Amanda Doig, of The Ridge in Dunbar, East Lothian, tells us how a 'Keep on Creating' microgrant from Creative Lives helped the organisation run a series of artworks to help participants build self-esteem and reduce depression and anxiety.

"The Keep on Creating microgrant supported The Ridge SCIO to run creative workshops facilitated by two local artists, Anna Davis and Allison Weightman.

We ran these workshops with the purpose of exploring and expressing thoughts and feelings around recovery. This led to the importance of confronting and embracing the idea of recovery and the journey to feeling more resilient and more confident.

Our art workshops provided a space to explore the therapeutic practices of art, to be able to discuss things that had deep meaning to people - place, pets, happy spaces, people, and nature.

Using different mediums such as collage, drawing, painting, and printing, the participants focused on expressing these meanings and incorporated different natural materials into their work.

Everyone taking part created a sketchbook using this creative approach with the emotional and personal foundations they discussed. 

Our ceramic workshops also took on the theme of recovery. This involved creating expressive clay faces, thinking about how we feel and how clearly or otherwise this is presented to the outside world. This brought the group together and led to conversations around recovery in the context of personal feelings and social roles.  

Participants enjoyed the therapeutic quality of working with clay and the introduction of working with the potter’s wheel was very meditative and relaxing."