Innokylä: One month lasting Artist in Residency in Jyväskylä Central Hospital
In 2019, a great artist residency was held in Jyväskylä at the Department of Adolescent Psychiatry, which was a great opening for participatory art at the hospital. I got to be the mother and producer of the project, and with me, in addition to the artists, Jaakko Kemppainen, a county artist in the field of game art, piloted the process with me.
In the heat of last summer, I wrote a project model for Innokylä and now it has been published!
The target group in the residency was young psychiatrically symptomatic patients aged 12–17 years in need of demanding care. There are many underlying eating disorders, self-esteem problems, and other serious symptoms such as suicide.
The Pascal, born in the residency, combines visual and experimental electronics with game art. Photo by @Pauliina Lapio 2019.
Why to choose residency model for hospital or any social and health art fields?
Residency activities provide social and health organizations with a clear and cost-effective way to integrate arts activities into the daily life of the community, increase well-being and inclusion, and take care of clients’ cultural rights. At its best, the artist's visit opens up new perspectives on nursing and the opportunity to develop in one's own profession. The operating model enables a living art experience, the effects of which are reflected in the daily life of the entire community.
The residency is well suited for advancing a current theme or idea in the community. The need for residency often arises from change or its desire. It can be moving to a new place, reorganizing a department, staff changes, a new caring idea or, for example, a desire to have a more comfortable department, looking at the mental atmosphere, encouraging staff to use their own (artistic and creative) skills as part of work, and so on. The artist can also be given full freedom to look at the community and its members (caregivers and patients, relatives) in peace and to work from the moment, including their own artistic work.
You can read more about residency work in Innokylä's operating model or in my published Guide to Community-Based Residency (Taike 2019, PDF).
Would you like to pursue an artist residency but don’t know where to start? Of course, get in touch and I'll be happy to tell you where to go and what to do (to make it happen)!
Screenshot of the hospital staff magazine about the residence. In the picture from left to right: Pauliina Lapio, Tuukka Pasanen (game art), Jaakko Kemppainen (Game as art development manager, second producer) and Dawn Prescott (Lead Artist, UK).
More information:
Nova Hospital