Turtle Song Returns to London with a New Hackney Location
By: BWW News Desk Jan. 11, 2017
Turtle Song is a free, weekly workshop for people with Alzheimer's and all forms of dementia together with their carers, companions and siblings - using music, song writing, singing and movement to provide creative, mental and social stimulation.
Turtle Key Arts work with local and national charities, memory clinics and occupational therapy teams to find the most isolated people with Alzheimer's and Dementia in each area, often providing transport for them, to form a group of 20 to 30 participants who work with professional musicians, music students and workshop leaders to write the lyrics and compose the music for their own song cycle. The project ends in a live performance for friends and family which is recorded as a CD and DVD. On 20th January, a New Group of participants will start the project at Chats Palace in Hackney and on 16th January, the project launches at York University.
The project was started 10 years ago when Turtle Key Arts' Chief Executive Alison King and Artistic Director Charlotte Cunningham (recently made an MBE for her services to the arts), felt there was a lack of provision for Alison's mother and Charlotte's mother-in-law, both of whom had Alzheimer's. The first project took place in the Royal College of Music's rehearsal rooms, with Alison's mother as a participant. The intergenerational project brought together participants with dementia with young music students - the combination of people with different experiences leading to a breaking down of barriers and a reduction of the stigma around dementia.
Charlotte said, "The initiative provided a high quality project for people diagnosed with dementia but still living in their homes - often isolated and scared of leaving the house. When we started, there was relatively little provision of this kind: 10 years on I'm proud to say that we are part of a new and more positive ecology, and we've worked with some fantastic organisations such as Arts4Dementia, Creative Dementia Arts Network, Younger People with Dementia and Young Dementia UK and many, many more to continue to ensure that the work has a real legacy and can continue to have a positive, life-changing impact on people's lives."
Since it started, Turtle Key Arts, English Touring Opera and Royal College of Music have worked together with arts organisations, universities, the NHS and charities to deliver more than twenty projects across the UK, involving over 400 participants, 60 workshop leaders and 150 music students - and that's over 10,000 cups of tea drunk. In 2017, projects will take place in Hackney, York, Oxford, Reading, Waddesdon Manor Bucks and more TBC. Turtle Key Arts continue to contribute to and strive for a new vision of arts, health and wellbeing with input in conferences and initiatives such as Aesop and the National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing.
http://www.turtlekeyarts.org.uk/turtle-song
Testimonies
"I cried silent tears of sorrow, of pride, of happiness, of loss, of admiration, of gratitude and more. Thank you for bringing joy to my mum, for accepting her just as she is and for making her truly happy. I have not seen her smile like that for a long time, today she was my beautiful, intelligent, kind & caring, fun loving mum again" From the daughter of a participant in Reading 2015
"I was really impressed with the way the workshop leaders engaged the singers and gave them the confidence to express themselves and have fun. Often engaging people with dementia can be done awkwardly, but this was sensitive and seemed to build up the singers' sense of personhood and achievement " Occupational Therapist, Royal Hospital Chelsea
Company biographies
Turtle Key Arts
Turtle Key Arts unlocks creative potential in individuals, companies and communities. They produce and devise ground-breaking, original and inclusive art.As creative producers they enable each project to reach its full artistic potential and ensure that outreach and participation is embedded at the heart of everything they do.
Their work has a national and international reach through a wide variety of innovative projects with many different collaborators and partners, including the companies: Ockham's Razor, RedCape Theatre, Amici Dance Theatre Company, Joli Vyann, Oddly Moving Circus Theatre, Slot Machine Theatre, Open Sky Productions and AIK productions.
They have played a committed role in advancing participation in the arts by disabled and disadvantaged people, and are widely recognised as a leader in this field. They pioneer arts participation projects that identify and fill the "gaps", often charting new territories, running arts projects for those with Dementia, Autism, Dyslexia and HIV. They work in partnership with English Touring Opera, Royal College of Music, The Wigmore Hall, National Portrait Gallery, Opera North, The Royal Court Theatre and Oxford University.
In a typical year, Turtle Key Arts projects reach an average of 25,000 audience members, include 2000 participants and involved over 200 artists.
English Touring Opera
www.englishtouringopera.org.uk
English Touring Opera is the leading touring opera company in the UK. ETO travels to more regions and to more venues than any other English Opera Company, touring annually to around 55 venues and presenting as many as 110 performances per year. Their aim is to offer opera to everyone, with a varied repertoire of high-quality professional productions featuring some of the finest talent in opera.
Each year they tour productions in Spring and Autumn. The Spring tour tends to be larger scale, with a modern orchestra and chorus, while Autumn tours tend to be more intimate, with a diverse repertoire.
The roughly 'classical' scale of presentation is dictated by the size of the venues, generally theatres which receive little or no other opera. The repertoire is selected with respect to that scale, to the company's eager audiences around the country, and to the particular strengths of their current cast.
ETO's ambitious outreach programme focuses on creative work - in other words, it creates stimulating opportunities for people to create music theatre, in many different ways, bringing diverse abilities and experiences to that creative work and play. Each year there are an average of 300 workshops and performances (involving more than 15,000 people of all ages), ranging from full-scale community operas to intimate performances in care facilities. The company has developed a special expertise in collaborating with children with special needs.
Royal College of Music
RCM Sparks is the Royal College of Music's ground-breaking Learning and Participation programme.
The programme provides opportunities for everyone to make or learn about music at the RCM and offers training for the next generation of music educators. In 2016 RCM Sparks has ignited creativity in more than 3,600 members of the community and trained 190 RCM students and graduates.
Partnerships
Partnerships with Turtle Song have included Clare College Cambridge, University of Wolverhampton, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton Grand, Arena Theatre Wolverhampton, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich College, Chats Palace Hackney, Warden's Charitable Trust Suffolk, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, Oxford University, YoungDementia UK, Arc Stockton-On-Tees, Leeds Carriageworks, Norwich Arts Centre, The Fairfield Halls and BRIT School Croydon, York University Music Department, University of Reading, Younger People with Dementia, Corn Exchange Newbury, Waddesdon Manor and The Rothschild Foundation.
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