 2020.
In addition to the visual art on display, creative horticulturalist Steph, founder of Foru Plants will be attending the event, selling edible plants, sharing free seeds and giving advice on how to cultivate plants at home. Joe Dillon, guitarist with Liverpool band “Hushtones”, will also be providing a sound track via his vinyl collection on Sunday the 21st and delicious pastries, (including vegan options), will be available from local bakery, “The Butterholic”.
Everyone involved in the project hopes that the event will encourage others to speak more openly about their own mental health and perhaps consider trying art and music as a way to support their own mental wellbeing. The exhibition will run over two days on the 20th and 21st of May from 12-5pm at Arts Bar Hope Street. Entry is free. For more information go to lauramccannphotos.com.