Arts, Health & Unity
Art With Purpose:
Reconnection . Motherhood . Resilience . Artist and Community
A Neurodivergent and Autoethnographical Approach
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"Art has purpose, to connect, give voice, bring unity, lift spirits and raise awareness for the greater good, not only art can improve social connections, ignite conversations, reduce loneliness. Art within humanity can reconnect people to nature, without the two, we wouldn't live in harmony. Why not take action to make a different no matter how smaller the act, all acts can equate to positive change, inclusion, unity and a hopeful future." Danielle Chappell Aspinwall
Fine Art and Social Practitioner, Danielle Chappell Aspinwall, interconnects people and art through, place, nature, and wellbeing. Advocating for positive change, unity, and accessibility, she opens up conversations around mental health awareness, hidden disability and subtle ways to preserve our planet with reuse, recycle, remake and relove.
Focusing on proactive ways to promote sustainability, reducing landfill towards climate emergency. Using autoethnography in her approaches, she reaches antidotes and systems that art, conversation and reflective practice can empower individuals and communities. Being neuro-divergent, her energy and personable welcome shines in the creative practices and roles she undertakes.
Danielle graduated with a First-Class BA (Hons) Embroidery in 2006 at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2010 she graduated with a Post Compulsory PGCE teaching qualification and in 2021 graduated with a Merit at UCLan with a MASTERS of Fine Art.
Here is the online exhibition link;- https://degreeshow.uclan.ac.uk/author/dccaspinwall/
Danielle is currently an Artist in Residence 2021-2022 at Barra Culture (a 'Creative People and Places' Arts Council funded programme in Barrow in Furness, South Cumbria) https://barraculture.org.uk/project/off-yer-trolley/
In 2020, her 'Isolation Booth' public art installation and community engagement of activities in lockdown project was published in Lancashire Life, Cumbria Life magazines, featured in the Double Negative Arts online, and was on tour across Cumbria with 'Through The Locking Glass' Exhibition from the publication book that features over 80 Cumbrian Artists. Danielle has opened up her views on artists pay in this article, along with Sue Flowers and Susan Jones- http://www.thedoublenegative.co.uk/2020/09/were-experts-at-taking-risks-on-the-fraught-issue-of-artists-pay/
In 2020-2021 Danielle was a mentee at Signal Films and Media working on the #SourceProject and the #WestCoastPhotoFestival developing her #HatsOffRunFreeOurFavouritePlace project on juggling motherhood and being a creative artist with and around the children, letting go of anxiety and postnatal depression.
The #WestCoastPhotoFestival exhibition runs until 7th Nov at Cooke Studios in Barrow, Abbey Road. Here's the link;-
https://signalfilmandmedia.com/westcoastphoto-hatsoffrunfree
Danielle is a NW LENS champion advocating ways to improve arts and health within the community, outpatients and hospital programmes. Her continual passion of reducing landfill, embedding recycled materials, with a welcomed inclusive ethos, where nobody is priced out of making art, ideas can blossom from spontaneous discarded media, adding unique spins on ones creativity. Danielle's art and wellbeing workshops have grown over the last 17years in her practice, you can see listing of freelanced commissions and projects in CV page.
Her recent positive projects include working with Sue Flowers director at Green Close as part of the Phoenix Rising Project, where common unity and goals to raise awareness of mental health and the positive health benefits that arts have in therapeutic settings is magic. You can read more here;-
https://phoenix-rising-wellbeing.co.uk/
Hidden Disability;- Danielle Chappell Aspinwall doesn't hide her hidden disabilities #ADHDArtist #Dyslexia #APD ( #AudioProcessingDisorder and #Anxiety) within her various professional practices and roles as an artist.
In 2020 she gained a one off 1-2-1 Blog Workshop with Colin Hambrook from Disability Arts Online.
In 2021, Danielle applied to the DASH Arts mentorship programme exploring inclusive disability training through 1-2-1 support with Mike Layward, discussing exclusion and disability rights and discrimination. Workshops to improve professional creative practices with inclusive adaptable training, developing confidence, voice and wider understanding how the arts, culture and heritage organisations are increasing inclusive ways to engage and support the disabled community. Workshops also included AN-Magazine Julie Lomax.
Danielle's 'Art for Purpose' ethos, fuses her passion of advocacy to share unity, inclusion and awareness to remove barriers within the workplace and education systems, to benefit the neurodivergent community and disability groups, giving voice to make a difference, to reduce future suffering of discrimination and exclusion, as well as sharing open deeper understandings of disability within society, highlighting the positive attributes that being #Neurodivergent offers into society, the community and the workplace. Exploring positively through social dialogue, socially engaged practice, projects, public art, social media, as well as community workshops, Danielle aims to lift connections through welcomed imperfections within her bubbly personality and humor.
The importance to remove the stigma attached to hidden disability, reducing the exclusions for inclusive adjustments, enabling access to an opened inclusive wider world, will offer new norms of hope and more opportunities within an inclusive society from a disabled perspective, making a difference for future generations to come to reach further aspirations, higher confidences from deeper inclusion and resulting in healthier mental health and wellbeing. Here you can find out more about the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Equality Act 2010: guidance here; https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equality-act-2010-guidance
Workshops from 2002;- Widening conversations to reduce landfill, preserving our environment, individually and collectively making a difference to community wellbeing and increasing engagement to sustainable living and eco creations, you can read more about the groups and organisations Danielle has worked with around Lancashire, Fylde, Greater Manchester, East Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside, North West of England;- https://www.daniellechappell.com/art-workshops
COMING SOON! A new webpage displaying workshops and projects from Cumbria, extending online presence and international audiences.
Recent inclusive Freelance commissions, exhibitions and projects, publications 2020-2021 includes;
Artist in Residence of Barra Culture 2021-2022
#OffYerTrolley Community Social Practice interventions- Trolley Dash Exhibition tbc
#FurnessGayPride illustration poster
#BuzzinBarraBunting at #Playcation touring Barrow Borough workshops
#RavingPiano as part of #BarrowMusicFestival
Coming soon #OffYerTrolley #TourDeBarrow
Artful Ways Cumbria commissioned by 'Somewhere Nowhere';- #DaltonsGoldenThread #ArtfulWaysCumbria in exhibition at Tullie House until 6th Nov 2021
https://artful-ways-cumbria.com/portfolio/daltons-golden-thread/
Signal Films and Media: A mentee of #SourceProject workshop leader and exhibitor
#HatsOffRunFree exhibition until 7th Nov 2021 at Cookes Studios, Abbey Rd
https://signalfilmandmedia.com/westcoastphoto-hatsoffrunfree
Future Ventures Mentee 2021: Alumni graduate, grant receiver £500, Publication of Illustration featured in Vol 3 #RadicalFuturesHandbook
Lancaster University 'Future Places Centre: commission' #CartographicInterventions #AroundTheHouses project exhibited at #TheGregsonArtCentre Lancaster new exhibition coming soon for 2022
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/future-places/cartographic-interventions/danielle-aspinwall/index.php
Green Close Studio Phoenix Project
#KirkhamTownTastic #StitchAwayStresses (Kirkham Heritage Community wellbeing project)
#CloudsOfHope as part of #PrestonWellFest #OrangeButtonConcept #WorldSuicidePreventionDay
#KirkbyTownTastic bunting art and wellbeing workshops
#PhoenixProject Mindfulness Doodles and positive activities via postal packs
https://greenclose.org/phoenix-project-programme/
They Eat Culture #PresTonicDoodles mindfulness online workshops
https://the-living-city.org/2021/04/01/claire-walmsley-griffiths-shutter-release
The Studio Morland #TheYellowBox Mindfulness interactive activity and colouring in illustrations inspired by place for the community of Morland
Full Of Noises Barrow Park, Band Stand #DawnChorusDay commissioned to run family workshop exploring art and sound
Art Gene Participant of the #ThinkTank #ExtremeViews 2019 4 day Conference
