Walking Galleries | Make It Happen
We’re going to ‘Make It Happen’ with our Virtual Nature Escapes — ‘Walking Galleries’ and other exciting wellbeing initiatives, with the kind support of funding from City of Stoke-on-Trent Council.
New for the New Year, starting in February, we’ll be exploring different ways to showcase our ebooks and other digital wellbeing resources — which we hope to become the way forwards for our Human-Nature project.
The success of co-creating ebooks with our friends and followers during (and since) the pandemic, plus the funding pressures we now find ourselves under, has led us to re-think how we move the project forwards to reach more people and in wider geographies (UK-wide), whilst lowering our operating costs and minimising our environmental footprint. Having now created 5 ebooks with over 50 co-creators, locally and throughout the UK, we feel now is a good time to celebrate this success and find new ways to share and showcase the wellbeing content we’ve created together as a on-line creative community.
Hopefully these are all great ways to inspire creativity in photography and poetry, connect to nature mindfully, get outdoors physically for fresh air and exercise, or provide virtual (on-line) alternatives for those with less mobility, or with limited time availability, who might just want a quick ‘escape’ to nature during a busy working day.
With ‘Walking Galleries’ we’ll be showcasing 3 of our free-to-read on-line ebooks to enjoy as art installations, encouraging you to walk our wonderful local landscapes, whilst inspiring you to visit more books from our on-line digital wellbeing library . Who knows, maybe you’ll be inspired to become one of our next co-creators, using your own photography or poetry skills?
Connecting Communities | Walk this Way
With our ‘Walking Galleries’ we’re particularly hoping to connect with the local communities of Longport, Middleport, Etruria, Cliffe Vale & Shelton. These communities are within easy reach of the high quality green spaces like Westport Lake and Hanley Park, plus the canals that join the two. Often these wonderful local facilities place the City of Stoke-on-Trent as one of the UK’s Top 10 Green Cities, but perhaps we don’t make best use of the green space assets right on our own doorstep to improve our own wellbeing, promote self-care and boost our positive mental health?
Could a key to improving our own wellbeing be as simple as a ‘walk in the park’, or by finding new and interesting ways to engage and make the most of our local natural and heritage landscapes?
Why not beat the winter blues, and follow the ‘Walking Galleries’ map and directional arrows around each or any of our 3 walks at:
– Westport Lake (Starting from the Visitor Centre Cafe on the lake side): Walking Gallery 1 ‘Fascinating Finds’ – Available NOW!
– Trent & Mersey/Caldon Canal (Starting from Westport Lake Visitor Centre Cafe on the lake side): Walking Gallery 2 ‘Poetry in Motion’ – Available NOW!
– Hanley Park (Starting from the Volunteer’s Pavilion/Community Hub): Walking Gallery 3 ‘Words Escape Me’ – Available NOW!
Note: ‘Walking Galleries’ will be installed early February, until end of March 2023.
Images of ‘Walking Galleries’ (some photos kindly provided by @kendie )
Virtual Nature Escapes | 4 Alternatives
There are a number of different ways to connect with our Human-Nature ‘Virtual Nature Escapes’ project.
Whether you’re out and about or stuck indoors, physically fit or less active, busy or bored, shielding or perhaps lonely —there are 4 alternative ways to engage with our project using nature and our wonderful local landscapes.
Wellbeing eBook Library | 5 free-to-read on-line ebooks
Have you enjoyed seeing our eBooks in the landscape as ‘Walking Galleries’ or in a waiting room as a ‘Therapeutic Nature Slideshows’ – then why not check out all 5 ebooks by clicking the links on the book covers below?
Your Feedback | Did you enjoy ‘Virtual Nature Escapes’?
Did you enjoy your ‘Virtual Nature Escapes’ via the ‘Walking Galleries’, ‘Therapeutic Nature Slideshows’ or the full on-line ‘Wellbeing eBook Library’ above? Would you like to be involved in helping us co-create more ebooks and take our nature, landscape and creativity inspired wellbeing project in a more digital direction to reach more beneficiaries and UK-wide – then let us know via this quick on-line survey: On-line Survey Link
Please complete the survey if you’ve engaged with this project initiative by visiting a ‘Walking Gallery’ or have seen a ‘Therapeutic Nature Slideshow’.
GP Resource Pack | Therapeutic Slideshows & Social Prescribing
As part of this funded project we have GP/Link Worker Resource Packs available for GP practices in targeted areas of Stoke-on-Trent: Longport, Middleport, Etruria, Cliffe Vale and Shelton.
The pack includes:
– ‘A Moment’s Notice’ as a ‘Therapeutic Nature Slideshow’ on a plug & play USB memory stick contained in presentation book cover. This can be shown as a taster in GP waiting rooms to attract patient interest.
– 4 sets of 25 (=100) social prescribing leaflet cards to refer patients to our website.
Hopefully this is a great way for new people to learn about our project, gain access to the full ebook library as enjoyable mindfulness resources, and also learn about our ‘Nature’s Ways to Wellbeing’ model for self-care, improved wellbeing and positive mental health.
We’d also welcome GP and Link Workers from other areas making contact, to explore how they could be supported with similar resource packs.
Above Images – GP Resource Packs