Bank Street Gallery
As part of the town’s second Feel Good Festival which was inaugurated last year, Bank Street Gallery, in Kirriemuir, hosted an exhibition by young students of the Fairlie House Community Art Group. Work across many mediums by around a dozen contributors, averagely aged around fifteen, was seen in public for the first time. But more was afoot than at first glance.
An opportunity to ‘join in’ the creativity afforded Susie Clark and her young staff a self selecting group of unsuspecting guinea pigs. “Anyone who knows me knows my passion for creativity – and its importance in our lives for mental wellbeing and social cohesion. These are big claims, I know, but this weekend gave me a chance to assess whether there is any truth in my hypothesis.”
Croy Langlands and Rachael MacIntosh, both students who man the gallery at weekends, were in on the action. As visitors popped in to take a look at the exhibition, they were deployed to chat and encourage involvement in a bit of doodling or origami. Left to their activity, Croy and Rachael would return to chat as soon as it looked as though the visitors were about to leave. The in-house detectives were looking for key words which would disclose how those who had participated in a little creation were feeling – both before and after the activity.
“The results look promising but still need to be statistically analysed to assess whether the trend is significant or just a fluke”, Susie commented. “But it looks as if the hypothesis may well hold water; there was definitely a transfer from a negative emotional articulation to a more positive one, but there is a whole tranche of other variables to look through first and discount. I’m not sure the research at this stage would reach the publication standards of the British Psychological Society but it may be enough to put together an application to funding more robust research!”
One thing is for sure, visitors to the Gallery over the weekend would have undoubtedly been impressed by the standard of work exhibited on the walls. The show runs until this coming Sunday 25th February. Check the website for opening times and why not pop in and feel good?