In 2022, Karen Edwards was able to complete her four remaining residency sessions at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.
The first part of the residency was delivered prior to Covid-19, the spread of which led to the final sessions being postponed. Resuming the sessions presented challenges to both Karen and Alder Hey’s arts lead: the two classrooms where workshops had taken place previously were off limits; there was no possibility of group work; and artists and staff were required to wear PPE and observe social distancing.
Initially, Karen left her printing press in the ward play area and printed the artworks created by the patients in their individual rooms. However, this meant the sessions felt disjointed and in response Karen developed activities which could be completed entirely in the bedroom space, including creating suncatchers and printing on tote bags with foam printing blocks, which allowed her to chat and develop a relationship with the patients and their families, and find out what the child’s interests were. As so many patients had faced long periods of cultural, social, and educational isolation, it was fantastic to have Karen back on the wards again, bringing a range of engaging and unusual activities for the children to experiment with, and being a friendly non-medical presence.
“This residency was an absolute pleasure to take part in. The children and young people’s resilience and willingness to try something new despite them not being well was inspirational. The attention to detail and the thoughtfulness in some of the compositions was remarkable in such a short space of time. We had great conversations and shared lots of laughter, which left me quite emotional afterwards at times because of the difference these activities made to their day.“
– Karen Edwards
