Photo credit: David Kapernick
You Can Make Some Noise Workshop – 2022 You Can Centre, RBWH
The You Can Make Some Noise workshops [ 2022-2023] at the You Can Centre at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital was begun as an iteration of The Stairwell Project http://www.stairwellproject.org.au and has highlighted again the need for more than hard assets, spaces and equipment for patients. We are incredibly grateful for the support from the Cancer Care Services staff at RBWH and the assets made available to the team and the young people who “rock up” – including the recent equipment purchases from the RBWH Foundation in the You Can Centre. This equipment and the instruments are being used each week. Then there are the two days of pro bono recording at QUT Recording Studio in December 2023 for the 6 songs written by the group over the last two years. There is much gratitude for all of this and an increasing anticipation around the release of the record and booklet later in the year.
These processes are now tinged with a large weight of sadness at the the death of one of our group – Joe Fan who lost his battle with Leukemia on Sunday last as noted in the previous post on this blog.
It is clear in all of this, however, that our vision to “reimagine clinical spaces and practice” with professional musicians employed and performing regularly and leading workshops needs qualitative social impact evidence for policy and budget considerations by a range of funding bodies, most of all in my view being the Queensland Government and Queensland Health. We – both Jugglers Art Space Inc and The Stairwell Project – are extremely grateful to have been funded over the years by various departments of the Government – a remarkable Arts Queensland grant for Stairwell in 2021 to name one. But to move our vision into reality it needs to be seen that as much as the system needs nurses, physios, radiographers, doctors and medical hardware and so on, there needs to be more than the occassional competitve grant process for us to navigate. There needs to be a recognition of the long term benefits for patients, staff and the public – and for the economy – when musicians are employed as other clincal staff are in hospitals as part of a wider approach to the arts IN health. Something amazing happens to the spaces and peoples’ souls and at times even their recovery with the presence of skilled and intuitively mature musicians performing considered repertoire in wards, stairwells and foyers or working on recording stories with young adult cancer patients.
I am interested in your responses to what I have written and I encourage the reading of the two attached [below] research papers on the affects of the Stairwell Project musicians performances at the RBWH and St Vincent’s Health and for you to consider financial sponsorship via the GoFundMe link [below]. Many thanks for your interest and encouragement.
Peter Breen
Founder/Curator The Stairwell Project.
Photo Credit: Peter Breen
Stairwell Team member guitarist Ian Ahles – Cancer Care Services day treatment ward 2019
Stairwell Team member guitarist Ian Ahles – Cancer Care Services day treatment ward 2019
The Stairwell Project Research #1 Author Kristy Apps
The Stairwell Project Research #2 Author Dr Margaret McAllister
SPONSOR The Stairwell Project.
The Stairwell Project is an outreach program of Jugglers Art Space Inc, a Not For Profit Incorporated Association and Registered Charity with DGR [ Direct Gift Recipient status]
The You Can Make Some Noise Workshop crew at the end of two days of recording at QUT Kelvin Grove Recording Studios in December 2023.
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