This website has been jointly sponsored by

The Centre for Health in Employment and the Environment (CHEE) Bristol Royal Infirmary: England and PSE Consultancy

www.pseconsultancy.com

Introduction

The background for the organisation has been the desire to develop the work of Arts Access Aotearoa as a result of an increasing number of requests for assistance in Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom and Singapore. The Art in Prison program launched in February 2005 in South Africa was modeled on the Art in Prison programme with we developed in New Zealand prisons.

Creative spaces in South Africa and Australia are also models.

It is now over 11 years since Penny Eames set up Arts Access Aotearoa. That organisation produced a wide range of publications which have been read extensively nationally and internationally. The international interest generated in the work of Arts Access Aotearoa led to the need to set up the new international organisation - Arts Access International.

This organisation is initially being run under the umbrella of the PSE Consultancy, but is beginning to gather momentum of its own.

Under this banner Arts Access International it will concentrates its on the following:

1. running international workshops, particularly in relation to art in prison, art in health and the formation of creative spaces, all for people on the margins.
2. having a website that provokes discussion and support;
3. includes a tool kit for
4. conducting research into the role of the arts in social sector.
5. developing creative business solutions for people on the margins.
6. producing quality publications associated with access and participation issues on CD Rom.
7. setting up creative spaces for people on the margins anywhere in the world but particularly in Australia and South Africa.

An underlying hypothesis of the work of Arts Access International is the way, from within ourselves, that we look outwards at the world around us influences our perception of factors in the external environment that impinge on us and how we respond to them. The relationship is dynamic and symbiotic.

Greater understanding is needed of this interdependent relationship and of how the roles in it of creative endeavour and aesthetic appreciation benefit our morale, self-esteem, confidence, well-being, sense of belonging and personal development. This understanding helps to give pleasure, enjoyment, direction, purpose and meaning to our lives. There is an art to acquiring and utilising this understanding and its basis is in the arts. Appreciation of it and the culture associated with it are supportive of us and of society. They are worth fostering as they enable us in the art of living.