OUR STORY
Lead Director, Dani Gaines, believes in the power of creativity to unlock people's self belief, confidence and sense of wellbeing. From the age of 3 years old, Dani knew she wanted to be an artist. Colour, texture, shape and line bring her personal joy - Art For You CIC is rooted in the belief that everyone has the potential to be creative given the right tools, support and encouragement.
As an adult, Dani discovered a second passion - teaching, coaching and facilitating. By combining community-led creative opportunities, effective partnerships & thoughtful facilitation - this small idea has grown into something truly special.
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Art For You CIC has become a collective team of creative practitioners and coaches, community development workers and project managers. Together we've delivered a whole host of co-created projects working with diverse communities and people of all ages and abilities.
OUR VISION
Much of the work that Art For You CIC delivers are creative projects with the most marginalised people within our communities. We put a commitment to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion at the heart of everything we do - ensuring that creative sessions are tailored to the individual needs of each of our participants.
Our team has worked extensively and effectively with groups such as refugees & asylum seekers, those experiencing mental health issues, the elderly, adults & children with Special Educational Needs, people experiencing long-term worklessness and those for whom English is a second language.
ARTS FOR HEALTH & WELLBEING
At Art For You CIC we have a wealth of experience in delivering creative projects that improve the quality of our participants' lives. Our team hold Higher Education qualifications in Arts for Health & Wellbeing, Coaching & Mentoring, Life-long Learning & Training. We have worked within Health Centres to deliver highly effective Art on Prescription projects for patients with long-term and/or chronic pain conditions. Attendance at the sessions has seen our participants reduce their use of the amount of prescription pain killers, anti-depressants and GP/hospital visits. This is in addition to the recorded qualitative improvement in their mental health issues, social isolation and self-confidence.
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Whether a project takes place within a health care setting, a community centre, a school or anywhere else, time and time again our participants reap these positive rewards of engaging with high quality creative activity.
Creative Skills Development for Teachers
Support for Schools
Art For You CIC has a passion for developing the creative skills of teachers. We recognise that for teachers who need to teach art, for primary school staff in particular, art and creativity don't always come 'naturally.' Many staff members actually had negative experiences of art at school themselves, being told that they weren't creative and this affects their professional life.
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We work with cohorts of teaching staff to build their skills & confidence so that they feel fully equipped to deliver high quality creative sessions to their pupils. We have off-the-shelf training packages, bespoke workshops that respond to the specific needs of a school's staff development needs and support packages to embed a Creative Curriculum approach to learning.