CoolTan Arts is looking for a personable, upbeat, lively, can-do person, who works well in a team, to join our existing staff as a Volunteer Coordinator and lead on recruiting, engaging, training and supporting a range of volunteers from diverse and excluded communities including those with mental distress, disabilities and long-term illnesses. This role will build on the existing volunteer opportunities at CoolTan Arts, and support the work of the full time Volunteer Coordinator. This post is designed to extend service provision and deliver project specific volunteering opportunities ialongside CoolTan Arts mainstream work.

January 21st 12noon at Maudsley Hospital, walking to South London Gallery
Join CoolTan Arts Largactyl Shuffle, a free guided cultural walk promoting mental health and physical wellbeing using art, humour and history to help de-stigmatise mental distress.

This month’s Fitness Walk begins outside the Maudsley Hospital at 12noon. Instead of the usual talks, each stop on the walk will feature a simple, fun, physical activity to help you gently warm up to wellbeing in the New Year. The walk will end at the South London Gallery, taking in some of Southwark’s green spaces where we will be skipping and running three-legged races.

Express yourself! Learn new skills and make new friends in a safe, supportive atmosphere …

We have two new weekly workshops starting in February:

Women’s Poetry
Thursdays 11am – 1pm
Starting February 2nd
An informal experimental workshop to get you going with that spark you always knew you had. The group will be working towards a publication in 2012. Beginners and published poets welcome.

Women’s IT
Wednesdays 11am – 1pm
Starting February 1st
Learn new computer skills or brush up on old ones. The group will be working on producing an illustrated book. Learn Photoshop, Office Word and Internet skills. Learn at your own pace, learn what you feel comfortable with.

On Tuesday 6th December 2011 Richard Muzira of CoolTan Arts, our brilliant film maker, won a ‘Local Heroes’award from Bank of America for his volunteer service. CoolTan Arts is very proud of his achievement, not just as a volunteer but his skills asa video maker. This is a brilliant achievement for CoolTan Arts’ unique approach to stigmabusting as we bring Mental Health and Disability to the forefront. Thankyou Bank of America and thankyou Richard, who says …

‘It is refreshing to see a corporation exercising its social responsibility towards the community it operates in.’

Richard chose CoolTan Arts as the charity of his choice to donate his £3000 prize from Bank of America of unrestricted funds – which the organisation greatly needs due to the cuts to the provision of services.

Tuesday 8th November 2011
12.30pm – 1.30pm at CoolTan Arts
You’re invited to meet with:
Dorothy Gould, Survivor Researcher

Download further information here

At any point since 2008, have you had a Care Plan, or are you currently under the Care Plan Approach (CPA) from mental health services??

If Yes, would you like to contribute your experiences??

The study is called: “What part service users find the 2008
Care Programme Approach can play in their recovery”.

If you would like to take part in this research, please do get in touch and reserve your place at the meeting at CoolTan Arts, next Tuesday 8th November.

Julius Xavier, singer/songwriter extraordinaire, is exploring the idea of a music and/or spoken voice compilation issued for CoolTan Arts.

If you know you have sound or video recordings from e.g. your own ventures arising from a CoolTan connection, and would like them to be considered, or new and unreleased material (we’ll check the archive here too), please get in touch with Julius via Phil Ruthen at CoolTan Arts. The underlying themes may be civil rights for disabled people, coupled with full-on entertainment!

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22nd November – 1-3pm

Are you interested in arts and would you like to find out more about CoolTan Arts?

Are you a Community mental health worker/Psychiatrist/Social Worker/Support Planner/Member of the Community Mental Health Team/Nurse/CPN/Outreach Worker/Key Worker? Someone experiencing mental distress/Disabled/Someone with complex needs/Dual Diagnosis? Do you have a personal budget? Are you looking for things to do to help with your recovery? Are you looking to find opportunities that will help increase your skills, break isolation, enable you to volunteer, get out of the house, make friends, go out on trips, enjoy what London has to offer, and develop your interests?

Short series of workshops running from Thursday 27th October to Thursday 15th December 2011.

Please contact Phil, Advocacy Training Coordinator, at CoolTan for more information, or to arrange to meet about the Self-advocacy skills training at times outside of the advertised schedules.

Venue: CoolTan Arts unless notified otherwise.  Please dress warmly!
Thursday 27th October An invitation to find out more, register and a short ‘taster’ workshop

Wednesday mornings:
2nd / 16th / 30th November   11am – 1pm An invitation to find out more, register and a short ‘taster’

Thursday afternoons: Workshops    Start 2pm & finish at approx 4.30pm

• 3rd November: Introduction to Advocacy, and Self-advocacy
• 10th November: Self-confidence – where is it – find it – use it!
• 17th November: Survivor movements’ civil rights and campaign history – how and why we’re here?
• 24th November: Getting ready for Personalisation, and Personal Budgets

With thanks to funders Alan & Babette Trust and LloydsTSB Foundations

To find out more, look out for us at a Venue near you, or please send us an invite to come to you!

Phone, email or write & ask for: Phil Ruthen, Advocacy Training Coordinator
phil@cooltanarts.org.uk tel: 020 7701 2696  Mobile: 0798 565 8443
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Run by artiste extraordinaire Stefan Finnis, this unique workshop will offer you the chance to learn new skills, the art of papermaking as you have never experience it before. Prepare to get stuck in with this hands-on, innovative and fun new course, open to all abilities. To register or find out more please contact us at CoolTan.

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Engage, the National Council for Voluntary Organisation’s online membership magazine, has featured an article on CoolTan Arts’ funding cuts on its front page. Suzie Ragab describes the problem to Nicola Gilbert …

“After the loss of our core funding, we were assured people who attend CoolTan Arts would be transferred onto a personal budget if eligible. Seven months on, not a single person has a personal budget. CoolTan Arts is doing all it can to continue our popular workshops and activities but this is proving extremely difficuly without extra support.

Without our NHS funding being replaced and without personalisation, we cannot deliver services to eligible people.

Michelle Baharier and Richard Muzira (with Very Special Guest) will be broadcasting on Resonance FM tomorrow, Friday 14 October, 16:00 – 16:30. Among other things, they will be talking about this Saturday’s BIG Sponsored Largactyl Shuffle. Don’t miss it!

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We were very proud to see the Guardian feature the artwork of our Participants on its Society website on 7th October 2011, to coincide with World Mental Health Day.

See the full slideshow on the Guardian Society website here, or download a PDF (1.7 MB) version here.

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Celebrate World Mental Health Day with a brand new exhibition of work by CoolTan participants exploring the power of creativity, in mixed media. Entry is free and offers the opportunity to experience the output of our unique creative workshops first hand.  Don’t miss this opportunity to be inspired with art-works, ranging from paintings and drawings to sculpture and batik or even buy a new painting for your home.

Come along and meet the artists at our launch party! Refreshments are available, all welcome!

Exhibition continues until 13 January 2012

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An exciting urban exploration walk of the area where the Olympics and Paralympics will take place in 2012. During the walk we discovered the place, people and local community, a brilliant afternoon with lovely people. One walker said: ” This walk made me realise what the Olympics are all about and I discovered a new area in London. The walk leaders were brilliant, I learned a lot. I’ll come again!”

Photos by Brigitte Flock

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Every Wed 4pm – 5.30pm

Do you enjoy going to plays and art exhibitions? Would you like to help others to do the same? Are you interested in how exhibitions are organised and run at CoolTan Arts? Then this exciting new group is for you.

We will be researching free tickets, building links to other galleries and theatres, and going on trips. Also we will be planning, advertising, organising and evaluating trips out to see exhibitions and plays. Eventually we hope the group will be helping to plan, fundraise, set up and run exhibitions at CoolTan Arts, and other venues.

Photographs taken at the Private View at Oxford House on 19th October 2010 – enjoy viewing the images!

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CoolTan Arts and Carnegie Library present: Road to Recovery Exhibition – 5 October – 31 October 2010

An exciting exhibition featuring artworks by participants at CoolTan Arts’ workshops. The exhibition is part of Carnegie Library’s ‘road to recovery’ programme and promotes mental health awareness and wellbeing.

Location: Carnegie Library, 188 Herne Hill Road, London SE24 0AG

Opening times: Monday – 1pm-8pm, Tuesday – closed, Wednesday – 10am-6pm, Thursday – closed, Friday – 10am-6pm, Saturday – 9am-5pm, Sunday – closed

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Take a look at the pictures from this years sponsored walk, CoolTan staff, participants, volunteers and members of the public all walked with one goal in mind, to raise money for CoolTan. Placing sculptures created at CoolTan en route from the Maudsley Hospital to the TATE Modern. The day was filled with fun…

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Join the fun, celebrate Mad Culture and World Mental Health Day

Saturday 09 October 2010, 11.30am

Where:  Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, SE5 8AZ  (by the main entrance) to Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG

Celebrate Mad Heritage with CoolTan Arts Largactyl Shuffle, a guided cultural walk from the Maudsley Hospital to Tate Modern. We will be celebrating World Mental Health Day and ‘mad’ culture by placing disposable public sculptures that explore the past, present and future of “Madness and Contemporary Psychiatric Innovation”, along the walk route from the Maudsley Hospital to the Tate Modern.

Sign up to the walk now!