Ali Richards

Qualified nurse, trained gardener, and lover of all things creative – the messier the better! Alison’s 20 year career working as a registered nurse has given her a clear understanding of the pressures that are faced daily within the NHS. She is passionate about the benefits of creative activity and time in nature to support good mental and physical health. She is keen to use her nursing experience and creativity to support others to explore creative practice in order to enhance wellbeing.

Training: BA Adult Nursing with hons; City and Guilds ILM level 3 award in leadership and management; Person centred coaching; Working for Gardeners Association’s ‘Work and retrain as a gardener scheme’ (WRAGS)

Outside of work Alison lives with her family and pets. She loves getting her hands dirty and is never happier than when she is baking, working in her garden or out walking through the countryside. She loves making things and most recently has been designing and screen-printing her own fabrics.

Louise Jordan-Dench

Louise has 15 years experience as a songwriter and performer and has also worked as a secondary school history teacher, youth worker and freelance facilitator working across Wiltshire and the South West. Louise is passionate about inclusive and socially engaged practises and is interested in engaging people of all backgrounds and experiences with the arts and heritage.

Training: Louise is a qualified teacher with an MA in Human Rights. Other: Louise is a Mental Health First Aider with a Level 3 City & Guilds qualification in Autism Awareness

When she is not working Louise enjoys visiting museums and sites of historic interest, walking and reading. She is currently attempting to dust off her GCSE French.

Emmy Broughton

Emmy was captivated by the sound of the harp at a very young age – when at last she was given the opportunity to play, she devoted herself to this magnificent instrument. Now in adulthood, she has found her own style, combining her classical training in French Impressionism, with the exciting rhythms and textures of West African Kora Music. She also offers lively covers of songs requested by patients, as this emotional connection to music is what she is most passionate about.

Emily Burridge

Emily Burridge is a virtuoso cellist, composer and arranger crossing genres between classical, folk and world music. Her performance repertoire for solo cello includes classics as in the Suites for unaccompanied cello by JS Bach and a whole roster of mellow cello tunes with her arrangements of classical and popular music.

In November 2019 a reviewer wrote, “Emily Burridge lifts the subtle art of cello to new dimensions with her inspirational, moody, soulful and joyous musicianship.” Find out more on Emily’s website, including viewing videos or listening to clips of her music.

Jane Saunders

Jane plays the harp and ukulele to accompany songs from 18th, 19th and 20th century folk music, as well as all 20th century styles of music. She currently enjoys playing music and singing with patients at Yeovil District Hospital and Bridport Community Hospital, always encouraging participation, unless just gentle harp music is required.

She is a founder of Right to Play, a group of musicians who are currently funded to play music at nursing homes, the hospital, Stroke Club in Bridport and a Tripudio movement to music exercise class for people with physical challenges.

Jane is also an oboe and saxophone player with the Arranz Ensemble based in Bridport who play live music composed by Robert Lee for silent movies.

View videos made by Jane for ‘Elevate artists at home’ on our Youtube channel.

Frankie Simpkins

Frankie has been working as a community musician singing and performing in care homes and hospitals since graduating from her music degree back in 2012. She works in a patient-led way, talking to patients about their musical tastes and picking songs to accommodate them and she enjoys hearing the memories and stories that her singing evokes. Frankie sings and plays ukulele with songs in her repertoire ranging from 30’s jazz standards, show tunes, the Beatles classics and traditional folk tunes. She tries to have something that appeals to everyone.

View videos made by Frankie for ‘Elevate artists at home’ on our YouTube channel.

Dan Baker

Dan started violin at six and singing at eight, but having been teased at school for having singing lessons, he switched to piano instead. His interests musically range from J.S.Bach keyboard works to James Brown and everything in between. For the hospital, I play a mixture of jazz, gypsy jazz and vocal jazz, with some ballads, and also requests (if I know them!). Dan works seamlessly to provide an hour of entertainment in an easy going fashion.

View original songs and recordings made by Dan for ‘Elevate artists at home’ on our YouTube channel.

Chris Pearson

Chris sings songs and accompanies himself on the guitar and ukulele. He is well-known for his brightly-coloured waistcoats. His repertoire is extensive, covering songs from the 1940s through to the 1960s, from the Andrews Sisters and Fred Astaire through to Elvis Presley and the Beatles. Join in and singalong!

Penny Calvert

Penny’s extensive experience in Creative health is applied both at ArtCare, specialising in evaluation and education and also in her regional role working for the National Centre for Creative Health as the South West Creative Health Associate.

Penny’s key skills and passions are championing Creative Health work and its impact on people and communities; team work and developing creative skills in others; engaging people in shaping their environment and healthcare and developing site specific solutions, projects and products to enhance people’s experience of health settings.

Training: Masters in Senior leadership; Arts Therapy Foundation; BA Hons Three-dimensional design; Arts, disability and employment; Prince2 project management and a PGCE in the lifelong learning sector.

When Penny’s not at work she’s using photography, design and DIY to capture her favourite places and things, singing, paddleboarding or walking the dog at the beach whenever she can.

Hannah Lefeuvre

Hannah is an experienced community dance and movement artist, specialising in work with early years children, families and older people. She has worked extensively in early years, in delivery, training and exchange with over fifty UK settings and practitioners from across Europe and from Egypt, Mexico and India.

Hannah’s work with older adults includes leading Take Art’s Time to Move Dance Project for older people in Somerset (2006-9) and the Direction of the Tacchi Morris Bolder Dance Company, from its inception in 2013, to 2018. Hannah has taught Community Dance at Plymouth and Roehampton Universities and London’s Laban Centre and lectured in Early Childhood at Canterbury Christchurch University from 2013 – 18.

In hospitals, Hannah enjoys engaging responsively with patients, through conversation, song or sensory stimuli. Hannah is a self-taught ukulele player and finds this brings a gentle, accessible sound to people’s bedsides.

In her spare time, Hannah lives in an off-grid cabin, where she and her partner take care of a large ornamental garden. For her own development, Hannah has participated in multiple coastal movement workshops with Helen Poynor in Devon and takes increasing inspiration from the natural environment in her work. Visit Hannah’s website

View videos made by Hannah for ‘Elevate artists at home’ on our YouTube Channel.

Alex Bett

Alex is a guitarist and singer who performs music to patients across Salisbury District Hospital and the community hospitals of Wimborne and Sherborne. Alex plays a mix of jazz and pop music from 30’s-60’s. Outside of his work with the Elevate programme Alex also performs professionally and teaches the guitar and ukulele in the local North Dorset area.

View videos made by Alex for ‘Elevate artists at home’ below and on our YouTube channel.

 

Classical Guitar

Folk Guitar

Relaxing music May

Relaxing music April 2

 

David Davies

David is a Written and Spoken Word Arts for Health Facilitator. His background is in community development, education and training and feature making for BBC Radio.

David’s work focuses on participants’ personal interests and life experience using poetry reading and writing and visual art alongside objects, artworks and photographs. He aims to enable participants to gain confidence, skills and social connections and to significantly improve their mental health and independence.

David currently devises and leads residencies and creative sessions with people with a range of acute and long-term health conditions (mainly mental health conditions, spinal injury, brain injury, stroke and memory loss) in community and healthcare settings. This includes hospitals, GP surgeries, museums, art venues, and residential care. He is also commissioned in arts and health research and development, and to enable primary care patients to form self-running creative well-being groups.