Creative Communities West Berkshire passionate about art for wellbeing
Tanya Reid is a skilled painter and potter who passionately believes that creativity is the key to an optimal life experience and how people living with a range of different issues including mental health, dementia, special educational needs, physical barriers and socio-economic disadvantages can change their daily lives through creative activity.
As well as being a working artist Tanya has a business called Creative Communities West Berkshire with another practitioner, Sarah Hemmings.
Tanya has a degree in fine art and Sarah in English literature and both are fully qualified teachers and assessors, with an extensive background in managing, devising and delivering courses for adults from a wide range of different backgrounds.
They share a special interest in teaching adults with learning difficulties and disabilities, older learners with age-related illnesses and adults suffering with mental ill-health.
Sarah is particularly passionate about working with adults with learning difficulties and disabilities, adults living with mental health difficulties and those who have experienced domestic violence and difficult home lives. She firmly believes in the value of lifelong learning for everyone and has witnessed first-hand the difference learning can make to people’s lives and how important it is for the mind and body.
Together, Tanya and Sarah run courses for vulnerable adults living in West Berkshire.
She said: “We are funded by West Berks Council to deliver art-based learning to people living in care homes, attending day centres, people isolated living in rural villages, we have a strong partnership with Sovereign Housing and provide Art for Wellbeing courses to residents living in their over-55 schemes.
“We have just started our Parents – Art for Wellbeing courses working closely with the local schools for parents struggling with their mental health, particularly post pandemic, this course is funded by the Surviving to Thriving grant from Greenham Trust and Thatcham Town Council.
This month the business turns a year old. “Our first year has been full and exciting and we wanted to share some photographs of the work being done out in the community. Our students get so much out of these courses and we really want to celebrate what they do.”
https://creative-communities.org.uk/
Sarah has always had a love of all things creative and besides running Creative Communities and teaching, she runs a successful online shop, selling her own handmade crafts and running online classes from her workshop in Compton.
When Tanya isn’t busy teaching and running Creative Communities, she can be found in her studio creating large-scale impressionist oil paintings. For her, art is not only her profession and her passion, but it is also her therapy; and to be able to share that with the community gives her great pleasure.
“We fully believe that by coming together to learn creatively, participants gain valuable skills, develop passions and interests, and form friendships and support networks along the way.”
