Category: Alex Vann

Spectacular Spring Vale Stingrays!

7/19/2021

Recycled art sculpture plastic cardboard

'Stevie Stingray'

Alex Vann from RAW did a 2 day of art workshop at Spring Vale Primary School, Wolverhampton on 30th June and 1st July 2021. The focus was on plastic pollution and the effects on Marine life. Working with a Year 6 student bubble, Alex encouraged every student to draw a stingray using soft pencils, create an origami stingray, and think about recycling using drawings and statements.
Oh and of course they built a huge sculpture using recycled materials the children brought in from home and the children named it 'Stevie'!

Alex also did a series of assemblies to the whole school and talked about his career as an artist, designer and workshop leader and as a lead artist on the Wolves in Wolves public art project.

It was a great way to use creativity to address serious issues and also have lots of fun creating colourful and interesting new work.

Here's what the school said:

This year we decided to celebrate the Art curriculum by holding an arts week in which the whole school could enjoy.

Every year group created some amazing sculptures and Year 6 children were provided the amazing opportunity to work alongside Alex, from RAW, who was fantastic! Children were all given the opportunity to develop both their drawing skills as well as their sculpture skills.

We are extremely grateful for the opportunities our pupils received through Alex’s workshops. Thank you for all your amazing help, it was a fantastic opportunity for our year 6 children."

H May, Arts Coordinator, Springvale Primary School

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In November 2019 RAW curated an exhibition about the issue of Suicide Prevention

1/20/2020

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'Support Life' Art Exhibition

Support life exhibition Wolverhampton suicide prevention

Support life exhibition Light House Media Centre suicide prevention

Art ewan johnston outside centre tony young colin burchill gary o'dowd

signposting suicide prevention Samaritans Papyrus

Paintings done by learners at HMP Oakwood

In November 2019, RAW curated the ‘Support Life’ art exhibition at Light House Media Centre in Wolverhampton to raise awareness of the issue of Suicide Prevention.

The exhibition was supported by Outside Centre, an organisation in Wolverhampton concerned with disability access to the Arts. This organisation were the driving force behind the hugely successful ‘Wolves in Wolves’ public art trail in 2017. Alex Vann, founder of RAW, decorated the ‘Support Life’ wolf which is concerned with Suicide Prevention and mental well-being. The wolf gives it’s name to the exhibition.

Designs for the Support Life wolf

Support Life suicide prevention call for submissions

Support Life Call for Submissions

We put a call out for submissions to the exhibition on social media and by word of mouth for example at our ongoing workshops and by attending events that were around mental well being.
We set up a dedicated Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SupportLifeExhibition/
so could share the stories of the artworks, artists and exhibition updates.

32 artists submitted work -which was a mixture of drawings, painting, prints, tattoo designs, sculpture, poetry, video and performance. Here is a small selection:

A painting by Becky Lawley a young female artist who struggles with depression

A sculpture of a male body in black plastic resin with script font painted in white in a circular design

A long rectangular painting made from script writing in a circular design drawn in the colours of the rainbow to imitate the flag associated with LGBT pride

A drawing in black ink made from tiny highly detailed swirls and patterns, covering a large sheet of paper and framed in a white box frame

A huge black and white painting of a man being attacked by 3 wolves, painted by Ewan Johnston

a painting and collage showing an old fashioned desk telephone with the words HELP ME spelt out in cut out newspaper letters. Made by Black Country artist Jason Fullwood

A painting showing the struggle with mental health which includes the words ' be ok with yourself'

A black and white painting showing a surreal male face covered in strange orb shapes from the eye level up onto a bald head

a black and white painting of the back of a person showing the upper back with bones extending out from the skin and hands coming over the top of the shoulders

A canvas covered in strips of black and white newspaper with words ripped from a colour magazine on top of this to make a message to the viewer

A small square
piece of Japanese Silk with abstract shapes and patterns in all the colours of the rainbow. Mounted with a thick border of white card and a deep black square frame

A photographic project by Asian female artist Bally Barquershowing her road to recovery from bullying and depression

A poem written by Wolverhampton Poet Laureate Emma Purshouse

Arun Kapur film maker and poet who deals with the issue of Mental health and suicide prevention

This banner links to the YouTube channel of Arun Kapur, a Wolverhampton poet and film maker. He has made a series of videos called 'Time To Talk' about the issue of mental well being

The exhibition also included a signposting section to agencies that are dedicated to suicide prevention

A table of leafets from Samaritans, Papyrus and other support agencies around suicide prevention

Posters on the wall of Light House Media Centre Wolverhampton showing different support mechanisms for people with mental health issues and suicidal thoughts

A written feature about 2 deaf men, including photos, about their fundraising walk from John O'Groats to Lands End to raise money for Deaf charities

The exhibition was opened officially by the Mayor of Wolverhampton and a percentage of sales went to The Mayors Charities which is 2019-20 were

The University of Wolverhampton Alumni Scholarship Fund and
Wolverhampton Suicide Prevention Stakeholders Forum.

You can donate to the charities here: https://www.paypal.com/gb/fundraiser/112574636177901026/charity/3757861

tonia campbell daley compere support life

mayor claire darke wolverhampton bally asian women health support life

Alex Vann Rich McMahon Support Life suicide prevention

Gary O'Dowd Alex Vann Real Arts Workshops Mayor and Outside Centre Paul Darke

Alex Vann music song writer Rich McMahon

Brendan Hawthorne poem poet Poetry spoken work suicide prevention

Key Dates
Exhibition dates 5 – 30 November 2019.
Dates of events & workshops:

8.11.19: Official Launch event by Mayor of Wolves, Clarie Darke. MCee’d by local actor / theatre leader Tonia Daley-Campbell / with performances by local poet: Brendan Hawthorne and musician Alex Vann plus testimonials by some of the exhibiting artists.

Workshops mental well being health children young people adults drawing painting

Wonderful new artworks created by the public at our free workshops

12.11.19: Honesty Portraits Workshop: designing and painting a 3D mask which reflects how you REALLY feel – not a surface ‘I’m ok’ (the concept for ‘Honesty Portraits’ originally came from some work I’d seen by Becky Lawley a young artist who struggles with mental health problems. She and her sister (12) both had work in the Support Life exhibition).

16.11.19: Design a ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’ poster: Using the NHS initiative as a basis for drawing / writing / telling others what YOU will do to improve your mental well-ness: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/improve-mental-wellbeing/

23.11.19 : Design a Wolves in Wolves ‘Support Life’ wolf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolves_in_Wolves
http://www.wolvesinwolves.co.uk/artists/about/wolf10.html (the original wolf design by Alex Vann)

27.11.19: Performance evening: Hosted by Alex Vann, included performances by Billy Spakemon / Brendan Hawthorne and The Dissenters. The Dissenters are a group of vulnerably housed people who attend a drop in centre at SIFA Fireside in Birmingham, https://www.sifafireside.co.uk/

The link to this exhibition is Rich McMahon http://www.richmcmahon.com/ . Rich was a professional musician who was also in a musical partnership with Alex Vann. Rich worked closely with SIFA Fireside, using music as a positive force and often organising public performances with the service users.

Rich McMahon took his own life on May 18th 2015 aged 42.

Alex continued the work with SIFA Fireside, the group eventually renaming themselves Dissenters after the title of a song written by Rich. The group has a changeable line up and John Napier now continues the work with the group who perform a wide range of songs, some original, and sometimes playing Rich’s music – to keep his legacy alive.

Alex Vann’s ‘Support Life’ wolf - now positioned at University of Wolverhampton - has plinth panel dedicating the work to Rich McMahon.

Rich McMahon musician Irish Birmingham Suicide prevention

Photo of Rich McMahon © Justyna Bansal

Drawings by Clare Wassermann renown Wolverhampton artist

Sketches made by renown local artist Clare Wassermann at the Support Life Performance evening on 27th November 2019

Videos from the Performance Evening are available on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmuIArtxp_fjuz5x-Msuh_A/featured?view_as=subscriber

We know the exhibition had direct impact on individuals because of:

Things that were written in the comments books
Messages left on the Tree of Hope
A message from one person who saw a particular artwork on Facebook and themselves made a ‘call for help’ in a time of crisis
We have evidence of public engagement with new work created and displayed during the exhibition
Press coverage in Express and Star, particularly around the work with HMP Oakwood.

Also, the Mayor told us directly that the exhibition had realised its aim of raising awareness and (Alex Vann) was awarded a certificate by City of Wolverhampton council for his work around suicide prevention.

Exact numbers of people attending are difficult to quantify, however:
We have 70 tags on the tree – (obviously not everyone who visited would write one)
And 34 comments in the book.

40% of sales from artworks would go to the Mayor’s charities.
In addition, Ben Vann (nephew of Alex and owner of a tattoo shop) designed some Support Life tattoos and 50% proceeds from people having these were donated to the charity.

Poster showing tattoos especially designed by Ben Vann for the Support Life Exhibition

Poster for 'Support Life' tattoos by Ben Vann

COMMENTS BOOK SELECTION:

What a brilliant job you’ve done: bringing so many different people together to share their experiences and solidarity.

Quite inspirational – people’s views on their mental health and how they express themselves.

This exhibition has been wonderfully put together. Such thought provoking pieces, candour and creative expression. It’s incredibly encouraging to see and read these artworks. Thanks to everyone exhibiting – as a suicide attempt survivor I’m very moved and happy to see such open dialogue.

So expressive and meant a lot having dealt with these problems with my late husband it certainly brought it home to me. It was certainly out of the Darkness into the light for me. Thank you for your powerful sentiments so brilliantly done.

Great work on the exhibition ! It was interesting to see how each of the artists expressed the themes of the exhibition in a very different way. Hopefully people in need of support will find solace in knowing the artists struggle with these negative feelings as well they are not alone.

AMAZING EXHIBITION : Opened my eyes to how different people are affected by different things, how they express how they feel. Keep up the amazing work guys.

Thought provoking exhibition, which illustrates to me that many of us (perhaps most) live life “keeping the lid on” anxiety and depression; sometimes caused without knowing why we feel such a condition.

Interesting exhibition as I attempted suicide this summer, makes me think what damage I would have left behind and what mum and colleagues would have had to deal with. Encouraging.

What a lovely warm vibe tonight – loved the way it brought so many people together. And the exhibition is moving and thought provoking. Important we learn about these stories. Brings hope
A lot of people do hide behind a smile, it is good to communicate with one another and be open because we all at times need one another.

Brilliant! Work that comes from the heart! Keep fighting, keep being creative, keep embracing your dark and bright sides and communicating with the audience, the people.