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If you have any news to share, please email us at website@lapidus.org.uk
Lapidus Scotland
is hosting the Poetry Tent at the Big Tent Festival in Falkland Palace, Fife. See the Scottish section for our programme which includes Bernard MacLaverty and Fiona Houston, author of The Garden & Cottage Diaries. Big Tent 2009 is Scotland's
largest eco-festival and takes place Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th July 2009.
Tickets are available now! Further info: bigtentfestival.co.uk
The Reader Organisation presents...
‘Words and Images’ Readers’ Day in partnership with The Brindley Arts Centre
Saturday 13th June, 9.30-4.00pm
£20, £15 OAP & Student, £12 Unemployed & Leisure Card Holders
Lunch included
As part of Halton’s annual Literature Festival Talkwrite 8-13 June 2009, The Reader Organisation is presenting an event packed Readers’ Day.
Anyone who has attended one of our Readers’ Days in the past will know that they are relaxed and friendly affairs, intellectually stimulating and fully accessible to all, infusing the regular weekend Saturday with the creative energy made possible through people from all walks of life sharing in the delights and complexities of great books and poems. A wide range of poets, writers, and local literary enthusiasts will gather on the day and deliver a variety of workshops which will all be centred around the popular theme of Words and Images.
On the day we will be joined by award-winning author of Poppy Shakespeare, Clare Allan, as well as artist Viv Levy, local poet Rebecca Goss, and our own celebrated reading enthusiasts Jane Davis, Director of The Reader Organisation, and Angela MacMillan, Co-Editor of The Reader magazine.
Workshops will encompass a broad range of themes, including interesting discussions about the relationship between painting and literature, photographs and poetry, film adaptations and the classics, the illustration and the printed word, art and the imagination and much more - each exploring the dynamic relationship between words and images in its own unique way. There will also be a double poetry workshop led by local poet Rebecca Goss, which will include an afternoon creative writing session.
You can view the programme on The Reader Organisation's website, or alternatively see summer brochure for the Brindley from page 23 onwards. Download brochure.pdf
If you are interested in finding out more please contact Clare Williams cjwilliams@thereader.org.uk or call 0151 794 2830.
Alternatively, you can go direct to The Brindley’s website to find out further details and book tickets direct on 0151 907 8360 to find out more.
We really hope to see you there on the day!
Join us to bring about a Reading Revolution!
The Reader Organisation presents
Read to Lead: Accredited Facilitator Training
10th - 15th May, Burton Manor, Cheshire
“In the presence of great literature, it's as if a hand has reached out and taken our own. That's the hand The Reader Organisation is trying to extend.” Blake Morrison, 'The Reading Cure', The Guardian, 05.01.08
Over a fun and intensive five day residential, this course will give you the insider view on what makes our revolutionary social outreach programme Get Into Reading work, and the practical tools to develop the programme in your area or workplace, including:
· “It was a privilege to attend a course that feels like it could truly change the way I work , and to learn from the dedicated, enthusiastic members of The Reader Organisation.” Trainee Facilitator, September 2008
Since 2001, The Reader Organisation has been delivering weekly, read-aloud Get Into Reading sessions, improving wellbeing, building community and extending reading pleasure throughout Merseyside. We now run over 80 groups meeting on a weekly basis in community centres, hospitals, rehab centres, prisons, libraries, arts centres and schools, and are national leaders in the development of reading and wellbeing.
With the aid of our extensive body of knowledge and experience, you too can make people feel better with a book.
“It’s like another door has opened and the light has come in.” G, GIR member
For more information on why this course is important for you, your workplace, and your community, please contact Casi Dylan, Training Manager, on readtolead@thereader.org.uk or 0151 794 2291 or visit www.thereader.org.uk
Narratives of Art
Mid-Wales Arts Centre, Caersws
April 18th and 19th 2009 (Saturday 10am – 5pm / Sunday 10am – 2pm).
The weekend is going to be inspired by the art exhibition, where the theme will be landscape. There's a variety of paintings and of course the beautiful surrounding countryside.
The course will look at landscapes, and the emotional value and associative memories of it, how characters interact with it; utilising both external and internal landscapes. A lot of the course will be using the paintings as stimuli in order to prompt people to write their poetry and short stories. There will be writing exercises, time spent to be with the various pieces of art, feedback and discussion sessions, culminating with a reading on the Sunday, of everyone's work.
£130 includes Saturday and Sunday course / sessions and includes Saturday night accommodation / £95 includes Saturday and Sunday course / sessions only. Food is inclusive (buffet lunch and evening meal).
People interested and want more details or to book a place can contact Elizabeth Briggs on 078 121 085 68
Poet in the city evaluation is available here
Lapidus secures funding for new project
Lapidus is pleased to announce that funding has been awarded from Arts Council England for a major new project on Writing and Health.
The project has two strands which act in support of each other - a practical project and a mapping/marketing/ dissemination strand.
Lapidus has been a membership / umbrella organisation for its first 10 years. It now has a remit to develop good practice. Lapidus’ first project on Poetry and Emotional Health has had many benefits. It has shown that Lapidus can deliver a nationwide programme of work with leading practitioners, involving several partners. Such projects develop new areas for employment and offer opportunities for work-shadowing and attract members, both ordinary and professional. This project builds on that successful model.
The project will enable the organisation to collect and disseminate examples of good practice which will be used in ‘making the case’ for further funding.
An objective of the project is to develop firmer links with statutory and voluntary agencies, particularly in the health care sector which may provide a context for future Lapidus work.
The model for this is drawn from Poet in the City and an Arts and Older Persons Project in Cornwall. It combines central management and evaluation with practitioners able to programme their own project whilst working towards a common goal and within Lapidus guidelines.
Lapidus Professional Members will be invited to tender to run one of 8 pilot projects in a new health care setting in their locality or nearby area. In order to achieve as wide a geographical spread as possible it is likely that only one project in any area may be supported.
The criteria for acceptance of individual tenders will be quality of the work and its potential for developing a partnership that could receive future funding. In addition, the projects will be selected so that there is a good geographical spread and a mixture of different kinds of interventions and client groups and settings.
For further information please email: projectmanager@lapidus.org.uk
Prompted to Write - Order your copy now!!
Lapidus has several active local groups, including one in Cornwall who launched an exciting new book on Tuesday 25th September 2007 at Truro Waterstones.
Entitled 'Prompted to Write', the book contains articles, poems and stories by over 30 contributors who participated in a three year lottery-funded series of workshops and training events. Some of the contributors are renowned in the field of reading and writing for health and well-being, for others, the book contains their first published piece of writing. This level playing field is one the characteristics of Lapidus work.
During the three years programme, Lapidus Cornwall worked with a variety of partners including the Peninsula Medical School, Mount Edgecumbe Hospice, Cornwall Care, Arts for Health, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly and University College, Falmouth.
The book is edited by Zeeba Ansari from Truro and Victoria Field from Falmouth.
Prompted to Write is available directly from Lapidus Cornwall (send a cheque for £4.50 plus £1 p&p payable to Lapidus Cornwall to 2, Burley Court, New Street, Falmouth TR11 3HJ), from bookshops and also on Amazon.
It is published by fal: ISBN: 978-0-9544980-9-2
Mentoring Scheme
Sue Ashby and Elanora Ferry have been working together to develop a mentoring scheme for members. The scheme was launched at the Lapidus One Day Conference in April 2008 in Bristol.
Accreditation
Since 2004 we have consulted with key people in the field (such as Dr. Celia Hunt, University of Sussex, Kathleen Adams, past president of NAPT & director, Center for Journal Therapy) and looked at different models of accreditation used by comparable organisations (NAPT, BACP)
Kate Thompson drew up a proposal for a Certification Scheme drawing on models of accreditation already in use. This could be implemented on a short timescale (beginning in January 2008) and would build on the professional Membership category which has now been established. This was presented to the Board for discussion and after agreement it was taken to the 2007 conference for consultation with the membership. A working party will be established to carry this proposal further.
Membership
There will be an active drive this year to attract new members. Please renew your membership now if you haven't already done and encourage others to join as well. If every present member could recruit one new member then our financial status would be considerably improved.
SOUTH WEST BRANCH MEETING
Lapidus SW have now planned a series of events/meetings for members in the Bristol and South West region to attend.
They will take place at the Pierian Centre, 27 Portland Square, St Pauls, Bristol. Refreshments provided.
For further details available from janereece@hotmail.com
New Thames Valley group invite members to join their new group
Two years after first suggesting the idea at the Cirencester Conference, members Roz Cawley, Geraldine Bridges, Sara Seal and Elanora Ferry have decided to form a Thames Valley Lapidus Group.
At the moment it just consists of these four members but Roz and Geraldine are hoping that others in the region will want to join them. Until they can meet as a group, and between " live " meetings everybody can keep in touch through a Yahoo Group they have set up - Lapidus TV which can be found at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LapidusTV
Lapidus in Poetry & Mental health project supported by the Wellcome Trust
Lapidus is collaborating in an exciting project aimed at raising awareness of mental health and emotional intelligence issues amongst teenagers. The Poetry Society Education Department is advising on best practice and the project is being coordinated by Graham Henderson, Chief Executive, Poet in the City
The project aims to stimulate thought, raise awareness and dissolve prejudice prevalent in perceptions relating to mental health. A programme of 22 days worth of schools placements will be delivered by Lapidus, Samaritans and The Poetry Society in schools around the UK from January 2007.
Cheryl Moskowitz, who is delivering and evaluating the programme for Lapidus, has produced sample teaching notes and stimulus poems as models for the poets/educators taking part in the programme. This is a pilot project and it is hoped that the 22 days of placements will help Lapidus to develop a model for the delivery of such poetry and mental health/emotional intelligence placements more widely in the future.
The poetry placements form an integral part of the national programme of placements being run by the Samaritans' Developing Emotional Awareness and Learning (DEAL) programme. You can see how the poetry placements fit into this larger programme by visiting
Samaritans DEAL
As part of the project, a poetry event was organised by Poet in the City at the Royal College of Psychiatrists on 11 April 2006, at which Professor Femi Oyebode, senior psychiatrist and poet, gave a talk and there were readings by actors Ruth Rosen and Peter Forbes of poems by Ivor Gurney, Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, Stevie Smith, John Burnside and others.
The event represented an exciting new form of collaboration between poetry and the mental health sector and was recorded by the British Library Sound Archive and is therefore available for study and use. Poet in the City has already produced some extracts from the event as audio downloads for use (in due course) on its website. You can listen to samples of these at
Archive
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