A ground – breaking artistic collaboration between Ros, guitarist/composer Mark Fisher and spoken word artist Keisha Thompson, 1000 Days began as a piece of creative evaluation, using the arts and performance to document Ros and Mark’s award-winning Songbirds project, a hospital residency with young patients on a long-term rehabilitation ward at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
A series of spoken word poems and music were created to share the impact of the residency, developed from a period of creative collaboration and reflection between the 3 artists, and incorporating Keisha’s observation of music sessions with Mark and Ros in ward spaces, sharing of the musicians’ reflective session notes, and conversations with staff, children and family members.
The project evolved out of this first phase with the support of Help musicians, a grant from their Fusion Fund enabling the 3 artists to examine their creative processes and reflexive practices more deeply and share these insights with music, medical and nursing students and professionals in a series of workshops during the pandemic.
1000 Days creates a space to consider, through the 3 artists’ collaboration, the use of creative processes and approaches within evaluation methodologies, where often musicians do not have space to reflect creatively, and where music can be used to disseminate learning and lived experiences more widely and freely. It creates a new platform to examine the impact of the project, by expressing the responses and reactions of staff, participants, observers, musicians and patients through poetry and music.
Ros Hawley 