Being at St Clements has been created by a group of patients based in a London Psychiatric Hospital. Working with 3 artists commissioned by Space, and mentored by Core Arts, the work is about being a patient in the UK’s Mental Health system today. Work includes the premiere screening of Hotel de Pinhey which was made on Pinhey Ward, 3 short pieces about families and friends, medication and hospital gardens and a demonstration of crocheting. It will be shown alongside an animation made with Bowhaven, a user run Mental Health day centre (as part of the Bow Older People’s Project) and a live show featuring lead figures from the mad scene, Ben Watson, Melanie Clifford and Frank Bangay & Tunde Busari.

Artists Commissioned by Space:

• Elizabeth Hobbs works with artist’s books and animation. Recent work includes The Old, Old, Very Old Man, a 5 minute film about the death of 152 year old Thomas Parr. Elizabeth was also commissioned to develop the Bowhaven user group project.

• Jocasta Lucas is a sound artist. Her works focuses on the forgotten and unspoken in everyday life, people that aren’t noticed, words that aren’t said and dreams that aren’t chased.

• Douglas Nicolson works with digital print and moving image. Previous to this project he has made art work with inmates at a local prison, children in a Romanian homeless shelter and young offenders in Hackney.

Live Show:

Mad Pride member Ben Watson adopts his Out To Lunch persona and brings along his 20-month-old daughter Iris to deliver a ten-minute tirade concerning social stigma, chemical explanation and mental-health power relations. Melanie Clifford will present 'Listening at Windows' a film projection with live sound, through which she is investigating structural disintegrity and psychological relationships to physical space: intimacy, distance, estrangement. Melanie is co founder of Mad Chicks and also works with Mad Pride, Creative Routes and Resonance FM.. Frank Bangay survivor poet, mental health activist and the Bard of Hackney will be accompanied by guitarist Tunde Busari. Frank and Tunde are both active members of Core Arts.

This programme has been funded by Arts Council England, London and Tower Hamlets Local Area Partnership through the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. It is supported by SPACE, East London and The City Mental Health NHS Trust, Croxeth House and Mad Pride.

The artist group is Elizabeth Dei-Boating, Geraldine Stewart, Susan Bateman, John Hayes, James Lisbon, Dale Leonal and Tony.

The Core Arts mentors are Rossen Daskalov, Gordon Dawson and Max Nuzzolo. Core Arts promotes freely and without prejudice, the artistic and creative abilities of people who experience severe and enduring mental health problems. It is run by its membership and is based in Hackney, East London.

Bowhaven is a user run Mental Health centre in East London. The centre provides a number of support groups, including an Afro Caribbean group, a women's group, 2 mixed groups the Outward Club and the Sunrise Drop-In, and a self harm group called Hush.

Bow Older People’s Project is SPACE’s 3 year programme of artist commissions and activities. Working with older residents in Bow, BOPP will operate from a tower block, a library, a café and a lunch club. Mad Pride is a user led mental health civil rights movement.