It only seems like a week ago that I was summarising 2015’s activities for last January’s newsletter. It just goes to show that being busy really does make the weeks pass quicker.

2016 has, yet again, been a fantastic year for LifewithArt with over 500 workshops taking place across the UK including, for the first time, Northern Ireland. Our biggest challenge has been finding numerous activities for our clients in the B&Q retail warehouses which we have been lucky enough to be offered as Charity Arts Centres. This has tested our Art Tutors’ imaginations and, as always, they have come up with wonderful ideas to use these large spaces to their full potential.

One of the highlights of the year for me was the films produced in our Nottingham and Eurocentral Art Centres. If you haven’t seen them, I’d urge you to take a quick look!

https://vimeo.com/177082745  and  https://player.vimeo.com/video/196199023

Our big events this year were the Teenage Cancer Trust “Find Your Sense of Tumour” conference and Mencap’s annual conference at Silverstone where we provided art and jewellery workshops for the participants. We continue to sponsor the Myaware and Riding for the Disabled Art Competitions. Wonderful artworks from both of these are now on display around the country in the Art Centres.

Like many charities, we have had to cut back on a number of our major grants this year and we have concentrated more on increasing the number of workshops in the Art Centres, thus helping the local communities to a greater degree.

That said, our main external activity has been the funding of a new App called “Show and Tell”, in conjunction with Circus Starr. This helps autistic children prepare for a visit to a circus, massively reducing the stress of the visit for both the children and their parents and carers. The second phase is to roll this out for other experiences such as Theme Parks, Christmas and other situations which, unless prepared for, can be problematic for those with autism.

My thanks as always on behalf of the Trustees to all the Tutors, support staff and clients for making 2016 such a successful year for LifewithArt and we look forward to 2017 with total confidence that it will be another great year for all those involved.

By David Pigott, LwA Trustee