Culturally Mindful – Meet Wandsworth artist Shiza Naveed
Culturally Mindful is a creative health residency and training programme which brings together Global Majority artists, healthcare providers and grassroots organisations to co-design new approaches to health and wellbeing.
Working in partnership with Wandsworth London Borough of Culture, we are hosting artist Shiza Naveed at our Wandsworth Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service.
Hear from Shiza how she will be working with staff and patients to deliver an inclusive and accessible creative health programme.
Tell us about yourself
“Hi, I’m Shiza. I’m an artist, researcher and facilitator who’s driven by community-engaged creative projects, as well as playing with our imaginations to build better futures. My recent work has focused on public murals that tell untold stories or histories of Wandsworth through creative collaborative engagement. In my work I aim to use creativity as a tool for transformation and visibility.”
What is the Culturally Mindful programme?
“Culturally Mindful is a creative health artist residency programme. Run by the Wandsworth London Borough of Culture, the programme is for global majority artists to bring and build creativity in health and care settings, which we know can be really positive for people’s wellbeing.
“I’m really excited to be based at Wandsworth Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) at Springfield Hospital for my artist residency. Over the past few months, I’ve had three co-design sessions with young people and the team, where we’ve been creatively working together to figure out what the arts programme from the residency could look like.”
What will you, young people and staff be creating during your artist in residency?
“We'll have two types of sessions across the residency: some with young people and staff; and some with young children, families, and staff. Generally, we will always have a combination of play, creative exercises, and making art!
“For sessions with young people and staff, we will begin with games before we explore the theme 'journeys'. In particular, we'll be reflectin g on what has supported us in our journeys, what we're proud of, and what our hopes for the future are – importantly recognising that everyone's journey looks different! That being said, everyone is welcome to share as much as they're comfortable with. We'll then spend the rest of the session painting, drawing, collaging and finish up with games! It's as much about having fun and playing games together as it is about making artwork.
“For sessions with young children and families, we'll begin the sessions with some nursery rhymes and movement, before moving on to play and storytelling about journeys! We'll then spend the rest of the session with parents and young children painting together and close with some more nursery rhymes.
“In the co-design sessions, one really popular idea was making a collective artwork that can liven up the hallways of CAMHS at Springfield Hospital. So, the artwork you create can be featured as part of the art installation at CAMHS! You might also make more than one artwork across the sessions you attend, and it's totally optional if you'd like them to be part of the installation. We'll also have a launch event once the artwork is installed, and everyone will be invited to celebrate their work!”
What is the impact of a programme like Culturally Mindful?
“Culturally Mindful as a programme is really important to me. I’ve been delivering community engagement projects for some time, but it’s made me realise that my practice could be described as being related to creative health because of the positive impact it has on people. Time and time again I’ve seen what creativity can do for your wellbeing – it can be a really important part of care.
“As well as working with young people and the CAMHS team, I’ve also received specialist training relating to creative health, such as trauma informed practice and mental health first aid training. The latter was provided by South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, and these are skills I can use in my work going forward, beyond the Culturally Mindful programme.”
