Artists in Healthcare Manitoba – Healing through the Arts

Nov 25

Working Together Magazine

Toby Gillies and Natalie Baird with Outside Light

“We’re thrilled to share that The Foundation’s Working Together magazine new fall issue is hot off the press—and we couldn’t have done it without you! Your inspiring work and impact in our community shines in these pages, and we’re so grateful for your collaboration.

I was delighted to walk through the transformed tunnel and learn about how this project came to fruition. As always, I wish I had more pages to write about such a beautiful project that has such a profound impact on peoples’ lives, but I want thank you for all your perspectives, for it is what helped me craft this story.

I’ve tagged your page and included a link to the full publication. If you need any specific materials for your posts, just let us know—we’re here to help!

If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, please email me back with your name, mailing address and number of copies – typically, we send about one or two copies. Our team will get those out to you and your organization!

Thank you again for your leadership! I hope this is just the beginning of the coverage I get to highlight pertaining to your projects!”

Shauna Turnley

Communications Advisor – Winnipeg Foundation

Jun 03

Don’t let the Sun catch you crying

Click on image to see film.

The NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA
proudly presents

Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying

FREE SCREENINGS
Featuring an exhibition of resident artwork and memorabilia from the film.

Friday May 31st
Misericordia Health Centre Auditorium
99 Cornish Avenue, Winnipeg

10:00 a.m. Media Event and Screening – Filmmakers will facilitate an art activity for visiting students, guests, and Misericordia residents to celebrate intergenerational creativity and collaboration.

Additional public screenings and Q&A with filmmakers
at 12:00 p.m., 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m.

Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying is a short meditation on love, grief, and imagination. The hand-drawn animated documentary was created through a collaboration between mother, elder and narrator Edith Almadi and filmmakers Natalie Baird and Toby Gillies. This poetic piece celebrates life and the transformative ability of art to elevate and transcend us. Through vivid drawings and Edith’s simple yet magical words, the film explores our enduring bond with loved ones who have passed. In honouring her son’s life within the cosmos, Edith’s artworks embody colours, shapes and metaphors that remind us of the timeless power of love, gravity,
and grace until our final breaths.

Director’s Statement

“Since 2014, we have led an art program at Misericordia Place, a personal-care home in our neighbourhood. The program is a way to tell stories and connect with residents while nurturing the development of expressive and personal visual styles. This is where we met Edith Almadi. The film has grown out of many years of conversations with Edith, honing in on the parts of her story that we share. The animations are an expression of our combined imaginations, incorporating imagery from our minds, Edith’s words
and the drawings we’ve made together.”
— Natalie Baird and Toby Gillies

CONNECT WITH US

NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA
P.O. Box 6100, Station Centre-ville, Montreal (Quebec) H3C 3H5
To unsubscribe from this newsletter, please contact us by replying to this email.

—

Natalie Baird

(204) 292 3210

Apr 16

April 2024 Thank you to the Aspers

“Artists in Healthcare would like to acknowledge and celebrate the generous ongoing funding which The Gail Asper Family Foundation and The Asper Foundation have gifted us with for close to a decade.

Anyone working in the charitable sector knows that the cycle of yearly grant applications for programs and projects is often related to a corporate focus which can shift as trends do.

This means that you can initiate something that’s wonderful for a given community, only to risk losing it once it’s been established because priorities change. To have supporters who value the work you do in a larger sense, and remain consistently interested in your work, can be somewhat rare.

We are so grateful for The Gail Asper Family Foundation and the Asper Foundation’s continued interest in our Art at the Bedside program, which is resuming post covid, in 2024 at St. Boniface Hospital and starting up at Health Sciences Centre.”

Dec 09

Annual Report: April 2022 – March 2023

Nov 15

Nov 2024 MAC Grant success!

A big Thank you to the Manitoba Arts Council for funding Artists in Healthcare’s ‘Taking the Music Rural’ grant for live music programming in the Brandon area.

Jan 24

Jan 2023 Good News!

The Johnston Group has supported the St. Boniface Hospital Atrium concert series with $5500. So that’s awesome!

Dec 03

Nov 2022 Tom Carson

With great sadness we advise you of the passing of our Board Chair, Tom Carson, on November 15, 2022. Tom joined the Board in January 2004 and assumed the role of Chair in April 2006.

His vision and passionate belief that the arts could transform the patient experience inspired us all. He led with the utmost integrity, intelligence, and care. Every project put forward that might make one patient or staff feel better about their day, was endorsed with enthusiasm.

He loved the live music program, Art at the Bedside, and the Art in Hospital donation program. He loved the arts in all their forms and personally knew the difference they could make in healthcare. But beyond understanding the magnitude of difference the arts could make, he dedicated his time and knowledge to this without reservation.

To learn more about Tom and his life, please see the attached obituary, which ran in the Winnipeg Free Press on November 26.

Tom Carson will be dearly missed.

Please see Tom’s full Obituary HERE

Nov 15

Annual Report: April 2021 – March 2022

Mar 18

Music as Therapy, March 2022

Donor-funded arts program aids in recovery for thousands annually

When Ernie Jones takes something on, he gives it his all. Now retired, he taught at a local elementary school for 32 years. He has bowled in the same league for the past 62 years (and with the same team for the past
46!). Jones took up crocheting as a hobby and has since made 450 afghan blankets, all of which have been gifted to friends, family, local charities, or anyone who crossed Jones’s path who could use a warm blanket.
So, when Jones heard the news that his leg needed to be amputated, he faced it the same way he has with everything else—with determination.
In July 2020, Jones’s big toe developed an infection and started to swell; to play it safe, he went to an urgent care facility. His toe needed to be amputated, but the bad news didn’t end there—Jones discovered he had kidney failure. After taking steroids to help his kidneys, he started experiencing elevated blood sugar levels. At this point his vascular surgeon at HSC told him that his foot would never heal and that the blood flow wasn’t strong below the knee. They would have to amputate his leg.

It was suggested that Ernie sell his house and move to an apartment before the surgery. After careful consideration, Jones’s strong will prevailed. “I’m not going to sell my house; I’ve lived here for 75 years! I’ll learn to live with the amputated leg,” he recalls. This same determination led to Jones asking a nurse for a walker shortly after his surgery so that he could go to the bathroom. After a visit from a physiotherapist, Jones was given permission to try and, just hours after surgery, he hopped to the bathroom with the walker. This show of strength led to daily walks with HSC staff, and, eventually, a prosthetic leg for Jones.

The road to recovery can be long, and in Jones’s case, he stayed in the Rehabilitation Unit at HSC for five months. During this time, he discovered the Artists in Healthcare program.

Artists in Healthcare brings live arts to patients receiving treatment in oncology, palliative care, rehabilitation, and dialysis. The programs provide important benefits for patients, families, and staff as an oasis from stress and anxiety. Artists in Healthcare provides the healing .power of music to over 120,000 patients, more than 8,000 staff, and over 100,000 visitors to HSC annually.”

One day, Jones was in his bedroom when he heard a guitar playing down the hallway. Upon investigating, Jones found Sam Singer, one of the Artists in Healthcare musicians, playing guitar in the lounge. Singer invited him to sing along, asking which songs Jones would like him to learn. Singer had heard from several staff that Jones sang in his church choir and was the former president of an opera association. Immediately, a bond formed between them, and Singer agreed to learn to play Jones’s requests if Jones sang with him.

Their musical group—aptly named the Rehab Renegades—grew to include two other patients,
Earl and James. The group decided to write their own song and record it before Jones was discharged. The band grew such a following at HSC that they created band t-shirts to sell, with proceeds supporting the HSC Foundation.

Artists in Healthcare is proudly supported by Gendis Inc., a locally owned and operated commercial property management company, which is currently celebrating its 90th anniversary.

Gendis Inc. President and CEO James Cohen is no stranger to the power of music. From learning guitar as a child, to performing in garage bands in high school, to graduating from university and attending the prestigious Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood, California, Cohen has always known the value of music. Ten years ago, his band, James Cohen and the Prairie Roots Rockers, signed with a Warner Music Canada affiliate label, and charted nationally with two of their songs, So Long Sweet Deception and These Long Nights. Recently, the band joined the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra on stage at the Centennial Concert Hall.

“I know the incredible healing power of music and how it can unite us,” says Cohen. “This program touched me. It is tough being in the hospital, and I hope Artists in Healthcare brings healing and happiness to those
who need it.”

Jones is grateful for the Artists in Healthcare program, and the memories and friendships that were created as a result. “If it hadn’t been for Sam coming along when he did, it would have been a very difficult and challenging time recovering,” says Jones. “Music is food for the soul.”

To donate to The Gendis Inc. Artists in Healthcare Endowment Fund supported by James Cohen and the Prairie Roots Rockers, please call 204-515-5612 or 1-800-679-8493 (toll-free).

Nov 04

Annual Report: April 2020 – March 2021

Artists in Healthcare Manitoba Annual Report 2020 – 2021:Here is the Artists in Healthcare’s newly designed Annual Report –

with Huge thanks to Bounce Design and Chuck LaFleche.